"We don't think about our service operating procedure every day and resort back to these stereotypes in order to answer the questions of our customers and help them find the products they want."

Like hell you don't. I can tell you that at my store, it's quite the opposite.

"To be frank, we somewhat scoff at these training materials due to their limitedness and profiling. Most of us realize that there is much, much more to a good customer experience than giving names to stereotypes and guessing what type of person one of our guests are."

Management at my store never scoffed at lifestyle grouping or ANY training materials. You must be in a district or at least store that's a bit more lax when it comes to things, and for that you are lucky. You should work in the new stores that have been very successful to get an idea of what Best Buy is trying to become. It'll trickle down to you eventually; the culture of slowly but surely having everyone turn into some lifestyle grouping services-attaching zombie with a new fixation on branded payments while simultaneously being forced to work within a skeleton crew so managers get even better bonuses (while you get next to nothing), that is.

"And I'm kind of ashamed that you all think we should 'just die already' are really being insensitive to the fact that we are real people that actually try to make a rewarding customer experience and help our guests with their questions and needs."

Seems like you have some common sense at least (although I'm not entirely sure where you're coming from), but a lot of Best Buys are not like this, and that's why so many of us pissed off employees and customers feel the need to say BB must "die". And I can tell you the newer stores that are highly competitive are basically trying to dictate the future of this company through impressive numbers attained by utilizing a brute-force "whatever it takes" approach with the "customer centric" model propped up as some kind of facade. We are not customer centric; that is, we are not a company that disregards short term goals for what's most important for the customer. If we were truly that, then I wouldn't be walking into the store every day being told that while services in general are great, we really need to focus on PSP's right now because it's "killing us" (more like management's bonuses and misc. incentives). Perfect example: I sold $700+ worth of services on some computers for a small business customer, only to later be told that while the sale was good, I was ultimately frowned upon for not being able to attach PSP's. The customer did not want a PSP on anything, and I pitched it many times, primarily so I could better defend myself against management's typical self-serving bullshit after the sale occured. But it mattered not to them, and so the sale went by largely unnoticed by management because I didn't attach PSP's to inflate their already huge bonuses. Great culture, eh?

If all the customer needs is the core product and either nothing or just one other thing with it, then Best Buy (at least my store) seems to have a serious issue with that. And so, they totally contridict themselves. They also look really snobby because meeting a customer's needs is GREAT... until the customer will not buy anything else regardless of how good or bad the sales associate is doing and what's being said. To be "customer centric" while at the same time frowning upon customers who get nothing or close to nothing extra with their core product is just kind of funny. It's like saying "we're only customer centric when you buy the extra stuff that makes us money."

"If you're in a Best Buy store, and you're not being greeted, asked if you can be helped, or overhear employee's ever, ever reference a customer by any of these stereotypes; something is wrong there. And As an employee who respects his ability to make an impact on others by amazing them with good service, I appologize if your Best Buy service is anything less."

We're ordered to contact customers all the time, to the point where they often get annoyed and become evasive! And many people, especially my former CEM, told me what lifestyle groups he thought my customers were in before handing me off to them.

I am happily no longer a part of Best Buy, but I will continue to point out how poorly they treat their employees, and ultimately, the customer, through their approach to what is, beneath the surface, a highly pretentious, dishonest and aggressive approach to making customers spend a lot of money.

The Tipping Point
Copyright © 2000 by Malcolm Gladwell

60-61
What's to stop them from cheating us with meaningless "everyday low price" signs every time we walk in? The answer is that although most of us don't look at prices, every retailer knows that a very small number of people do, and if they find something amiss - a promotion that's not really a promotion - they'll do something about it.

One name for them is "price vigilantes." The other, more common, name for them is "Market Mavens."

Michael234: CVS pharmacies countered what "Market Mavens" can do by removing the unit price from all their merchandise. Now the power of the individual consumer has been quietly marginalized. Only the large and rich businesses and corporations can negotiate the price of an item. To CVS, we are now irrelevant to the marketplace because we are only individuals.

That might actually be a sound business model or something.

Of course, like all corporate policies and guidelines these profiles have the potential to be abused and work best in the hands of a capable, intelligent salesperson. Unfortunately, Best Buy does not have a great track record when it comes to hiring these types of individuals. They tend to move on to better, higher paying jobs.

I agree with the fictionalized 'Maria' on this point...Best Buy is 'a store I go to only when....forced to go. Takes way too long to accomplish my mission...'

wake up people. every major company does this. you can think of it as "evil" or you can think of it as helpful. it allows companies to target marketing and make messages more helpful, meaningful, entertaining, RELEVANT, etc.

if you don't like it, don't shop there. and walmart, target, circuit city, mcdonalds, etc, etc.

it is fine to be an informed consumer, but if you think every one isn't doing this you're blind. all the complaining won't stop anything if you continue with mass consumption.

I look like an angel (Carrie)...

but I'm the devil in disguise!

(must remember to tart up a bit before going to BB)

This isn't ususual at all. Most companies do this in some fashion. It's also not meant to be as literal as people here make it out to be. The idea behind "marketing personas" is to give employees an uderstanding of the variety of people that they can encounter. It also helps marketers develop messages and offers that resonate better with their customers and prospects, also preventing offers that the customer isn't interested in. You can't visually identify these individuals when they walk into the store, and that's not the point of this. Companies primarily use purchase data and other transactional information. The term "profiling" has a negative stigma associated with it. But other terms are "persona marketing""file segmentation""loyalty marketing" and other more neutral terms.

As a former Best Buy Tech (that's what we were before Geek Squad was purchased) I have to argue this point. The 15% restocking fee was actually around well before the customer typing that is the focus of this article.

It was specific to GPS, Radar Detectors, Notebooks, Desktop PC's , Digital cameras, Digital Camcorders, Portable DVD players, and projectors. This isn't something new, this is stuff going at least as far back as '03, and even farther back as this was a well established practice when I started with them.

that being said, I see nothing wrong with demographics and sales training. I think for the most part it is hilarious to the people being trained as well.

I worked at Best Buy between early 2005 and late 2006, it was about early 206 that they rolled out "customer centricity" Which is the concept that "you base your product sales around the customer, not around the product" meaning you ask questions like "what will you be using this for?" and then show them product based on the responses. The 9 out of 10 people I helped knew they wanted a computer, didnt know what they wanted, the 1 out of 10 that did were my favorites because I didnt have to break everything down to them. The customer centric mindset does help younger inexperianced sales people to pinpoint who they are dealing with.

