Home Depot & A Lack Of Service

Is it possible to find to find anyone at a Home Depot to help you choose the correct product? Sure it is, there is also a chance you will win a multi-million dollar lottery. Actually, I think the odds of winning a lottery are probably better.

Recently I had an opportunity to get insight first hand from a former Home Depot sales associate – as they are called within the company.

Home Depot is not interested in hiring full time anymore, unless it is a new store and then it only amounts to a small percentage of the staff. They want part-time employees, why you may ask? It saves a lot of money, no benefits, and no guaranteed number of hours a week. Incentives that were provided to sales associates for excellent customer service have been eliminated. Training on products and services amounts to an hour on a computer, and if you can answer a few questions correctly, after they tell you the answer, you are qualified to work in that department. Part time employees are at best transients, trying to earn a living until they can find a full time position. Do they care – most of them are just serving time, or maybe they will win an Olympic medal.

Where a few years ago Home Depot sales associates were considered to be very knowledgeable and customer service was key, it has changed to where a sales associate’s prime responsibility is to put merchandise on the shelf – in a precise location as designated by a merchandiser that doesn’t even work in the store. The Home Depot’s are designed to be self-service – a page out of Wal-Mart.

There is one exception and that is credit cards. Every person in a Home Depot is to push credit cards, get the customer to fill out an application. A Home Depot sales associate carries the various applications in their apron and if they forget to present an application, they are reprimanded.

It’s back to the small hardware stores and Lowes (which doesn’t appear to be following suit, at least not yet) to get service. Maybe we will pay a few more cents for knowledgeable service, but it is worth it in the long run. I am tired of being ignored by the pumpkin patch! (The term for a group of Home Depot sales associates having a conversation while ignoring customers).

Hurray, for the independent Ace Hardware stores!