Home Depot: On the Road to Becoming Customer-Friendly Again?
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Case Code: BSTR324 Case Length: 20 Pages Period: 2000-2009 Pub Date: 2009 Teaching Note: Not Available |
Price: Rs.400 Organization: The Home Depot Inc. Industry: Retail, Home Improvement Countries: USA Themes: Customer Service, Culture, Management Style, Change Management |
Abstract Case Intro 1 Case Intro 2 Excerpts
Excerpts
Age-Old Customer Service Culture
The company had believed in focusing on customer service from the very beginning. The founders, Marcus and Blank, themselves toiled on the shop floor and helped customers in every possible way...
Change of Management Style and Loss of Service Culture under Nardelli
Soon after joining, Nardelli decided to expand the business to other channels as he felt that the home improvement market was growing saturated in the US with the growth of many other players like Lowe's and Menards. Thus he wanted to diverge into contracting and building supply...
The Consequences of Nardelli's Changes
Analysts felt that watering down of the customer experience was evident at the stores, resulting in a decrease in customer traffic. With the service deteriorating, people started to grumble about the issue. They complained that the company had first started to spread out extensively to reach out to customers in every nook and corner of the country and then later when the customers had started to come to the stores, they had reduced the employees on the shop floor who would serve these customers...
Blake - The Change Agent
Blake, who had earlier worked as vice-president of Home Depot under Nardelli, succeeded him in January 2007. Blake too was a GE alumnus like Nardelli. However, according to analysts, his personality was in stark contrast to that of Nardelli, as he had a soft spoken voice and was free of any attitude problems. One of the first things that Blake did was to call up the founders Marcus and Blank for advice and help on running the business. This pleased Marcus, who was one of the largest shareholders, but had not stepped into any store for three years after being estranged from Nardelli...
Outlook
As the economic condition continued to look grim all through 2008, Home Depot tried hard to keep its expenditures less but not let it affect its customer service. Even in the time of downturn, it tried to incorporate several measures that would build its long term prospects with the customers...
Exhibits
Exhibit I: Home Depot's International Expansion to Other Countries
Exhibit II: Home Depot's Values
Exhibit III: Financial Highlights of Home Depot in Nardelli's Regime: 2000-2006
Exhibit IV: Stock Chart of Home Depot; 1984-2007
Exhibit V: Third Quarter Financial Highlights: Comparison between 2008 and 2007
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