Working side-by-side with a professor at Columbia College, Best Buy's vice chairman and CEO Brad Anderson said the Minneapolis-based electronics retailer is learning that by giving decision-making capabilities and creative rights to employees, there is less turnover and higher customer loyalty.
Research has also put Best Buy in touch with its suburban-mother clientele, Anderson said. Through extensive focus groups, Anderson said the company learned that "she didn't like us. They came into store with their kids, the kids would go off with gaming, and when they went to talk to someone about what they were interested in, like a camera for example, we would ask how many pixels she was looking for. Some also said they felt like we would talk to boyfriend instead of her," Anderson said.
The transformation of 67 customer-centric stores will soon be 300, thanks to the rollout changing perceptions such as these, Anderson said. The company also plans to increase its Geek Squad division, the company's repair center.
"Overall, the typical PC repair is eight to 10 days, but we do it in a matter of hours," said Darren Jackson, executive vice president and CFO. "We look ahead, and we can't keep up with customer demand. One way we monitor if we're making progress is: Are our employees engaged? We find with employee engagement, it ups profitability, customer satisfaction, and the bottom-line."
Jackson went on to reiterate the company's recent quarterly results, which were up 82% in the first quarter. "We like to dwell on these results," Jackson said. In the coming months, Best Buy anticipates more gaming options with the release of high-definition video games and a decrease in music CDs.
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