DIY Stores is a nationwide chain that offers every tool and supply for repairing and maintaining a home. Besides the wide variety of products, tools, and services, what sets DIY apart is its sales associates. The company hires experienced do-it-yourselfers and retired trade workers, assigns them to work in departments where their knowhow is relevant, provides training in new products and creative methods, and pays them a little more than they could earn by working for another retailer. Together these efforts make DIY Stores a place where shoppers can go to get all the ingredients and advice they need for their project to succeed.
Over the past couple of decades, however, consumers have found an alternative to getting advice from workers in a store: Many prefer to do their research online. If consumers can find online a “how to” article or view an instructional YouTube video to figure out the best way to fix a leaky toilet or make a small bedroom look airy and bright, why trek into a store to ask? Essentially, the Internet put DIY’s competitive advantage at risk. The retailer needed to change with the times.
DIY’s solution was to go where the consumers were:
online. Management decided the company needed to supplement its in-store experts with online experts, employees who shared the same kinds of information on the Internet as they did in the stores. The company’s corporate communications department was charged with developing a plan for this effort.
The corporate communications department initially thought the most efficient approach would be to hire a team of writers to work in offices at headquarters, blogging about new products and maintenance tips. But when they presented this plan to top management, one of the vice presidents raised a question: The company’s salespeople were its base of knowledge. Why bring in new people? Why not figure out a way to use the human assets the company already had?
The communications people went back to work and arrived at an unusual plan. The company would identify Internet-savvy sales associates and create a new position for them. The associates who accepted the new position would work three days a week in a store and two days a week in an office, with their schedules staggered so that the online response team would be active seven days a week.
The company’s executives were enthusiastic about this plan.
After a lengthy recruitment process, 2,000 associates were hired for this new hybrid position. Meanwhile, the company built an online “Do It with Us” web page where customers could submit questions, read tips, share ideas, and find links to information about new products available at DIY’s stores.
After a three-day training program, the sales associates started the online conversation with DIY. Within months, they and the site’s visitors had started thousands of conversation threads. And in an unexpected development, the sales associates also became a valued source of knowledge for DIY’s other employees. In stores, at headquarters, and in the regional offices, if someone wants product or project information, they often start their search at the “Do It with Us” web page.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. How would you assess DIY’s agility in adapting to the challenges presented by online access to repair and renovation information?
2. What else can DIY do to address customer needs and remain competitive in the digital space?
3. If you were an employee, would you appreciate a hybrid position like the ones established at DIY? Why or why not?