New Wallpaper...

[LA_MERC_MadMAX]

My GM sent me a wallpaper today that someone sent him, and I just love it -

check it out...

[LA_MERC_FragFood]

My GM sent me a wallpaper today that someone sent him, and I just love it -

check it out...

Then check this out - http://tinyurl.com/2vc9u4
:stick

[LA_MERC_MadMAX]

I'm not going to dignify that with an answer...except, that Agent Stephens has built a great cultue with Geek Squad, they pay my bills, and I support the culture and the service. Every store, location and agent is going to be different, and I support my agents and I make sure they are properly trained, and if they don't know, ask.

[LA_MERC_FragFood]

I'm not going to dignify that with an answer...except, that Agent Stephens has built a great cultue with Geek Squad, they pay my bills, and I support the culture and the service. Every store, location and agent is going to be different, and I support my agents and I make sure they are properly trained, and if they don't know, ask.

Please don't take that as a personal affront. I have no doubt that there are, indeed, qualified people that work for GS. However, in my experience after a large number of years in the retail field, the level of training now offered to new people in a wide range of areas is sorely lacking. Not GS in particular, just at the retail level. I've never required (nor shall I ever) the services of Geek Squad, so I can't speak of their actual expertise directly (though the few "agents" that I've spoken to weren't the sharpest tools in the shed, so to speak). However, if you venture into virtually any establishment - Best Buy, Radio Shack, CompUSA, Circuit City, et. al. - and talk to some of the "technical" people there, you'd be amazed at the total lack of knowlege of their products and their workings that they can relate. Their training seems to be oriented toward sales and add-ons, without the deeper knowlege that's needed to properly qualify their customers or their needs. It's as if the management expects high turnover and isn't willing to commit the resources necessary to train them properly.

[LA_MERC_th33_r00k]

Please don't take that as a personal affront. I have no doubt that there are, indeed, qualified people that work for GS. However, in my experience after a large number of years in the retail field, the level of training now offered to new people in a wide range of areas is sorely lacking. Not GS in particular, just at the retail level. I've never required (nor shall I ever) the services of Geek Squad, so I can't speak of their actual expertise directly (though the few "agents" that I've spoken to weren't the sharpest tools in the shed, so to speak). However, if you venture into virtually any establishment - Best Buy, Radio Shack, CompUSA, Circuit City, et. al. - and talk to some of the "technical" people there, you'd be amazed at the total lack of knowlege of their products and their workings that they can relate. Their training seems to be oriented toward sales and add-ons, without the deeper knowlege that's needed to properly qualify their customers or their needs. It's as if the management expects high turnover and isn't willing to commit the resources necessary to train them properly.

I am not attacking you either.
One question; What is your prior big box management, small business management, technical service, customer relations, consumer support positions that you have held that leads you to the point of this "accusation?"
The article from the website was from a "disgruntled" employee, who seems to have taken the daily reminder, that he does work for SOMEONE else, and the fact they are a business that needs to profit or it will not be able to help ANYONE when they close, to personally. He prolly could not handle the stress of his position, and also prolly lied on his resume about awesome technical skills he possessed to do his job. He was prolly over payed and under-skilled in management of employees to do his job. Telling someone that he could train a dog better is just absurd and points to the lack luster intellect the guy actually exhibits. He got fired not because he was the Martyr fighting the right fight, but because he was an idiot with a loose mouth.

I am personally to cheap to pay for technical help everytime my comp screws up. Also the boys here are Gods and have a 99% rate of mission completion & babying of us "underlings". We love them for this.

Rook.

[LA_MERC_FragFood]

I am not attacking you either.
One question; What is your prior big box management, small business management, technical service, customer relations, consumer support positions that you have held that leads you to the point of this "accusation?"


Wow. I didn't know what a hornet's nest I appear to have kicked over by posting a link to any sort of opposing view to "Because your cousin's friend's son does NOT know what he's doing." It's a great catchphrase for sure, and applies to many instances. I don't know what experience you're referring to, whether behind the counter or in front of it, but here ya go.