About mid 2006 they also redesigned stores to focus on one sales group based on what type of sales they had mostly. I live in Sacramento CA, I worked at the Arden Mall Best Buy, we were Buzz/Best Buy For Business, the store in Natomas was Barry, the store in Elk Grove was Carry. This concept has been going on for a while in Best Buy. The "New" demographics they have here have been listed in Best Buy since I left late 2006.

If you really want to mess with the people that work there though get the TV-Be-Gone, the night crew in Home Theater are normally understaffed and you can really have some fun watching them run around trying to fix all these TV's shutting off.

As far as not getting helped because you aren't standing next to an expensive product, that has nothing to do with these customer profiles, and everything to do with a lazy salesperson. I rarely stop to talk, I make constant rounds and always check with EVERY customer MULTIPLE times.

We don't think about our service operating procedure every day and resort back to these stereotypes in order to answer the questions of our customers and help them find the products they want.

This training is semi-annual, and is usually only to promote customer awareness in our employees, not so much as to turn all of our associates into mindless car salesmen. Asking what kind of uses for technology a customer has, their name, finding a package deal that suits their needs and budget... that's a lot more important to us.

To be frank, we somewhat scoff at these training materials due to their limitedness and profiling. Most of us realize that there is much, much more to a good customer experience than giving names to stereotypes and guessing what type of person one of our guests are.

And I'm kind of ashamed that you all think we should 'just die already' are really being insensitive to the fact that we are real people that actually try to make a rewarding customer experience and help our guests with their questions and needs.

If you're in a Best Buy store, and you're not being greeted, asked if you can be helped, or overhear employee's ever, ever reference a customer by any of these stereotypes; something is wrong there. And As an employee who respects his ability to make an impact on others by amazing them with good service, I appologize if your Best Buy service is anything less.

In fact, I would wager that the the majority of the people complaining have a boss that not only knows their MBTI personality type, but leverages that knowledge to get the most out of them.

I know it's much more fun to ignore all that in favor of complaining about Best Buy, but (this time) they're not doing anything wrong.

The Corporate Social Responsibility movement must end. No revenue, through any way, shape or form, should be funneled into "community" interests. The only thing that a corporation should care about is profits, its bottom line, and returning value to its shareholders. Economically speaking, volunteering is detrimental to the company. Clearly, companies today are only doing it for the tax break, which makes them evil. If we eliminate the tax incentive, we can eliminate CSR.

But even then we all know that bleeding-heart liberals, having failed to change corporations through legislation, have begun to attempt to change corporations directly, one-by-one. One of those ways is shaming them here on the Consumerist.

You see, Consumerist! You're just playing into the liberal agenda to destroy our economy.

@wellfleet: Sorry, didn't mean to criticize you, or any employees who give time or money to charities... But it can't be crappy to simply question a companies charitable giving, we have to question things, it's human nature... What bothers me about it is that corporations take the credit for it all, and they give up nothing, any $$ donated is tax-deductable. I don't know the particulars of BB's proceedures, and I was basing some of my rant on my own experience at another company where we were handed a printout of acceptable charities to volunteer with, and we were hassled mercilessly to give to United Way so the company could get the publicity for giving.
also:
[www.alternet.org]
[thinkbeforeyoupink.org]

I'm a therapist. This is such crap.

These profiles are salesmanship 101. Most natural salespeople have these "stereotypes" down pat. You tailor your approach depending on the customer's personality. What, exactly, is shocking here? If I walk into Neiman Marcus wearing stained sweats, I will probably be followed by security. If I walk in carrying a Chloe bag and a little rat-dog, they'll get me a San Pellegrino.

The first thing I will say about Best Buy is that for a company that prides itself on not being commission-based, they sure do act like it. Customers are so surprised when they find out we aren't; the company says customers are happy when they hear that, but from what I've experienced, they're often surprised instead of happy, because of how high-pressured of a sales environment it can be to them. Customer Assistants (think of them as universal sales associates; they can sell anywhere in the store) have, would you believe, sales trackers, despite getting absolutely NOTHING extra for keeping track. It's a joke. It honestly makes no sense, since a manager can just go into the server and pull up any sale, by any employee, from any date, at any time if they so desire. No need for a paper copy that justifies absolutely nothing.

Sales Associates don't always need trackers, but are expected to meet a LOT of expectations for getting only slightly above the minimum wage (just like Customer Assistants). I probably can't say it's illegal, but it truly is unethical how poorly Best Buy treats their employees. For all of their crazy sales expectations, for their poor staffing that often leaves only one person in a department by themselves for hours (and expected to be on top of everything at the same time), for all the monthly meetings (the one for the holiday season being the only meeting worth showing up to) on a Saturday or Sunday morning that we are forced to go to -- honestly, just for the drive and overall committment they expect from their employees... it's wrong.

This company contradicts themselves all the time. They're TOO adventurous. They are always trying new things or shifting their main focus entirely way too often. This disrupts any sense of consistency and it's just a pain in the ass for any sales associate or customer assistant. On top of this, management often expects us to simultaneously stay on top of a lot of things pertaining to the merchandising end of things, because most BB's have understaffed merch teams (like every other department, but that's another post for another time).

I'd argue that Best Buy is so high-pressured that they might as well BE commission-based. I can't help but laugh at them for making fun of other companies who are using the commission model. BB isn't much different. Every morning we have meetings before the store opens, where we are beat over the head about how important it is to attach accessories, sell services, etc. Believe me, Best Buy isn't just doing this because they want to be there for the customer, they're doing it because they want their MONEY. The fact that they get so pushy about making margin while at the same time priding themselves on not being commission-based really does show you how unorganized and just plain backwards this company is. If you could see first-hand how dedicated they are to basically forcing the employee to turn into a sales robot, you'd understand if you haven't by now. At least those other companies we laugh at pay their employees more for being forced to act like a bunch of tools!

