Re:Best Buy’s Secrets for Thriving in the Amazon Age (2017)
by mikeash on Sunday January 27, 2019 @08:37PM
(#19014874)
Measuring percentage would do it. I’m always amazed that companies can be so boneheaded. You’d think I’d stop being amazed at some point, but no.
Re:Best Buy’s Secrets for Thriving in the Amazon Age (2017)
by learc83 on Sunday January 27, 2019 @08:51PM
(#19014925)
My favorite was when we started focusing heavily on close rate. Close rate was just the number of transactions divided by the number of people who walked in the door, so someone proposed that we start breaking up people's purchases into multiple transactions.
I proposed a counter solution--we just move the laser sensor on the door a bit higher, so that short people wouldn't trigger it.
Re:Best Buy’s Secrets for Thriving in the Amazon Age (2017)
by pionar on Monday January 28, 2019 @08:04AM
(#19017109)
I worked in an electronics store (regional, not Best Buy, and out of business now) in the mid-2000s that had this exact measure.
In my store, on busy days, the manager would occasionally "greet" customers at the door for 10 minutes at a time. Coincidentally, the spot he would choose to stand would block the sensor, so instead of 20 customers coming in in 10 minutes, it looked like only 1 had come in.
Re:Best Buy’s Secrets for Thriving in the Amazon Age (2017)
by mikeash on Monday January 28, 2019 @11:10AM
(#19018562)
The ingenuity of employees in gaming stupid rules also never ceases to amaze.
Re:Best Buy’s Secrets for Thriving in the Amazon Age (2017)
by mikeash on Sunday January 27, 2019 @09:15PM
(#19015001)
Truly, the mind boggles. Did you ever end up doing anything to improve the close rate?
Re:Best Buy’s Secrets for Thriving in the Amazon Age (2017)
by scarface74 on Sunday January 27, 2019 @09:04PM
(#19014967)
Sounds like when I worked at Radio Shack. Not so much with warranties but with names and addresses. We did get a bonus for each extended warranty we sold.
Re:Best Buy’s Secrets for Thriving in the Amazon Age (2017)
by general8bitso on Sunday January 27, 2019 @08:29PM
(#19014834)
I feel your pain.
One of the things you were ranked on was PSP (extended warranty, but they beat it into your head never to call it that) attachment percentage. When a measure becomes a target...
Occasionally there was a loss leader sale item, and in those cases if someone wanted to by it without any attachments, it might have made short term financial sense to pretend we didn't have it, but I don't think the company could get away with that on a large scale.
Source: I also worked there during college. First in customer service, then as a Geek Squad supervisor at a new store, and I was sent to training at HQ up in Minnesota.