Tim Cook on New Retail Chief John Browett: 'The Best by Far'

[bartzilla]

Message from a Dixons Employee

Hi, I am a Dixons employee and have been for the past 4 and a bit years.
I agree DSG used to have poor reputation and some of you have had bad experiences.
HOWEVER, I have worked in 3 different stores (2x PC World 1x Currys) my colleagues are great. Friendly and motivated. Wanting to do the best for the customer.

I'm sure you do, and that's commendable. However, lots of people haven't had that experience in a Dixons group store, so not all your colleagues feel the same way, and even if 9 out of my last 10 visits to a Dixons website or store were good (the ratio is more like 50/50 but still...) sadly, its human nature to remember the 1 bad experience more than the 9 good ones.

You talk about poor knowledge - how can you expect us to know 100% about 100% of the products we sell?! That's impossible.
What we do these days if we don't know - we ask someone who does!

Again, not been my experience. And in a store with as wide and diverse range of products as those carried by the Dixons stores, I don't think anyone would expect 100% of the staff to know 100% of what there is to know about 100% of the products carried, but sadly my experiences and those of most people I talk to are more along the lines of 100% of the people knowing 20%, at best, about 30% of the products. Now that may not be the fault of the employees, of course, but it doesn't add up to a great shopping experience.

There are a lot of training modules in place to learn new stuff which is relatively new - this will make a big difference in the next few months.

John as a CEO brought the new store formats which are great to shop in. I've worked in both non-refit and refit stores. The refit stores see much better satisfaction and selection of products.

Yeah. I've been to a refitted currys. Its better in the sense that its a big improvement on what went before, certainly, but I wouldn't call it the pinnacle of retail. Of course, the PC World I went to that looked like it had been struck by a hurricane half an hour before I got there tends to stick in the mind more - like I say, people tend to remember the bad more than the good.

The 2-in-1 stores have been a great success to merge the two Dixons brands together - why have 2 when you can have 1? Saves costs - better experience.

Not sure how "2 in 1" adds up to a better experience. Saving costs will probably include cutting staff, and I'm not sure how having the former currys expert on ovens selling me a PC or the former PC world expert on forcing symantec and mcafee down the throats of everyone stupid enough to step inside the store trying to sell me a fridge/freezer because the fridge freezer expert is busy selling TVs is going to end up going great for either party.

People in this thread have been saying that DSGi staff have been shying away from Macs, I didn't I often upsold customer from a PC to Mac just from being enthusiastic and showed how great they are. Customers loved it.

Good. As i said, that's commendable, but sadly not common from what I can see. I hate to pick your post apart because I get the message that you want to do a good job and that's great and you don't deserve to take crap at all for that. I'm not doubting your dedication, I'm just suggesting that when too few of your colleagues feel the same way, you're being let down.

 

[nylonsteel]

re original article

i hope its a case of a rising star getting away from a stifling enviroment

 

[mutantteenager]

Me and a mate actually went in out store one evening to clean down the macs as there was rust, dust, dirt and grime building on the machines on the outside and in. They dont seem to even look after the apple area of the store. All they care about is selling things rubbish at bog standard prices.

That's just weird. I like Terry's Chocolate Orange. Sometimes I'm in the supermarket and have to hunt for it. Though I've never been into my local Sainsbury's 'with a mate' and made a display of said chocolate oranges better. Very odd.

Back to the criticism of PCW. Well they're a margin led business, and to be clear, Apple doesn't have enough margin in it. They can be the best damn computer known to man, but if you don't make enough money from it well, it's good enough to stock it.

PCW management are driven by targets and that is demonstrated by the aggressive or poor sales practices some have elluded to here. It's easy to blame the staff, but if the business is margin focused don't expect an Apple product to be the first thing you're offered.

How this relates to this appointment and Applestores, well as someone has already said, expect to be offered that Applecare a whole lot more...

 

[GollumBoy]

Not sure how "2 in 1" adds up to a better experience. Saving costs will probably include cutting staff, and I'm not sure how having the former currys expert on ovens selling me a PC or the former PC world expert on forcing symantec and mcafee down the throats of everyone stupid enough to step inside the store trying to sell me a fridge/freezer because the fridge freezer expert is busy selling TVs is going to end up going great for either party.

What happens is that there are still two uniforms and you have dedicated areas, so white goods or computers and you can specialise in these areas etc.

 

[DrFreeman]

I think you'll find these two companies are completely unconnected.

Indeed and I corrected the text. Thanks!

 

[itsvdiddy]

It makes sense why Apple wanted someone with more international experience and lauded their customer service experience:

Apple has already discovered the right retail business model for their business - no need to really innovate and do anything too new there...it's working well. The next step is to scale and expand, which is what they're doing internationally and even more so as they to the smaller countries.

However, with this movement into new countries...there are new cultures to deal with. There's different ways to deal with people from different countries...ways to make them happy. Just because of the employee policies work here in the US, doesn't mean things that US folks value as important in customer service, they value in China, etc. And customer service is one of the main reasons why Apple does so well here in the US (constantly at the top of customer service reviews), so to spread that success to other countries you must develop good customer service practices and processes for your employees abroad in the retail stores.

Very very smart move and needed.

 

[parish]

Come to the UK. Pick a place with a John Lewis store and a nearby Dixons. Compare how both of them sell Apple equipment (hell, electronics in general) then come back if you can still repeat that post and keep a straight face.

Go to Cribbs Causeway in Bristol and you've got all three - Apple, John Lewis, and Currys Digital (and a Currys Megastore) - all within spitting distance of each other. And in Bath, there is a Currys Digital directly opposite the Apple Store.