I can tell you that many managers follow this lifestyle grouping (it's basically glorified shopper profiling, and it disgusts me), as if it were their religion. Supervisors follow it either because they know they have to, or in some cases, they're about as brainwashed as their superiors. Most other people on the sales floor are either indifferent about the whole thing, or hate it with a passion like me. I don't follow the whole lifestyle grouping idea. At all. I carry on a conversation with someone and suggest things based on what they tell me they need. And that is, of course, if the customer is engaged enough in the conversation. I stop there. If they aren't in much of a talking mood and have their mind set (nothing wrong with that, even though Best Buy frowns upon it), I give a simple pitch to try and tie in services (since, sadly, at my store at least, they watch services like hawks, and will eventually come after you if they feel you aren't offering.) I don't try to throw customers into some group that predefines them based on a few key phrases. It's totally unrealistic and the most successful sales do not depend on such a pretentious selling model. I speak from experience, thank you.

Best Buy actually has "360" forms (for employees) where you are to basically recap a sale that you had and turn it into a supervisor or manager. You identify the lifestyle group and talk about what you suggested, what extra stuff you tied in, etc. It's a reflection of how stupid lifestyle questions/grouping is, though, because NO ONE does these forms unless they are forced to.

It's honestly impossible to put most people into these groups -- and even if you DID, it's still impossible to expect them to act like the leaked presentation says they should. By the way, the document leaked is just a jazzed up overview of what they've been doing for a long time now. But I'm glad it's out there, since customers can now easily see how ridiculous of a company Best Buy is. Why do I work there? Good question... great discount, I've made some friends, but ultimately I am going to be leaving VERY soon as I've been there for a year too long.

Also, Best Buy is desperate for margin. It's kind of ridiculous. The whole lifestyle grouping is, as previously mentioned, ultimately about how Best Buy can exploit the customer and make more money off of them. Truly though, I would not be surprised if in the next couple years we read reports of the company losing a LOT of money and really going down the spiral. What a great day that will be.

Best Buy essentially dug their own grave. In the 90's they dropped their prices to drive away competition and shut down mom and pop stores. They've succeeded in doing that and have now flooded the electronics market with their big blue stores. They really have no regional competitors besides Circuit City, which isn't saying much (no offense to CC employees, I shop at your store all the time). Who else is there in every single state? No one. That's also why I believe BB can get away with doing so much crazy stuff... they're the only show in town, and they KNOW it. It's going to catch up to them sooner or later.

Each store 'knows' what kind of people primarily shop there based on the demographic data of the surrounding geographic area. The store I worked in was mostly patronized by the 'Jill'-type customers with a secondary disposition towards 'Barry'. 'Jill' type customers, as mostly suburban moms, are more likely to be somewhat overwhelmed by the Best Buy store environment, so we deliberately kept our in-store music at a lower volume and put a higher level of emphasis on store cleanliness and cultivating a friendly environment. I had several of these types of customers actually say to me things like 'I'm not sure what you guys have done, but I like this Best Buy a lot more now!" Does making peoples' lives better sound like dehumanizing stereotyping to you?

"no matter what type i am or who they my stereotype my looks as .... i RARELY if EVER talk to sales staff beyond "Excuse me, i want THIS please". so whatever."

Most geeks are like this because they do know what they want as opposed to a lot of idiots who vacillate endlessly because they don't know what they are doing and didn't even try to learn about the products.

""sales people"... do not offer me services or try sell me anything."

Fry's corporate had a name for these type of wallflowers:

Clerks.

Most stores, save for Fry's, Microcenter, and a few high end niche shops are all straight hourly without commission so what impetus for going out of their way to close a sale? They will get the same pay regardless. Except for Circuity City maybe getting a new management team that sees merit pay as part of turnaround project to stave off their impending insolvency I don't expect to see commission salespeople in retail electronics making a comeback at any stores that have eliminated it. BB hasn't taken a Bear Sterns yet, so getting them to do something as fundamental as changing their pay structure isn't going to happen. CC on the other hand, might want to look back at some form of commission system.

"i will figure out what i want myself if i haven't already, and then tell you to get it for me (if i can't pick up the box and walk to the counter myself) otherwise, don't pursue me"

You know I am like that too, generally, but this is more because the salespeople generally don't know jack, so talking to them is often a waste of time. If I find a good one who has actually used xyz new product I want to talk to them, you're right otherwise go away.

"....unless you're cute, then i might say hello and ask for your phone number... ha."

Well, I am such a shy guy when it comes to cute women, but if there were such an animal at most retail stores I might strike up some idle conversation if possible.

It seems the youth and now young adults are an installed and functioning platform for profits.
...That is of course if you've done the right legwork to interface to them with techniques like this.

Even sales associates want to gauge out our eyeballs listening to garbage like this. We know that in a lot of cases these strategies don't work. You always ask for the obvious add-ons(memory cards for a camera for example), but some things that some of these guys try putting together seem so discordent, I fail to see what user experience they are trying to sell other then going to a used car lot! I remember working at Fry's and we used to sarcastically say that a lot of customers were like the kids on South Park: "I just want my Ocama Game Sphere." There are some people that want one product and they will never fit into any of these idealized stereotypical customer molds where you can sell them the following stereotypical addons. The smart salespeople stopped at one maybe two nos on the upsell or the extended warranty unless they really felt like the customer was going to get it at some point earlier in the conversation.

Even Fry's dumbest managers for gods sake discouraged us to stereotype customers. I know one of the corporate guys (John Gamet) always gave Steve Wozniack as an example of how millionaires will walk into your store dressed in jeans and look just like any other joe on the street with the key difference that he can afford to buy anything item you sell in the store and more. Not ignoring this person because they look like they don't have money is stupid.

The same thing can be said about race. The best salespeople only see one color: green.

Some things like trying to create strategies to get rid of money losing customers while still retaining most of your profitable one's may be worth paying this guy something if it isn't incredibly obvious (a 15% restocking fee fits under the obvious category). I gotta give this Larry guy kudos for bilking BB out of whatever six or seven figure consulting fee he charged for this goofy advice that anybody with a little knowledge of consumer electronics could have came up with!

As long as BB keeps following the advice of idiots like this they may soon eventually go down the toilet along with CircuitCity into the retail graveyard in the sky.

A stores primary customer group is identified and the whole store strategy is focused on the one type. I worked in a store that became a "jill" store... They then immediately stocked pink sony digital cameras and disney crap.

