“Hello, welcome to Office Depot” just doesn’t cut it for Kevin Moffitt.
Every week, the office supply retail chain run by Moffitt tracks its “greeting score,” the percentage of customers who say they were greeted at the front of the store. In this greeting, the associates are also expected to ask pointed questions.
“What brought you today? What are you looking for? What problem are you trying to solve?’” Moffitt tells me from Office Depot’s headquarters in Boca Raton. Objective: “Try to meet a customer as soon as they enter the door”.
For Moffitt, he is also president of OfficeMax and executive VP of parent company The ODP Corporate, making that connection is a way to build trust.
“It’s really about thinking about the whole customer experience and trying to create an environment where they feel like they’re not just buying a product but they’re solving a problem.”
In a digital world where we spend so much time looking at screens, this is more crucial than ever, believes Moffitt, who is president from 2022 and leads some 12,500 members. “There’s an abundance of options available to anyone at any time,” he says. “And there is a lost art form, or so it seems at times, of actually talking to another human being.”
Here, Moffitt sees benefits for small business customers, who he describes as the core of Office Depot’s customer base. In customer satisfaction surveys, he says the three things that always get the highest marks are the company’s “helpful, friendly and knowledgeable.”
“Those words encapsulate what we’re trying to do and our competitive differentiation in the marketplace, and I think that comes from trust,” added Moffitt, who joined ODP in 2012 and was previously chief retail and digital officer at Office Depot. official “Someone you know and trust to do a job for you, especially in the small business world.”
Many small business customers are regulars. “I’ve heard our customers say, you know, ‘Susie in your copy and print center, I think she’s my marketing team,'” Moffitt explained. “The bottom line, I think, is this opportunity for human interaction that’s really important.”
Office Depot balances its willingness to stop and chat with the recognition that some people need their ink, paper and staples in a hurry.
The company bills Moffitt as the fastest store pick-up program in the country, with a guarantee. “If you don’t receive an email from us within 20 minutes that your order is ready for pickup, we’ll automatically send you a $20 coupon.”
As intuitive as it sounds, Office Depot also embraced artificial intelligence to boost human interaction.
He built an ODP AI tools connecting team members with company knowledge that was traditionally stored on an intranet, or even in a folder somewhere, he explained. All members carry mobile devices with this digital assistant. A customer asks “How do I laminate this menu?” if he has a question like Moffitt says a new associate can also answer that.
“They can easily access that information and the processes or procedures involved so they can take care of that customer right there in the store.”
Any retailer looking to build trust starts by asking some basic questions, suggests Moffitt. “How would you like to be treated?” he says “How would you treat a relative or a friend of yours? How would you handle it if they walked into one of your locations or visited your website?”
ANS a “5C” culture That was defined by CEO Gerry Smith early in his tenure, Moffitt noted. Its principles: customer, commitment, change, care and creativity. “My favorite C is the customer,” says Moffitt. “If you start at the center with the customer and work your way up from there, I think you’ll have a much better chance of building that trust.”
Problem solved.
Nick Rockel
nick.rockel@consultant.fortune.com
IN ANOTHER NEWS
Born with him
Warren Buffett had good reason to be confident he was going to get rich, he recently revealed in a letter to shareholders. “As I write this, I am continuing a streak that began when I was born as a white male in the United States in 1930.” The billionaire investor noted that his two sisters didn’t get the same rights as him until much later in life, Sasha Rogelberg. the reports. “My manhood being so favoured, I was very early sure of becoming rich.” Buffett has long seen that success is largely a matter of luck, prompting him to commit 99% of his fortune to charity. Talk about money well spent.
Rough start
If no one trusts AI, it’s Generation Z. About 60% of that generation believe that technology could replace their jobs in the next decade, a recent survey shows. In contrast, 6% of CEOs and executives believe AI is putting their roles at risk. Young workers probably feel more threatened because they have little power over how technology affects their companies, Chloe Berger he writes. They may also be nervous because they’re just starting out, and often do initial work that AI can repeat. Reasonable enough.
Social call
When it comes to keeping kids off social media, Australia doesn’t trust platforms to police themselves. The government has proposed new laws which could see Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X fined up to $32.5 million for failing to block children under 16. If they pass, Oz will have some of the toughest rules to protect young people from social media. A big question is how providers would enforce the strict age ban, and viewers question whether it is technically feasible. Surely those Big Tech brains can figure it out.
Empty calories
Apparently European grocery shoppers can’t trust their eyes. That’s it warning EU inspectors say consumers are at risk of being misled by confusing and sometimes misleading food labels. Although the EU requires manufacturers to list ingredients, allergens and other information on packaging, they are allowed to exaggerate potential benefits and downplay other features. Adding to the confusion, there are different pre-packaged nutrition labeling systems in play across the 27-country bloc. Time for a simpler recipe?
CONFIDENCE EXERCISE
“For decades, scientists have published peer-reviewed studies on the dangerous chemicals in plastics and called for action, to no avail. Now doctors on the front lines of this plastic crisis are sounding the alarm ahead of the latest round of UN negotiations on the Global Plastics Treaty. The urgent message cannot be ignored: plastic is a threat to human health.
The lack of transparency surrounding the plastics industry has led academics and campaigners to look for the facts, and those facts are shocking. About 16,000 chemicals are used in plastics and yet only 6% are currently subject to international regulations. Of these 16,000 chemicals, many are endocrine disruptors, meaning our hormones and bodily functions are under constant assault upon exposure. With a new chemical being produced every 1.4 minutes, our exposure will only increase.’
You’re drowning in it—a toxic soup created by the plastic industry that has betrayed the public’s trust. These chemicals cause cancer, infertility, heart disease and other ailments. notes Leonardo Trasande, director of the Division of Environmental Pediatrics at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine. Recycling—touted by the industry as a panacea—can make exposure even worse.
Trasand also points to the high social costs of plastic chemicals: 1.22% of America’s GDP, or $250 billion in annual health care costs.
He also warned companies and investors that they cannot escape corporate responsibilities for plastic-related pollution. By the end of the decade, that tab will surpass $20 billion in the US alone. In other words, laws—and lawsuits—come to benefit criminals.
With the final negotiations on the Global Plastics Pact running until December 1, Trasand wants to see a deal with the teeth. Keys to corporate responsibility and public risk reduction: mandatory testing of all chemicals, funding to expand natural alternatives, and capping production. The payoff? A future not made of poisonous plastic.
