Depot Pledges Bucks To Better Service

Home Depot has set aside $30 million to reward employees and stores that live up to the company's motto of "You Can Do It. We Can Help."

"This is about providing excellent customer service," said Jose Lopez, senior v.p. and chief customer officer, who designed the new program.

Selected store employees will get up to $1,000 monthly and $10,000 quarterly, while selected stores will receive up to $25,000 to use for individual bonuses or an employee celebration. Selections will be based on a threetier measure that includes customer feedback as well as peer and manage- ment reviews. The company will be looking for employees and stores that are rated 9 or l0 on a scale of l0 for customer service. those stores and employees who shorv the most improvement. and those that are able to maintain a high level of customer service on a regular basis. said Lopz.

"We rvant to ensure that we're sending out a strong message that rve are working very diligently to reinvigorate our culture of service." Lopez said. "We're after customer loyalty. and overall satisfaction translates into loyalty."

Horvever. industry experts question rvhether the program will rvork. According to Harry Friedman. founder of Friedman Group retail consultants. the plan is too subjective. "This is not going to solve a thing," he said. "The problem is that the operation is set up such that sales associates get in more trouble from not remerchandising the shelves. than they would for not going that extra mile with the customer."

"Spending $l0O million wouldn't solve Home Depot's customer service problem." said retail consultant George Whalin. "Depot is trying to keep dorvn costs by not paying people much money and not scheduling enough of them," he said.

The key to better customer service. he said is to "hire people who have an interest in the business and genuinely want to help people-and then you have to hire enough of them."

Instructions: Fill in the grid so that every row, every column, and every 3x3 box contains the numbers 1 through 9 once. Therefore, each number in the solution will be unique in each of three'directions.' The solution is on page 67

He also believes that a better approach is to base rewards on standards such as sales. rvhich can be easily measured. "lf you train people horv to sell table saws and sales of table saws go up. then the people rvho work in that department should get a bonus," he said. "ln recent years. Depot has spent very little educating its employees."