Yes, a GOOD salesman will start from a profile as a base and then approach the individual customer. But I don't think Best Buy puts that kind of effort into its sales staff. It's perfectly possible to watch a company six sigma and metric itself right out of business, with absolutely no idea why their constantly-improving numbers aren't making profits improve.

"sales people"... do not offer me services or try sell me anything. i will figure out what i want myself if i haven't already, and then tell you to get it for me (if i can't pick up the box and walk to the counter myself) otherwise, don't pursue me ....unless you're cute, then i might say hello and ask for your phone number... ha.

"I like how all of their profiles pretty much say that the person is cheap. "does not want to pay full price""

pretty much because every person is cheap as hell.

I hate Best Buy as much as anybody, but, really, is this news?

[snipurl.com]

where instead of "eating less and exercising" Opus wants to try a million crazy radical plans to lose weight.

Ergo, companies like BestBuy, that instead of simply "providing better customer service and a positive workplace for employees" pay a series of consultants for more and more complex and wacky ideas to make money.

Meanwhile, Apple is raking in cash by the wheel barrow by "providing better customer service and a positive workplace for employees" at their stores.

That crazy Steve Jobs.

"This just in: corporations use demographics to target key markets, maximize profits. Film at 11."

Economics 101. Where are the articles outraged at the lack of beer commercials geared toward 65-80 year old women? Why must then all target the 18-34 male? WHY!

one of my fav things to do, if I must go there, is to tell a 'secret' to a buyer or something standing in line at geeksquad while the best buy dude is gone.

once, I was in there to get something fixed under the bb warranty. this guy was in line and was going to be charged about $400 to get his desktop fixed. All he needed to do was boot up the computer w/a real windows xp disc and reinstall, not the unbootable OEM disk that his computer came with.

But of course, they didn't tell him, or didn't know.

I hate best buy.

On a different note, is it just me, or does Helen look like she would be hot for a 50-60 year old?

seriously, isn't all marketing done similar to this? you're not going to see (hopefully) condom commercials during Higgleytown Heroes. If I learned nothing else from my marketing class, it was the making money is the sole reason for marketing. Commercials are generally placed during shows they think are their main consumers. Why isn't anybody ticked off about that? How many tampon commercials are shown during the Super Bowl?@sleze69:

Thanks Meg, I'm going to use the sh*t out of that one.

@mindshadow:
Uh I worked there for over 7 years, I never remembered them having such a chart which named people "PIGS". That's maybe what you called them, but not the actual company.

Also I don't understand how these market strategic people in the company think that we are all some weird creatures. Like making a slide show of if a person is like this or this or this. It's like we are all human beings you know.

The topic hits a little close to home because it's basically been my life for the past 10 weeks (grad student)...in fact, I just turned in a large customer seg project this morning!

I think a lot of people would be surprised to know how much science goes into this (mathematics, statistical modeling & analysis, etc.) It's not like BB's marketing team just sat around a conference table looking at photos of customers and conjuring up stories about them. I thought the Gladwell video that was posted yesterday was indicative of that.

Unless...of course... they can "act" white.

Most of the "demons" that got sick of your shit while the money was good for you have moved more and more to newegg.com and other online or friendlier businesses where we are welcomed rather than continually fucked with.

Carrie, Maria, Helen and Charlie are watching their economic dreams dissolve into vapor, maybe they'll take some of your spare cardboard boxes (for free) as backup housing after their homes are foreclosed. Good thing you didn't cultivate honest relationships with those "demons" you so casually deride, as they'll probably be the only ones left with any real money soon.

Go the way of Bear Sterns, "Best" Buy. You are hated.

Wow, according to the pictures at the top of each slide Best Buy's core targets are really, really white.

I worked at best buy for 3 years 2 on the computer sales floor and 1 on the geek squad (in home and in store) and yes they do try to teach the employees these categories of customers and they are very blunt about it, however to say its stereotyping only depend on how u read the material. If you read the material that's there the object is for the "slow" employees to show customers products they actually want to see and to avoid messing up sales by showing "Jill" (mother with not much time but would like the best technology for her money) a piece of crap door buster camera that will break after 2 weeks or showing someone with a tight budget a 3,000$ laptop. And the names don't actually reference gender either a male can be "labled" as a jill or carrie just as muc has a female can be buzz or barrie.
They do make you take these trainings right off the bat along with a liven cartload of other pointless"training" programs. And to be honest most of the time the employees just skip threw them to get them over with. Most employees won't know who Carrie Jill Barry and all the other profiles nor do most care about them.
Personally when I saw them expand this program the only thing that went threw my head besides how ineffective the program will be, is that someone in a corporate office needed a project to take up time and spend money on. The customer centricity push isn't that big of a deal (which brings to mind that the deepfreeze password is centricity01, emphasizing that someone has nothing better to do) and isn't anything I would even think about.
So to spell it out for all those freaking out THERE IS NO PICTURE ID STORED ON A SERVER THAT POPS UP ABOVE YOU HEAD WHEN YOU WALK IN. The employees at best buy are no different then those at circuit city office depot or any other electronic retailer (and all are probably trained equally). The concept of profiling isn't new and till employees have heads up displays I would get my panties in a knot.

@Part-Time-Viking: I think we're going to have to agree to disagree.
(Also, EW.)

Do you still have to shoot yourself in the head to summon them? What are her Maria Middle America's abilities like?

What's my name again.....ah hell, I'll just strive to be a demon!

And I don't think you guys should be so judgmental. You guys stereotype corporations, execs, and sales clerks dozens of times a day.

What makes me the most mad is how narrow-minded the readers of the Consumerist are, I like coming to this site because on the occasion that there is someone that was wronged by the company, I can work out how NOT to repeat that issue for my own work. However, a story like this clearly was posted so that all of you "screw-BB" folk can get all moist and talk about how much you hate the company. Good for you, I can appreciate that you hate my company but big whoop because as much as you hate the company, there are easily ten out there that love it, and probably another dozen who have nothing against Best Buy.

Like I said, one bad employee can bury ones confidence in a company, I understand that fully and will admit that there are places that I won't go to because of one bad employee. I also understand though that my bad experience does not mean that the company as a whole is bad, so I won't go onto these sites posting about my bad experience with said company following it up with "I'll never shop there again" because I'm sure that said company couldn't care any less about it.

