“Hi, welcome to Office Depot,” doesn’t lower it for Kevin Moffitt.
Every week, the workplace provide retail chain led by Moffitt tracks its “greet score”—the share of shoppers who say they have been welcomed on the entrance of the shop. Throughout that greeting, associates are additionally anticipated to ask pointed questions.
“It’s really intended to be a ‘What brought you in today? What are you looking for? What problems are you trying to solve?’” Moffitt tells me from Workplace Depot’s HQ in Boca Raton. The objective: “To try to get to know a customer as soon as they walk in the door.”
For Moffitt, who’s additionally president of OfficeMax and govt VP of mum or dad firm The ODP Company, making that connection is a approach to construct belief.
“It’s really thinking about the entirety of the customer experience and trying to create an environment where they feel like they are not only purchasing a product but solving a problem.”
In a digital world the place we spend a lot time observing a display, that’s extra essential than ever, reckons Moffitt, who’s been president since 2022 and leads some 12,500 associates. “There’s an overwhelming amount of choices available to just about anyone at any time,” he says. “And there is the lost artform—or it seems at times—of actually talking to another human being.”
Right here, Moffitt sees advantages for small-business clients, whom he describes because the core of Workplace Depot’s shopper base. In buyer satisfaction surveys, the three issues that at all times earn the very best marks are the corporate’s “helpful, friendly, and knowledgeable” associates, he says.
“Those words encapsulate exactly what we’re trying to do and our competitive differentiation in the marketplace, and I do think that comes down to trust,” provides Moffitt, who joined ODP in 2012 and was beforehand Workplace Depot’s chief retail officer and chief digital officer. “Having someone that you know and trust to do a job for you, particularly in the world of small business.”
Many small-business purchasers are regulars. “I’ve heard our customers say that, you know, ‘Susie in your copy and print center, I think of her as my marketing team,’” Moffitt explains. “At the core is this human-to-human opportunity for interaction that I think is really important.”
Workplace Depot balances its willingness to cease and chat with an acknowledgment that some folks want their ink, paper, and staples in a rush.
The corporate runs what Moffitt payments because the quickest retailer pickup program within the nation—with a assure. “If you don’t get an email from us in 20 minutes that your order is ready to pick up, we automatically send you a $20 coupon.”
Though it’d sound counterintuitive, Workplace Depot additionally enlisted synthetic intelligence to spice up human interplay.
ODP constructed an AI instrument connecting crew members with firm information that was historically saved on an intranet, and even in a binder someplace, he explains. All associates carry cell units with this digital assistant. If a buyer has a query like “How do I laminate this menu?” even a brand new affiliate can reply it, Moffitt says.
“It allows them to easily get access to that information and the processes or procedures involved so that they can take care of that customer right there in the store.”
For any retailer that wishes to construct belief, it begins with asking some fundamental questions, Moffitt suggests. “How would you want to be treated?” he says. “How would you treat one of your family members or friends? How would you want them treated if they were to walk into one of your locations or visit your website?”
ODP has a “5C” tradition that CEO Gerry Smith outlined early in his tenure, Moffitt notes. Its ideas: buyer, dedication, change, caring, and creativity. “My favorite C is customer,” Moffitt says. “If you start with the customer at the center and work your way from there, I think you’re going to have a whole lot better chance of creating that trust.”
Drawback solved.
Nick Rockel
nick.rockel@advisor.fortune.com
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Tough begin
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TRUST EXERCISE
“For decades, scientists have published peer-reviewed studies on hazardous chemicals in plastics and have called out for action, all to no avail. Now medical practitioners on the front line of this plastic crisis are sounding the alarm ahead of the final round of UN negotiations for a Global Plastics Treaty. The urgent message cannot be overlooked: Plastic is a threat to human health.
The lack of transparency around the plastics industry has led academics and campaigners to search for facts—and those facts are startling. Some 16,000 chemicals are used in plastic and yet only 6% are currently subject to international regulation. Of those 16,000 chemicals, many are endocrine disruptors, meaning our hormones and bodily functions are under constant attack when exposed. With a new chemical being produced every 1.4 minutes, our exposure is only set to rise.”
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