In the primordial days of retail, say the late 70's and early 80's, sales reps were taught at many establishments (including my own) that customers should be assisted in finding the right solution for what they were looking for, not just pointed to the most expensive or heavily "spiffed" merchandise that the rep could get them to take. The emphasis was on service - securing and keeping repeat customers that would remain loyal to the store or (in some cases) the individual employee and refer others to them. Good will counted a lot "back then," and I actually had customers follow me from store to store (it was a chain) because they knew that a) I kept up with the latest technology trends and knew what I was talking about, b) wouldn't push them to buy something they didn't need, c) could assist them if they had trouble with it, because I knew my products. I got many, many referrals from them to others who had heard that I wouldn't steer them wrong, and rare was the paycheck where didn't make commission. Our prices were higher on many items, and they didn't mind paying them because they received value for their extra dollars. We had regular training on our merchandise, both at the corporate and local levels. Not just "Here's the product and some high level features," but "Here's all of that, plus the details of how it works, special features, capabilities and what kind of customer can use them." I got into computers about that same time, and moved more boxes than most salespeople in our district because of those same reasons. The service begat sales. I also ran a number of these stores as manager. After that position (a decade or so), I moved into the support field as the technical manager for a local computer store, overseeing a number of other technical people doing builds and support for a number of different system types - servers, clients, POS systems, etc. I had to deal with the incoming customers as well, to get an initial diagnosis when writing the tickets up. I never charged more than was needed, nor performed any repairs that weren't necessary to take care of their problems. I told my techs the same thing, and that was the "rule of the shop" at that point. Many people got their repairs for free, provided it was something as easy as 5 minutes to boot it and find that their AUTOEXEC.BAT had gotten a line remmed out. Not even a shop charge. As in my previous sales position, we received much word of mouth advertising, and our shop became the "place to go" for honest, reliable computer repair. Not that we didn't have hundreds of times that we couldn't have overcharged for unneccesary repairs or BSed our way thorough adding on... Moving on, I joined a larger company as the support liaison for all US and Asian site for a multinational corporation, supporting not only the hardware, but the multiple business related applications (some quite specialized) for hundreds of users, both at home and overseas. I now am the site IT manager for a chemical plant here in town, doing client hardware and software support, LAN and WAN support, server maintenance, and all of the other things that go along with those.

In my spare time I'm also a consumer, having to deal with the current crop of sales and technical people at retail establishments, some of whom are just there to make their money and go home. Who, as a friend of mine says, "couldn't find their a$$es with both hands strapped to their belts." Others actually seem to know of which they speak, and their knowlege appears to have been self taught due to their own interest in the field of which they work, rather than any sort of comprehensive training administered by their employers. Granted, I usually am looking at technology, not washing machines. However, when asked a question, if they pick up the product box and read the back to me for the answer, what am I supposed to think? I, like many of my previous customers, have certain sales people that I prefer to work with due to my past experiences with them. I have a particular Best Buy girl that I look for, since she KNOWS WiFi, routers and networking. CompUSA has a guy that I go to for inkjet printer stuff (I already know laser printers). Hell, even WalMart has a certain person in their electronics department that gets all of my business because he knows his products and doesn't attempt to BS me.

Now, like I said, I have not had direct experience with GS. I'm glad that y'all are getting fulfillment from your jobs. They're not worth having (nor is any job) unless you do. A friend of mine, however, would disagree with the level of expertise that he received when he took a machine in to be repaired. He declined their diagnosis of a bad motherboard and brought it to me. I moved a jumper (to disable the planar video) and reset the BIOS, and his new video card started to work. Go figure. Maybe this is an isolated instance, and we just have a squad less geeky than some, that's all. I don't have any beef against GS per se', but I DO take particular umbrage at underhanded techniques (by any establishment) that do nothing to actually help the customer, but are solely bottom line driven.

Again, my apologies if I offended anyone by posting a differing viewpoint. That was not my intent. I don't like trolls either, and don't want to be perceived as one.

Jack

[LA_MERC_sexy_dragon]

MAN THIS IS SOME TECH. CRAP HERE SO I GUESS I CANT COMENT ON THIS SRY DONT HAVE ANY IDEA OF WHAT U JUST SAID. SO I GUESS I CANT SAY IT IS WRONG SO U GO WITH THE LONG POST FROG FOOD OR FRAG FOOD OR SOMETHING FOOD. LOL

[LA_MERC_T4rg3T]

I think that most technical departments of most electronic retail outlets have a better understand of electronics than the average buyer.

Are they required to obtain certifications? I don't think so but they are still able to solve a majority of issues related to the equipment they sale. Considering that most systems are preconfigured with compatible hardware, they only have to deal with customer's corrupting their own OS and a format can always solve that. :)

[LA_MERC_Dragonlady[s]]

Hmm not sure what this thread is about because that is a lot of reading to have to do....