Also, there is nothing wrong with being well-informed and well-armed as a consumer, but at times it seems like The Consumerist isn't about arming people with the knowledge to step around these selling methods, at times it seems like it's more of just a blog site where a bunch of corporate anarchists hang out to complain. Which, might I add is neither productive or valuable. It's just hogwash.

I didn't like it anyway, but mostly because the managers would come by a couple times a day and want me to fill out paperwork on my experience with a Ray, or Jill or whatever and find out what I sold to them. One of the more annoying questions on the paperwork was "List an unknown need" or something to that effect. Basically my understanding is they wanted me to find out something I could sell them that they didn't actually come in to buy.

A few brief stints in cold calling taught me that there are really only 4 types of people in the world:

1: *click*
2: "You've interrupted my day... [rambles]"
3: "Fuck you."
4: "Oh hi! Please tell me more."

@redhelix: So that explains why I like my college-town Best Buy better than my yuppie-town Best Buy.

I played right into their games. I feel used, manipulated, violated, raped, and abused. This stain will never come clean :'-(

@B: Individuality: Always remember that you are unique, just like everybody else.

As much as I can't stand BB, I can see their point. Working in retail, you soon realize 90% of people fit in a few categories. Every place has a system, even if it's not as clearcut as this one is.

@alphafemale:
So is this now just turning into bestbuy bash-a-thon. Come on people keep on the topic

I'm not really sure I see the issue here...i've worked in a few retail jobs in my day, and they ALL had a way or profiling their customers just like this. Everyone does it.

And Maria is married to Ray but Mr. Upscale Suburban can't be married to Mrs. Upscape Suburban? They're both married, but Best Buy doesn't want to put them together like they did Maria to Ray? And Mr. Upscale Suburban looks like a smug SOB on his boat.

Best Buy needs some serious prefacing on this one ...probably with "there are a certain core of people who hate Best Buy..."

@Part-Time-Viking: Seriously? You're upset because Consumerist decided to share with us how Best Buy salespeople try to get us to buy products?

Did the post about people overreacting to"free" bug you too? How about those posts about how to spend less at the grocery store? Was that socialist?

If you think being a well-armed and fore-warned consumer who doesn't fall for marketing tricks and sales ploys is wrong they you are on the wrong web site. But avoiding the upsell isn't communism.

(kidding, really)

@matto:

Your comments are just plain foolish. How can you deride a company for setting up a categories of consumers and then applying sales techniques to identify with those catergories aimed at maximizing sales? Oh, I forgot, you can do that because you are on Consumerist and you are programmed to complain about corporate America in any way you can.

If you owned a bakery or a tire shop and your profits relied on closing sales for the given traffic you had in your store (an the copetition you had in your neighborhood), you'd damn sure devise a technique to quickly asses your customers based on a few idnetifying characteristics and then tweak your sales pitch/customer interation to best maiximize the potential to sell your product (even upsell)to that customer.

Best Buy does that and you villify them for it. Get a clue.

Of course the category names and descritions are hokey and of course some unknowing Consumerist posters are going to claim they are miscategorized...but the goal is to narrow down the laws of large numbers and maximize both selling potentila and time to sale in order to maimize revenuenes...you know Capitlism.

And, for the record, you calling this a Rube Goldberg scheme couldn't have been farther from the mark.

You should use wikipedia more and your keyboard less.

How about you teach them about the products in their department so when they are asked a direct question they seem to have some product knowledge. I can spend ten minutes online and have more product knowledge than the blue shirts. The average consumer is stupid, but on average the blue shirts are below average consumers.

this is effin awesome and makes me not want to set foot on a best buy ever again.

Well, to be fair, you can't debunk a widely accepted marketing practice based on the results of one or two companies. I guarantee that high-growth, overperforming companies like Whole Foods, etc. use similar customer segmentation techniques.

I'm beginning to get the idea that Consumerist is on the forefront of a socialist movement trying to brainwash people into communists or something.

In the end it makes me laugh because Best Buy is still profiting (maybe not so much now with the recession). People have bad experiences, a rotten egg employee can do more damage than I think people realize. These kinds of employees are not exclusive to Best Buy. However, more often than not when I read stories about how a "poor consumer" gets mistreated, I really wonder what their attitude was like in the store. With all of them we only get one side of the story and of course if they are writing to a blog about it they will try to gain as much sympathy as possible.

In the end, if you want good customer service, be a good customer. Drop the attitudes, learn some patience because people don't want to help you if you're carrying a chip into the customer service. Despite what you all clearly think, the people in the blue shirts are human too.

I have one to describe most salespeople: Moronic know-nothing useless idiots.
Most B&M's are a last resort when I need something RIGHT NOW (and it's on SALE).

The only way I would be offended by this would be if the salesperson started asking me questions like, do you have kids, are you married etc as if they were trying to fit me into one of the profiles, which in that case I would be out the door so fast they wouldn't even have time to blink. As long as they don't make it totally obvious to each customer that they are profiling them then it shouldn't be offensive at all, its just marketing. I think all salespeople in all retail stores profile to some extent so this shouldn't be any surprise to people at all. Of course I refuse to shop in a best buy or even enter their stores, but that is for different reasons than this.

I work at Best Buy - and to be honest you have to have some idea of who you are talking to in order to get them what they really want. It's not good vs. bad, its simply a "tool" for attaching correctly to the right people. For instance if an obviosuly rich person comes in looking to buy a TV, the last thing they want to hear about is some b.s. financing option. However they might want to hear about the difference between surge protection and power conditioning.
The problem here is that Best Buy typically only pays enough for bottom barrel sales associates who usually don't know thier d**k from their a**hole. I just work there during breaks as I go to college in an area with no Best Buy. I get paid pretty well for my efforts in spurts, but its certainly not even close to touching what an associate should be getting paid who can actually identify somebody's needs without a retarded "guide to demographics".

p.s. It's also notable that in their core philosophies it says something to the effect of "treat each customer individually to meet their specific needs" so the borad demographics guide is just that. A guide.

@strider_mt2k: Free Sports Illustrated and Entertainment Weekly subscriptions? ;)

and the angel customer/demon customer was just the basis for this. bby never specified any demon customers, except maybe Barry customers. and that's just because they're arrogant.

demographics = loss

customer service = profit

idiots

OK Best Buy, suck it.

