Office Max- Bad choice?

[still learning]

Hello, In our daily paper...an article stated...Office Max lay off there $14-$15 dollar sales people and ...hired $9.00 workers with little experence.

Towards the end of the years..sale drop...and drop and drop...

When you lay off your top sales people...and people who shop their for those advice no longer there? ....they will go else where?

Now Office Max is trying to train those $9.00 workers (cost to train will be more than the cutting those jobs?)

Office Max is NOT a Wal-mart type of store....you expect the sales people to be more experts than any Wal-mart type of employee?

Any business please learn from Office Max mistakes...

The top sales people and products will give you 80% of your business
The bottom 80% employee will get you only 20% of your sales
(rule of thumb for most business..the 80/20 rule...

The top 20% of your products will give you 80% of the sales....so many people focus on the bottom 80% of there products, where only 20% profits are made.

Which are you? You top 20 techniques...will give you the most returns...do not worry about the 80 other techniques which will give you on a 20% return....

You can train 20 hours a day...an untrain person pokes you in the eyes? ....who may win?

Aloha ( we prefer to spent 80% at the beach and 20% working) ...real world ....99% have to work...and only 2% playing (1% playing at work).

 

[Kreth]

Office Max is NOT a Wal-mart type of store....you expect the sales people to be more experts than any Wal-mart type of employee?

Unfortunately, this is not the case at any big box store. One of my guilty pleasures when consulting on the road used to be going into Office Max/Circuit City/Radio Shack/Best Buy/(Insert other big box store here with poorly trained sales drones playing "expert") and see how much ******** they tried to tell me about the computer hardware I was looking for before I called them on it.

 

[Cruentus]

That is the problem with being a price driven marketplace rather then a cost saving marketplace.

As a consumer, it is much better in most cases to have to pay 5 or 10 cents or even a dollar or two on bigger items more on a stores products, but have the convienence of good service and a qualified salesperson who knows the product assist you. Why? Because you will get exactly what you need in a timely fashion, rather then a bunch of crap that you don't need or having to keep coming back because you didn't get the right thing or exactly what you needed. When you add up how much your time is worth (take how much you make an hour and figure it out) it often costs you less in the long run (even if the price is a little more) to have great service and advice so you don't waste your time and money.

But, half of everyone is pretty stupid, and will continue to shop only on price. And there are plenty of stores with ****** customer service who will facilitate that.

 

[MBuzzy]

I HATE bad customer service....I will stop shopping somewhere because of bad customer service.

But seriously, what constitutes that? What are you looking for? Do the employees have to know everything about the products? I would say that they need a basic working knowledge and have the ability to recommend one product over the over (a pretty basic thing, which isn't hard to learn after a few days on the job).

Let's face it, what people really want is to not have to wait and for people to be nice to them. It's a no brainer when the employees are mean or don't respond quickly. But I would submit that we the consumers have FORCED ourselves into a world where the employees know very little about their products.

15 years ago, if you wanted something, you went out and started shopping. Generally your knowledge of products was based on past experience, reading the box, and most importantly what the salespeople told you. You shopped for both price and for the a knowledgeable staff.

Now, what is the first thing you do? Go online and look it up. Find out everything you can and possible start comparing prices. Most people who go into stores now already know what they want, or at least have a basic idea. The things they need from salespeople are just some basic information. We are dealing with a much better educated customer base.

Now look at it from a corporation's standpoint, paying a lot for knowledgeable salespeople and having very robust training programs simply doesn't pay off anymore. The customers know what they want already, corporations can get away with a less educated salesforce (not less school educated, less product educated). It is cheaper and it is in their best interest. The point is to make a profit....if you can make the same profit and spend less.....more money. That's business.

Look at Circuit City. When their employees worked on commission, they were highly trained extremely responsive, very nice and all around pleasant to be around. Then they turned off commission, many employees stoped caring, got bitter, and no longer focused on customers. Most of the time that I go in there now, they are standing around computers talking to each other. But does the American public shop there any less? Nope, that event wasn't even a blip on Circuit City's radar. So bad choice for us the consumers, GREAT choice for corporate Circuit City.

If we have a problem with customer service, we have to stop shopping at those places and START being willing to pay more for a better educated sales force, because it is getting more expensive to do that.