[LA_MERC_YellowDog]

']MAN THIS IS SOME TECH. CRAP HERE SO I GUESS I CANT COMENT ON THIS SRY DONT HAVE ANY IDEA OF WHAT U JUST SAID. SO I GUESS I CANT SAY IT IS WRONG SO U GO WITH THE LONG POST FROG FOOD OR FRAG FOOD OR SOMETHING FOOD. LOL


LMFAO!!!! Dragon... you have got to the funniest Dammm 1 or 2 sentence poster I have ever seen... It don’t take you very long to CRACK me up...LOL



(Second)

Frag, I think its awesome what you posted.. When I see someone take the time to write out such an in depth response, I have to pay them the respect of reading it.

Don’t ever feel you cant express your point of view on any subject on our forums.. that’s what makes the threads worth reading. So post away my friend.

NOW, I go along with your sentiment on the retail world as it is today, its geared towards the bottom line by making the price of stock look good to the big money investors and such. They are not "REALLY" concerned with the satisfaction or loyalty of the customer, only how much blood they can squeeze out of that Turnip. For example, as a customer I use to do all my automotive business with Advanced Auto Part, because I worked there in High School. I knew the people that worked in both stores in town, and for a few years after I left for better jobs, I could still find 1 or 2 of the people I "TRUSTED" to know what I was talking about. If theirs one thing I cant stand is to walk into a place of business where I know how things are suppose to be done just to have some Idiot behind the counter look at me with either a stupid look on their face, or a smart A$$ that only thinks they know what they are doing. So now I do all my business with a locally family run Parts house "Yarborough Auto Parts" Because (A) I’ve known the guys there since High School, and (b) they know what they are talking about. They do have higher prices than the big corporate parts houses, but at least I don’t get Pi$$ed off every time I go in their to get a BluePoint HEI ignition distributor part, and get some stupid kid behind the counter with a tattoo of Charles Manson on his head try to correct me by telling me that its not BluePoint, its blue tooth, and they don’t carry that kind of stuff, I would have to go to Wal-Mart to get that.

:)

[Big_ch33se]

Yeah, what they said!

[Ab1dab1]

Seldom does a topic come up that I really get moved to post on.....so surprise here are my thoughts ;P

I agree with the other tech guys that are posting here....brick and mortar stores idea of customer service has steadily gone down hill in the past 5-10 years. Geek Squad is a step in the right direction, but I'm still jaded when it comes to Retail Tech Support. I've had to deal with too many instances for support for customer owned equipment warranties and have way too bad a taste in my mouth from them.

One simple quantifier for this other than tighter profit margins, is that in the late 90's to early 2000's there were a boon of IT people floating around in the workforce. Those days of colleges and tech schools cranking out IT grads and the promise of anyone with an MCSE making $60k - $80k off the street are long gone. Yeah I admit that the .com days are long gone and mostly forgotten but a lot of us in the IT community noticed the influx of people (the talented and those not so talented) and its affects on IT customer service. Of course some of those individuals filtered down to Retail markets as competition in the Commercial IT space grew fierce.

I've been in IT for 15 years and started out in a small OEM shop that built custom white box computers and servers (yeah those were the 386/486/and Pentium days). Back then small companies such as the one I worked for lived and died by their customer service reputation. Unfortunately most of the IT people today really don't get exposed to such an environment and many companies have forgotten to teach true customer service skills.

I will admit that there are some people out there who do take pride in their work and go out of their way to shine in areas of customer service, but these few are far outnumbered by those who simply go to work to make their paycheck and get the hell home. I'm sure that comment is going to add fuel to the fire. I really think this is a result of the values and work ethics instilled in today's upcoming workforce (geesh...now I'm sounding like my parents).

Take my words for what you will, but I'll put my technical skills up against anyone (I haven't found any technical person employed at a Retail chain that actually new more than me about an IT product -- network devices, printers, peripheral, ups, etc). I don't mean that as a knock against anyone, only that I find few people who are as in to and as passionate about IT and Technology as I am.

I've built every PC and Server I've ever owned (except for laptops because they are too much of a pain to service) and as I recall helped breath life in to Diesel's dual SLI , dual dual-core dream machine (yeah Mike I'm not gonna let you forget that one).