Gah, when I worked in retail, my manager trained me to you know, actually listen to my customers when they were telling me what they wanted, find it, and point out other things they might like. I suppose those marketing consultants have to make the big bucks somehow though.

I guess I would be a Carrie without the nice suit? Sadly, my first thought upon discovering that I was probably a Carrie was to wonder if the store would go up in flames if they pissed me off. It never has yet, but I didn't know then that they thought I was a Carrie. hehe.

yeah, why is it we mostly see these from crappy, underperforming companies?

The one thing I won't fault Best Buy for entirely is the restocking fee. First off, it's only on a few product categories, not the vast majority. And those categories are the products people tend to buy for vacations, parties, meetings, etc., then return when they're done. The restocking fee ends up being a sort of rental fee at that point, as now the store has to sell the item at a discount because it's been opened. And normally if it's exchanged instead of returned (even for a different model or brand) they waive the fee, since exchanging is evidence that you were genuinely unhappy with the specific item and not just renting. Also managers can easily waive the restocking fee if they have a good reason to trust the customer.

The reality is that you really can take 100 customers and devide them down into these groups. If new employees have never gotten their feet wet in sales, this is a great starting place.

Ask anyone that has worked there for more than a few months if they still look for these 'types' and a would be willing to bet your answer is no.

Ohhh noes! we have to have some way overpriced "expert" from academia tell us some fluffy nonsense because, after all, he's an EXPERT.

I'm sure all the dopes in the BB boardroom nodded like sheep when marketing presented this steaming bile.

Not to disagree with you or anything, but (and this is just going off of my store) we can only truely classify probably 10% of customers on a good day. Unidentified customers make up the raw bulk of the traffic. Again, this might be just me going off of how traffic is at my store.

Things haven't been working out too well lately, though. I predict a divorce.

You're aiming at the top, hitting the bottom and shopping there anyway.

These sites you prefer online do exactly that. Look, Best Buy just has to find a way to compete in a much more competitive marketplace now.

These customer segments are being done to help customers and therefore help Best Buy's bottom line. Happy customers buy more things, right? If a store is in an area where there is a lot of Buzz's or Maria's or whatever they are called, and then is catered to those people, the store will be more functional and desirable to those people who will in turn buy more items.

To the guy who has a MA in psychology or w/e and thinks this is a load of crap: check out Best Buy's annual reports since it was initiated. You'll find yourself questioning your education. All of the retail companies have followed Best Buy's lead since it has been so successful, even to the point where Walmart is trying to reach some wealthy segments by redoing some of there stores to be all posh and upscale.

To all of the unique snowflakes who are aghast at this: get over yourself. You can't train 150,000 16-21 year olds how to find the unique snowflake in every customer during a 10 minute transaction. Would it be better to train them on how to serve 5-10 segmnets better (which make up probably 80%+ of their customers), or to just keep spinning their wheels because you just can't categorize unique snowflakes.

I am suprised this is new news. These new "life style groups" were being used when I left the company last june. We had some fun with it... Upscale Suburban JILFs... good times, oh wait that place sucked.

Now, to throw in an alternate take on the matter, I work for the company, my store is top rated for customer satisfaction in my district, and is one of the top in the company, and my managers advise us, that despite corporate policy to only pay attention to this if you think it helps you. I personally have never applied the profiling system to a sale, I'm well aware of it, but I don't do anything with it.

All these stars are giving me an inferiority complex. Pardon me while I go channel Stuart Smalley for a little bit.

They left out the slide that advises the salespeople to not give a f*ck about customer satisfaction since they are not paid any commission. Seriously, why waste time with all of this when the blue shirts will refuse to make eye contact with customers anyway?

How does Best Buy stay in business when everything they have is priced at least $50 higher than anywhere else? Even Circuit City is cheaper by a noticeable margin, and a $1400 Best Buy camcorder is like $1000 at Fry's. I do not know why anyone shops there.

@picardia:

Actually this is a good thing. They made their categories sexual orientation and race independent. A gay guy could be any category and so can a person of color. This is truea psycographic bucketing of consumer habits andit is VERY non-offensive.

@kc2idf:

You fit the new category. KC the Sunshine rebel. Wants electronics and is stealthy enough to baffle the selseman into not being able to be categorized. You get ignored and immediatley receipt checked if you buy anything. You are not a demon or an angel, you are the devil's advocate and the holy ghost wrapped into one.

Honestly, who really cares? Demographic study and analysis is key to almost any large business from banking to retail.

Move along, nothing to see here.

I like how gay people and minorities don't exist at Best Buy.

...which I kind of feel good about.

@Voyou_Charmant:

WOW. Nothing like employing a stereotype to try an explain a stereotype. Good jood, goofball.

What they have done is a pretty good sales strategy in a very pithy and childish manner.

That being said, I dont think knowing what a specific type of customer might want is inherently evil or even wrong. Don't get me wrong, I hate dealing with CSRs, I dont like greeters, I don't like people helping me unless I ask (because I'm an adult and can read.) I dont think training your sales reps to, at the very least, have some idea of what I might be interested in is all that bad. If anything it gets them thinking about the specific person not just a completely generic customer and they might actually be helpful, though, I'm sure that is just wishful thinking.

And for anyone who thinks that we simply try to pigeonhole our customer into one of these, one of our "core philosophies" reads something like - 'Respect each customer's differences and find a unique solution to fit their needs'

NOTHING

Of course, I expect that most of the managers will try in vain to cram every available customer into one of those boxes, and therefore screw things up anyway.

The 'bad' customers are the 'extreme price shoppers' (and you might be one of them if you only visit Best Buy after you read about them on Fat Wallet). They have a system which is supposed to identify these types of customers and when a customer of this sort is found (and the employee actually checks the system) they are not supposed to make any exceptions to the rules. The other customer type is employees and aside from discounts, they get the shortest stick of all.

Most well-run retail companies have a model like this which is used to determine where and how to open stores. They just aren't always as transparent as ol' Best Buy's. Also, this has been going on for years and years...

Ahhh, i remember taking that test.