Personally, I'll just keep using the internet and deal with some grumpy people in Walmart. I like my money more than I want a minimum wage employee to smile at me.

Now in a restaurant or other tipping place......COMPLETELY different story.

 

[Carol]

I end up buying all my stuff from BJ's wholesale. No annoying salespeople to get in the way of my $250.00 impulse purchases. :lol2:

What iPod?

 

[MBuzzy]

You see, Carol....YOU'RE the reason that customer service SUCKS!

 

[jks9199]

I HATE bad customer service....I will stop shopping somewhere because of bad customer service.

But seriously, what constitutes that? What are you looking for? Do the employees have to know everything about the products? I would say that they need a basic working knowledge and have the ability to recommend one product over the over (a pretty basic thing, which isn't hard to learn after a few days on the job).

Or at least know enough to tell me the difference between similar items. It frustrates me to no end when the sales staff doesn't have a clue about the stuff they're selling, because the reason I'm asking them a question is because I don't know about it.

Let's face it, what people really want is to not have to wait and for people to be nice to them. It's a no brainer when the employees are mean or don't respond quickly. But I would submit that we the consumers have FORCED ourselves into a world where the employees know very little about their products.

15 years ago, if you wanted something, you went out and started shopping. Generally your knowledge of products was based on past experience, reading the box, and most importantly what the salespeople told you. You shopped for both price and for the a knowledgeable staff.

Now, what is the first thing you do? Go online and look it up. Find out everything you can and possible start comparing prices. Most people who go into stores now already know what they want, or at least have a basic idea. The things they need from salespeople are just some basic information. We are dealing with a much better educated customer base.

For me -- it depends on what the object is. And where I'm shopping for it. I go to Bob's Discount House of Electronic Stuff -- I don't expect the staff to know more than "if the customer wants to buy Box A -- push Box B on them, too!" If I go to a big box store, I'm going to expect them to have a basic idea about the products. They don't need to be an expert, but they've got to be able to tell me how the stuff they're selling differs. And if I go to a top end, dedicated store, I expect them to leave me in the dust as they start talking about the product.

Now look at it from a corporation's standpoint, paying a lot for knowledgeable salespeople and having very robust training programs simply doesn't pay off anymore. The customers know what they want already, corporations can get away with a less educated salesforce (not less school educated, less product educated). It is cheaper and it is in their best interest. The point is to make a profit....if you can make the same profit and spend less.....more money. That's business.

Look at Circuit City. When their employees worked on commission, they were highly trained extremely responsive, very nice and all around pleasant to be around. Then they turned off commission, many employees stoped caring, got bitter, and no longer focused on customers. Most of the time that I go in there now, they are standing around computers talking to each other. But does the American public shop there any less? Nope, that event wasn't even a blip on Circuit City's radar. So bad choice for us the consumers, GREAT choice for corporate Circuit City.

If we have a problem with customer service, we have to stop shopping at those places and START being willing to pay more for a better educated sales force, because it is getting more expensive to do that.

Personally, I'll just keep using the internet and deal with some grumpy people in Walmart. I like my money more than I want a minimum wage employee to smile at me.

It always astounds me when I either can't find a salesperson willing to assist me in a store -- or when they'd rather deal with a phone call from a potential customer, instead of the guy on the floor in front of them, ready to spend money. But maybe that's just me...

Now in a restaurant or other tipping place......COMPLETELY different story.

Which, sadly, brings up the whole issue of the proliferation of tip jars... Since when does the person who made my sandwich at Subway or wherever count as tipped staff? Are they being paid as tipped employees (bare minimum to pull taxes out of) or at least at minimum wage? Are they reporting those tips, like a waiter is expected to? How long till I get to add a tip jar to my ticket book? (Yes, that was sarcasm.)

 

[crushing]

You see, Carol....YOU'RE the reason that customer service SUCKS!

Carol? I've got to believe it is actually Lisa's fault.



I think this OfficeMax thing happened at Circuit City last year. Many managers gave raises to employees taking them beyond the maximum wages set for the position by corporate. People that were getting more than the max were layed off. I think the managers thought they were doing their employees a favor, but it ended up hurting them, and customer service.