Best Buy Is Thriving In the Age of Amazon (defenseone.com)

Best Buy is turning to in-home consultants to help distinguish it from Amazon. The advisors act as "personal chief technology officers," helping people make their homes smart or merely more functional. "Unlike the Geek Squad and blue shirts working in stores, they'll be paid an annual salary instead of an hourly wage," reports Bloomberg. "Their house calls are free and can last as long as 90 minutes. [...] They're supposed to establish long-term relationships with their customers rather than chase one-time transactions." From the report: With more than 1,000 big-box stores in North America and about 125,000 employees, Best Buy was supposed to have succumbed to the inevitable. "Everyone thought we were going to die," says Hubert Joly, who was hired as chief executive officer in August 2012 after profits shrunk about 90 percent in one quarter and his predecessor resigned amid an investigation into his relationship with an employee. Instead, Best Buy has become an improbable survivor led by an unlikely boss.

The in-home advisors went national in September. When one of the trainees at the session in Minneapolis asked Joly how big he hoped the program could become, he said: "I don't have a specific goal. I don't think it would be helpful. McKinsey never had a goal of how many clients. It was how good was the work." Another employee said: "This is why Amazon can't compete with us. They can't dispatch an army of in-home agents." Joly wasn't as sure. "Amazon is an amazing company," he replied. "They kill companies. Maybe they will do this. But we have an incredible opportunity. If someone wants to copy, that's fine." Amazon has started offering free smart-home consultations and installations. It doesn't have a chain of big-box stores in which to meet customers, but that didn't bother investors. Best Buy's stock dropped 6.3 percent when Amazon announced its plans a year ago.

Comments

Some people like physically seeing items.

[Anonymous Coward]

A lot of people like seeing big ticket items in person before purchasing. Best Buy is the only electronics store in the US (yes Walmart and target sell electronics but itâ(TM)s not the same) and they price match Amazon for any products they carry that are shipped and sold by Amazon. Iâ(TM)m honestly not surprised they are thriving.

Exactly what I want as a worker

[raymorris]

This is exactly what I want as a worker. Also what I have.

For many years I owned the companies I worked for. I'm now enjoying a steady, predictable salary, like these employees have. If I wanted unpredictable pay (like commissions), I could make a lot more money working for myself, or working contracts. I also wouldn't like commissions because that puts my own interest (my pay) in direct opposition to the customer's interest in managing the budget. I much prefer to be able to serve the customer the best I can, rather than try to sell them as much as possible in order to pay my rent.

At my job, we also have metrics and goals - I know what's expected of me, and it's agreed to beforehand. My new boss and I didn't get along at first. My first performance review with him wasn't going so well until we started looking at the goals we had agreed to for the quarter and my actual performance. He saw that I got done what my boss had asked me to get done, so his attitude changed (an employee who gets it done is valuable to a boss).

Recently we came up with new metrics and goals for the team, to align with the company's new strategic goals. A co-worker pointed out a possible flaw - sometimes customer needs might not match up with one of our metrics. I pointed out that having goals doesn't mean we have to ignore the customer while chasing the metric with tunnel vision. The metric is ONE way we measure the value we deliver to the customer. It's not the only way. Since our pay is salary, not toed directly to a specific metric, we can serve the customer's needs from day to day, with the metric serving its proper purpose as but one measurement.

So that's exactly the work situation I like. Salaried, steady pay. Defined metrics and goals so I know what is expected of me and the bosses agree (in writing). But the metrics are but one thing we look at in reviews, one part of the story.

  Another important thing I do is recognized, but not measured. I really enjoy helping train and equip my teammates to better serve the customer and the team. Today I had two different people asking me for help at the same time. I love it, it improves the efficiency of the team by allowing their work to reflect my experience, and my boss appreciates the value - rather than having a less efficient and effective team because I'm selfishly chasing my own commissions.