This sort of thing is called "Psychographics" (close cousin to demographics which are simply facts about people). Psychographics are more subjective and vary in terms from company to company (claritas and VALS are two popular psychographic data companies each with different terms for similar groups). They basically describe the lifestyle of a group of people. i.e. "New Homesteaders" are young middle class workers who have recently purchased a home and intend to start a family. They like skiing, coffee, and Ford SUVs (I just made that up, but it's similar to claritas info for that group from what I remember).

When you start talking about "profiling" vs "stereotyping" vs etc. you're really just arguing semantics. Obviously profiling and stereotyping have negative connotations and are, in fact, different from gathering and using psychographic information.

Bottom line: it's not the fact that Best Buy has these classifications that's evil, it's how they decide to use them (since I challenge you to find a marketing effort worth anything that didn't include psychographic research). That's what makes the difference between profiling, stereotyping, and knowing your customer.

They should be teaching you how to interact with people and be sociable rather than following some sort of step by step consumer based dance routine.

@alphafemale: shirts emplazed with = emblazoned

@chouchou: Oy, so I headed on over to BB.com to look for funny employee questionaires, but I got distracted by the vigorous pimping they do of their "Community Relations"

Couple of gems:

Q: Does Best Buy have an employee volunteer program?
A: Yes. Best Buy encourages employees to volunteer by providing grants from the Best Buy Children's Foundation to organizations where employees share their talents. Many Best Buy stores use their local volunteer centers to find volunteer opportunities in their area. To post your volunteer opportunity, please go to www.1800volunteer.org or call 1-800-volunteer to find your local volunteer center.

Ok, so BB picks out what they think is an acceptable charity, and then they 'encourage' workers to volunteer by giving money to the place where they volunteer. Um, yeah, color me motivated.
------
Best Buy has been a long time supporter of United Way. Last year alone, the company and our employees contributed over $7.6 million to our communities. The dollars donated are in addition to the numerous hours that our employees spend volunteering with United Way funded agencies in their communities.

So BB participates in shaking down their workforce, again 'encouraging' employees to give a percentage of their earnings to the United Way, and BB gets to claim credit for the dollar amount given. [www.dba-oracle.com] [www.edwardtrimnell.com]

But I think the best is this page: [www.bbycommunications.com]
where there are numerous photos of BB employees happily doing volunteer work while wearing BB shirts. Yeah, I know that if it was me, and I was 'volunteering' with a group of people I work with, we would all definately want to wear those same shirts that we all see each other in day after day. Way to suck, pressure (encourage) your employees into volunteering, and then ask (force) them to wear shirts emplazed with the corporate logo.

Yes, yes, I know that had nothing to do with the OP, but this got me all riled up...

On topic, I get such a kick out of this marketing crap, as if the people doing the research are living in bubbles, and have never had contact with regular folks, and they descibe people like they are narrating an Animal Planet documentary: "Our Customers In Captivity"

This stuff has been going on since I started working there 4 years ago. This is not new information. The only thing new they have done is add more "names."

I used to work with one of the chief importers for LifeWay Christian Resources. I was fortunate enough to see a demographic profile similar to this while in his 11,000 sq. foot house. The profile detailed what middle-aged Christian women were most likely to buy. It was attached to a huge order for 15 cent a piece Chinese candles with "[bible] verses targeted to bored, middle-age housewives."* Lifeway sold each candle at somewhere around $25.

*Not hyperbole

Let's go out and get our appropriately labeled shirts, kids, so that they can identify us when we come in the door. We'll have meetings and stuff! I'll bring some cookies. Now who's bringing the coffee? Best Buy, you suck.

@gamin: At my part time retail job we get non-English speaking people come in all the time and the teenagers working will gladly tell them that filling out the application will get them 15% off. They go home with their stuff and come back wanting to cancel once someone told them what they signed up for when it is too late. Do the bosses care? Nope. Their job is to make sure the register monkeys hawk credit cards to everyone and selling clothes is second priority.

@apotheosis:

Hence the large amounts of space dedicated to iPods and iPod accessories. ;)

BB is missing Jose the guy who barely speaks english and wants to buy a TV hopefully BB will give hima credit card with a 50% APR. Jose my friends should be best buy's priority

I have no regrets.

So long Best Buy.

Ha. Sears corporate did this too. Stereotyping, or in marketing-speak, it's called segmenting the market.

I remember going through this stuff on the Sears intranet, laughing all morning long.

It made the executives feel like they were getting to know their customers better somehow, so they could come up with ways of serving them better.

As you can tell, that idea has really paid dividends for Sears.

"RETIREMENT = DEATH"

Oh well, they can try to stereotype me all they want. I only walk into their stores when I've done my research and I know exactly what make, model, and price I want. If they try to hard to sell me anything else, then I walk out. I don't have time for shenanigans.

Also, I'm amused by the fact that "Carrie's" sheet says first don't talk down to her, and then says "tell me things I don't know in ways I can understand."

Because those two statements fit together!

Wake up.

Seriously, this is no big deal at all, every company does this.

... so this is why im always treated like a kid with down syndrome whenever i go into best buy?
I dont know why they even bother putting women on these sheets... the employees still act like women are completely ignorant about anything technology related.

(ill just go with the old standby... THAR R NO GIRLS ON TEH INTARWEBS!!!!!!!!!)

I also like that they're coaching salesmen not to "talk down" at least to the younger female segments. Although a hard-sell can come across as basically the same thing as being talked down to.

I went to Best Buy against my better judgment the other week because I needed a new keyboard IMMEDIATELY and couldn't wait for shipping from a non-sucky place like New Egg. Worst selection of peripherals EVER, and the prices were appalling. I ended up getting a Logitech for about HALF of what Best Buy was selling it for, for full price at Target. Which had a better selection of basic peripherals (keyboards, mouses, etc.), incidentally.

And yeah, the service was appallingly bad. The shelves were messy. The salespeople were standing around picking their asses and having gossip hour. (Does nobody get barked at by their managers to front the shelves anymore? That was the litany of my high school years in retail!) The weirdest part was that there was hardly any LIGHT in the store, it was so dim I felt like I had to squint. I briefly considered picking up a Wii game (as I'm not often in stores w/ video games), but the video game section of the store was a disaster area and nobody seemed interested in straightening it up. Pawing through it just seemed distasteful and unnecessarily difficult.

