CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

September 9th, 2009

I was recently reading through Fortune magazine (August, 31, 2009) and came across some interesting quotes about “service” from Home Depot’s CFO, Carol Tome. Her perspective on Home Depot’s growth is very similar to my thinking, she said:

“You cannot win the game by square-footage growth. You win by the customer experience, making sure that service is there and the products are there at the right price. We realized over the years that you could continue square-footage growth because there’s plenty of real estate out there, but you dilute returns. That is not in the best interest of the customer…”

I compare this to the new business that some of these large companies are getting–especially when looking at the properties that were originally built as condos and are now being converted to apartments. All parties need to be really careful in managing this growth so as not to dilute the customer experience.

Craig