PS: If you haven't already heard about the licensing snafu's with Vista, hold off on upgrading anytime soon unless you want to deal with all of the headaches ;)

Abi

:outta:

[LA_MERC_MadMAX]

In the primordial days of retail, say the late 70's and early 80's, sales reps were taught at many establishments (including my own) that customers should be assisted in finding the right solution for what they were looking for, not just pointed to the most expensive or heavily "spiffed" merchandise that the rep could get them to take. The emphasis was on service - securing and keeping repeat customers that would remain loyal to the store or (in some cases) the individual employee and refer others to them. Good will counted a lot "back then," and I actually had customers follow me from store to store (it was a chain) because they knew that a) I kept up with the latest technology trends and knew what I was talking about, b) wouldn't push them to buy something they didn't need, c) could assist them if they had trouble with it, because I knew my products. I got many, many referrals from them to others who had heard that I wouldn't steer them wrong, and rare was the paycheck where didn't make commission. Our prices were higher on many items, and they didn't mind paying them because they received value for their extra dollars. We had regular training on our merchandise, both at the corporate and local levels. Not just "Here's the product and some high level features," but "Here's all of that, plus the details of how it works, special features, capabilities and what kind of customer can use them." I got into computers about that same time, and moved more boxes than most salespeople in our district because of those same reasons. The service begat sales.

Quite honestly, you practically described the Best Buy/Geek Squad operating model to a "T"! Customer Loyalty and Customer Satisfaction is one of our largest metrics we are graded on internally. We ARE more concerned with service, and customer experience rather than selling them the most expensive product we can. Natrually, every Best Buy is different, but the store I work at (and am a leader at) is in the top 40 of the company right now, and we STRICTLY adhere to Customer Centricity! 30% of mine, and ever other Manager and Supervisor in the company's review is our stores loyalty score, which is obtained by customers filling out the survey at the bottom of the recipts. You come into my store, and you get matched with the product that meets your needs, not the most expensive product available - you MUST be confusing us with Circuit City in that respect. I shop them once a week, and I am always appalled at what I see go on at the location in my town.

Like I said, ever store's leadership, and hell every districts leadership is different, but in a properly run, and properly performing Best Buy store, you will find exactly what you describe in your post. Helpful employee's that are eager to help customers find what product meets their individual lifestyle needs. You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, and you build a better and more profitable business by giving your customers exactly what they need, a great experience in your store, and taking care of them after the sale.

This is all I have to say on this topic.

If someone could please close this thread, it would be greatly appreciated. I just wanted to share what I thought was a funny wallpaper that sent to me, I didn't want to start a flame war, or have to defend the company, or industry that I work for and love.

[LA_MERC_Spark]

Ummm... I thought the article was funny.. Just a little jab at GS... how about not getting so offended and having a good laugh. :twak

[LA_MERC_Andyconda]

Ummm... I thought the article was funny.. Just a little jab at GS... how about not getting so offended and having a good laugh. :twak

DITTO!

[LA_MERC_Wetzny]

A company the size of Best Buy is bound to have a broad range of competent and incompetent employee's, the law of large numbers guarantees it.

My personal experience with the GS is one I won't duplicate again, that being said it certainly doesn't change my perception of the whole GS concept. It's probably a huge revenue source for BB and when staffed with the competent and capable people a reasonable place for illiterates like me to have their motherboards replaced whether or not I need one.

Lets face it, it's all about the revenue. In some business models training only gets in the way of sales, training is costly in time and money. Frankly retailers like BB are in the business of giving people what they want, the newest, and fastest gadgets. I think by the time someone walks in the door at BB he's already made a buying decision and is just there to pick-up the product. The goal for the BB management then becomes how to get the consumer to buy ONE more item before his original transaction is complete. GS is a good sales concept, they are constantly referring consumers to a 'solution' product. What's the old saying? "Let the buyer beware."

[LA_MERC_YellowDog]

Well, you know in Abidabi's post he mentioned somthing about I.T. guys tricking down into the retail market... I belive this to be true in Max'es case. He was in I.T. at a local software developer. He bounced a couple of jobs before landing at B.B. I know for a fact that Max is very good at anything he puts his mind to, and so he will take pride in Managing his G.S. guys... also making sure they would give the customer the same service level that he would personaly give them. "SO" IMO, even in a corporate world where the bottom line is the dollar, and nothing more... There will be those places that, with good management, can still hold up to great customer service....

On the flip side though, if the management dont care, then the "Managed" wont care. :)

[Ab1dab1]

I reread my post and realized it was a bit stand-offish.

Max...it's good to hear that there are people out there in Retail who do care about customer service. I think you are definately helping change the perception of IT support in Retail. It sounds like Best Buy is heading in the right direction with GS. Keep up the good work and mentoring your team. It sounds like you are definately making a difference in your market.

Abi

[LA_MERC_MadMAX]

Thanks Abi.