Posted by Scott Clark @ 2:47 pm
Computer stores used to employ enthusiasts
Filed under: Lexington KY News
Oct
8
2006
8
2006
I don’t hate CompUSA - I have no grudge against the chain. I was really happy when they opened their store, and I’m happy they are here. I don’t need the staff. I use the web to find what I want, check inventory at their store, and go straight to the product. To me, they are a picking warehouse.
But let me describe the store when I went there the other night on a panic run to get a piece of replacement hardware I couldn’t wait for my trusty web merchants to send me. I had my part number
Customer Service Desk - one person - overwhelmed with people returning things. A line at the desk because there is nobody on the sales floor. And, despite all, he answers the phone. What do they expect? A call from Publisher’s Clearinghouse? Just because the caller used two copper wires to come to the store doesn’t mean they are able to cut in front of those taking the time to make a trip. LET IT RING.
Hardware Service Desk - One very sloppy teenager, toying with the pens in a pencil holder on the desk. Occasionally fielding wandering customers’ where-is-it questions with the enthusiasm of someone sentenced to social work at an adult diaper convention. Would YOU let this guy work on your computer? Gaaaaa!
Printer department - HOPE!! A well dressed, good looking guy was found straightening shelves. I could see customers rush up only to be told “I’m just the HP representative, sorry.” I could almost see them try to figure out a way to ask their question so that it sounded like an HP question. Um.. “I was thinking about buying Microsoft Office to use with an HP printer but wondered if Excel could import Works spreadsheet document?”
Apple Computer Department - HOPE AGAIN!! Same story. You can learn a lot from some very educated and well trained representatives - but they cannot answer anything about the rest of the store. It’s really just a mini Apple store that uses compUSA cash registers and parking lot. Somebody at Apple must have visited and quickly decided to protect their area of the store from the poison air.
Near the rear of the store are restrooms and apparantly the employee’s break room. Several employees could be seen - shirts untucked, sipping from sodas through straws, vests unbuttoned in “do not bother me mode.”
I was well-dressed having been to a couple of meetings earlier, wearing a polo and nice slacks and was asked, in desperation (I was carrying a piece of paper) if I worked at the store. It could have also been the lack of night-vision binoculars and GPS triangulation systems other customers were using to locate employees.
I could see customers start to ask each other for help. The conversations went something like this. “Do you know anything about this?” (holds up piece of hardware) “No, but I saw it over there earlier…what is it” “Well, I was trying to figure out if it would work with my computer” “Does it look like it would?” “It’s the same color” “I think it will” “Yeah, I bet it will, being the same color - it’s only $99.” “Ok! I’ll get it. Thanks for the help.”
No wonder the returns desk is so busy - and that system is broken too.
(blurry transition with harp music)
I remember Fry’s when it first started over on Lawrence Expressway in Sunnyvale, CA. No, not the new location - the little one on the East side.. the little building. You could “mosey up” to the counter and ask for just about anything and the VERY educated and motivated employees would enjoy finding it for you (behind the counter) and talking a little geek while they’re at it. It was a little like a techie arm-wrestling match. I’d come in, wanting an RS232 gender changer with solderable configurations and they’d show me one with DIP switches saying “this is what you REALLY want.” Ah. Defeat. Good. My arm hits the table. Outgeeked and happy.
(end of blurry harp phase)
I don’t expect that will happen here in Lexington. But what I see now is a store running without any competition - not trying at all. The manager should have pulled those people off of their break - had them tuck their shirts in and start asking who they could help first. The hardware counter should have fielded phone calls and questions as readily as anyone.
Best Buy, Office Max, Office Depot, Circuit City, etc. all sell sub-standard equipment - and very few choices - the inventory is too diluted with other products. We need a dedicated computer store, located in a no-frills warehouse setup with motivated, well-paid employees and compensation based on knowledge and enthusiasm.
Let them become a Dell, Gateway, Apple, HP and other major brand reseller - grab some UK students and set their compensation so that the sky is the limit. Every computer they sell give them a healthy comission. Encourage customers to tip them for good plain-english advice. $2 for a few minutes of quick research to make sure the video card they’re recommending is a good choice is worth it by any stretch. If a person can help 20 people in an hour, they’ll do great.
Update 10/11: Goodness.. Found This Page about CompUSA. Wow - lots of anger. I’m sure that much of this is related to the relationship between consumers and technology in general - not just CompUSA. Also, this is a wide accumulation over many years. But it is an interesting view on the retail experience (I also found it interesting how poorly most people can produce a event narrative. But perhaps mine is equally bad. I’ll try harder.)
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23
2007
[...] infusions didn’t pan out. I hope the local store makes it, but this store has always been a customer service disappointment. I’ve used it as a “picking warehouse” - looking up stuff online and then going [...]
22
2007
[...] know, I’m hard on CompUSA, but someone needs to step up and be remarkable in this space, why not them?  Who needs another [...]
23
2008
Well many computer shop realy use them as these guiys understand the tool better and love seling them
23
2008
I think as the economy changes in the USA this dynamic will change - though I’m not entirely sure how. Smart companies will realize that that moment of customer contact is the culmination of all of their other spending on brand and reputation combined. Screw it up, and the rest gets wasted.