Sadly, I'm sure this all works. I don't think I can point to anyone in my family (aside from my wife) that would NOT be an 'angel' and be stereotyped like this. I'm talking immediate family (which is large) AND extended. :P

For example, the old Newbury Street store and current Landmark Center stores in Boston are Buzz stores because there's a ton of colleges around. They design the sales floor as such, with lots of videogame and handheld gadget displays. Meanwhile, the suburbs on the south shore are all Charlie stores, which have massive home theater sections.

.

BEST BUY SUCKETH

Responsible Buzz, Reporting in

umm not wrong Ben...

Buzz is about 4-5 years old

these "new" ones are about a year and a half to two years old...

nothing new, they actually talk about this classification system in the bestbuy shareholders report (they are tools taught to help customers based on particular demographics).

I don't see anything "evil" or wrong about it, all companies do this...all of them. (look at advertising, you don't think they have the same idea in mind to appeal to a specific "type" of person).

this post gets put to the wayside as more biased Consumerist anti-bestbuy propaganda.

1) The internal document is hysterical.
2) Knowing how companies and salespeople try to get you to buy things makes you a smarter consumer.

It's hard to be offended by this. All they've done is put to paper (pixel?) everything that we do to each other in our heads anyway. Who doesn't pigeonhole the elderly lady writing a check in line in front of you at the grocery store? Or the kid with Chuck Taylors and a nose ring on the bus? Or the well dressed man getting out of his Lexus with a briefcase?

Hell, just read this site for a few days and you'll figure out what stereotypes we have assigned to Best Buy employees. We are all guilty of this. It's human nature.

Anyways, point of the story is that they had something like this, except in a much more offensive manner. For example, the top-tier buyer was called a "pig" or something to that affect. I forgot what they called the lowest-tier buyer, but the whole thing was overall offensive in its approach.

So glad that company is dead.

@girly: Best Buy doesn't work on commissions, actually... so standing next to the most expensive laptop wouldn't really mean anything to the salesperson.

@JackAshley:
Agreed.

If you don't like that companies try to profile their customer types, don't bother shopping anywhere. This is all about identifying your core customers and improving the chances of making a sale. There is nothing discriminatory in the presentation. The fact that Best Buy was "caught" doesn't mean almost all retailers do the same thing. As long as a group isn't being discriminated against, it's perfectly fine. Business 101.

I will now shove an icepick into my eye for defending BB.

The part of me that thinks I'm a unique snowflake hates this sort of crap, but honestly this isn't anything new nor surprising.

What I don't really understand about the whole thing though; when I go into a Best Buy (or any other electronics retailer) I go with a purpose, and I know exactly what I want. I'm not looking for a 'lifestyle'. I want X, and I know what it should cost.

Are there really people that just sort of wander into Best Buy that aren't sure why they are there - but are hoping to find a TV that defines them?

Just for fun : go on Best Buy website and APPLY for a job.

The questionnaire is moronic and insulting. We were ROFL reading questions. I would never want to work for a company who treats potential applicants like this ;)

@sleze69:

Hell, banks do this exact same thing, especially now that the focus of banks is to push their retail products. I worked for a bank up until a few years ago, and they had been doing exactly this for some time and were really getting big into it when I left.

Bad enough when they address the Monster Cable sales pitch to my spouse on the rare occasions we visit, when I'm the one who's wired the house systems (and buy from Monoprice, of course).

Grandmothers love technology, too, Best Buy idiots. Only thing you got right is that we also HAVE MONEY.

Not exactly... Buzz likes looking at things at best buy... he likes buying things from online.

What percentage of associates would "get it"?

Well Consumerist you're a few years behind here. Not only is this something Best Buy actively promoted publicly but they've been doing it a long time. They redesigned their stores a few years ago and publicly pointed out these personas they were trying to attract. Next you're going to point out internal Best Buy documents that tell us HD-DVD is dead.

If I could have just taken a tag to the register for the laptop I would not have needed help, I knew exactly what I wanted.

It was hilarious, though. The guy was trying to convince me I was certifiable for not purchasing their additional services. I've set up dozens of computers before and the stuff he was telling me was silly but I tried to humor him.

My nephew was so entertained by it, he nicknamed the laptop after the guy who sold it.

Also, when did it become wrong for a company to attempt to know it's best customers? There is such a thing as a bad customer, the one who only comes in on super sales to price match and such - they just arent profitable, and you cannot blame a business for attempting to make profit...

/rant.

Usually I side with the Consumerist on these things, but now you're just condemning capitalism...

Funny, isn't that what we want?

Remember when "bad" customers were ones that shopped anywhere else but your store?

So you don't make commissions but they will train you as such. Fucking Best Buy. Die already. DIE!!!

Funny thing about 'Ray' - he would never shop at BestBuy because their prices suck.

I can't imagine what they cast me as...I tend to be more unkempt than I should be. They probably have some secret list of customer profiles for people who should be followed around the store.

Poor Carrie--they think she's pretty shallow. "ME ME ME"

I like how all of their profiles pretty much say that the person is cheap. "does not want to pay full price"

This is basic sales education. For a store that doesn't have commission it's a bit unnecessary but it probably is good for Best Buy's bottom line. I can't fault them for this one.

Anyone who thinks they aren't sized up like this when they walk into a car dealership or high-end electronics retailer is fooling themselves.

They messed up Buzz's profile. He does not in fact like Best Buy. He uses Best Buy as an very last resort.
Buzz in fact likes Newegg.

Can we get this as a download in a simple package like the walmart powerpoint that circulated a few years back. (I'm just a little lazy today)

As long as everything is done without denying anybody any consumer rights, I don't see any problem with it, even if I doubt it is nearly as effective as marketing consultants think it is.

SirWired

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't most businesses do this? Isn't it an appropriate way to teach employees how to interact with different types of customers?

I mean, suppose you run a computer hardware store. You are going to pitch products differently to a techie than you will to a layman.

In a website design class we had cards like these (albiet less information). We had people like "Technical Tony" and "Stay-at-home Sara".

Shrewd pursuit indeed!

I think that is my new imaginary band name:

"Ray and the Shrewd Pursuit"

Nothing BB has in their arsenal suprises me, really.

Oh lordy.

"Best Buy CEO Brad Anderson told the Wall Street Journal in 2004 "that Best Buy will first try to turn its bad customers into profitable ones by inducing them to buy warranties or more profitable services.""

In the Words of Eric Cartman.... LAME.