Taking a page directly out of the play-books of the likes of Apple and Starbucks, Best Buy founder Richard Schulze is going to try to save the struggling electronics company with a combination of cost cutting and, wait for it, revamping customer service. Best Buy's stock price has taken a swan dive recently as the electronics store is running into high costs versus competitors like Amazon.com who have little costs other than overhead. In order to compete, Schulze is planning on cutting at least 50 stores, shrink the size of the remaining stores, and focus on providing outstanding customer service to ensure a top notch customer experience for everyone who enters the store. It's a last ditch effort to save the company that is threatening to go the way of previous electronics retailers like Circuit City and Nobody Beats the Whiz (remember those guys?).
This isn't the worst idea as recent history has shown us. Starbucks once faced a similar issue with escalating costs as well as the loss of interest in providing the best possible customer service experience. Ex-CEO Howard Schultz returned to the company and helped save the company from going extinct by cutting stores as well as costs, and refocused the company on customer service. Similarly, Apple CEO Stev Jobs provided the template for future companies to operate by proving that customer service is just as important as the products that the company sells. What did he do by focusing on customers? Well he only created the most successful company in the US to date.
It's an interesting play by the Best Buy founder as the company is running out of options. It's certainly interesting to see yet another company realize that running a business isn't just about profit margins and growing revenue. The core of every successful company is it's customers. If you treat your customers with respect and provide them with quality experiences, revenues will grow. If you don't, well eventually they'll leave and you'll be stuck selling off old company paraphernalia on eBay, just like the Whiz.
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Posted by GetHuman on Thu, 9 Aug 2012 2:49pm