But also shifting sales and support to customers
By Alan Wolf, YSN
Best Buy is adding dedicated sales teams to its appliance departments as part of a companywide retooling.
The last remaining national CE chain said it is deploying more than 600 specially trained Blue Shirts to select stores across the country. The sales associates “have spent hours learning about all the different features” from appliance manufacturers like Samsung, LG and Whirlpool, the company said.
“For the past few months we’ve been busy working alongside some of the biggest names in the appliance space to ensure our team members are ready to help customers discover exactly the right appliance and setup for them,” said Luke Motschenbacher, the company’s president of retail. It is unclear how many of Best Buy’s 891 U.S. flagship locations will get the vendor-trained sales associates.
Customer Centricity
There will also be a beefed up Blue Shirt presence in the stores’ home theater and computing sections, based on “where our customers have told us they want support,” the company said.
At the same time, however, Best Buy is also building out its digital self-serve tools and shifting more of its sales and support function to customers as it continues to close stores and lay off workers.
As Best Buy explained it, “The role [customers] want us to play in their lives and with technology has evolved. They don’t always need us to be the expert anymore. Customers are more familiar with technology [and] do a tremendous amount of research on their own.”
Or, as Chief Marketing Officer Jennie Weber framed the strategy, “We’re embracing this change and we’re excited about it, because we know it’s where our customers want us to go.”
On Your Own
Weber and company are painting the shift to self-service as “a new era of personalized discovery,” which will be supported by an AI-enhanced mobile app and virtual assistant, hundreds of new videos on its social platforms, and a partnership with tech enthusiast site CNET.
See: Best Buy Applies AI to Customer Service
To help herald the changes, Best Buy is updating its logo; is introducing a new advertising character, a holographic spokesperson called Gram; and is launching a new tagline, “Imagine that.” The slogan is meant to underscore all the possibilities that technology offers, as in, “What if your fridge could tell you what’s missing from your grocery list?” the retailer noted.
“Each of these new components bring to life the energy and vibrancy that is discovering new possibilities,” Best Buy said.
