Are Your Employees Watching Enough Youtube?

How a Lowe’s Home Improvement employee’s actions were shocking.

When I was shopping at Lowe’s for flooring I was caught off guard seeing an employee sitting at his computer watching YouTube. My first reaction was to wonder if there was nothing else he could have been doing to make the consumer’s shopping experience easier. Once I got closer I noticed it was a home improvement video. Actually impressed that he was “studying” his craft while at work I asked if Lowe’s encouraged their employees to watch videos to boost their education during downtime. He replied, “No, that customer over there has a difficult problem and I am trying to find a way to help him.”

WOW. Most of us are thankful to get pointed in the right direction when lost at a home improvement store but this employee was searching the internet for a solution to a customer’s problems.

If a workplace doesn’t have an outright ban on social media use at work there is still likely a culture that is disapproving. Had I not come closer to the Lowe’s employee I would have been guilty of thinking he was simply entertaining himself.

Does your organization frown on social use when a customer service agent could be trying to find a way to help a customer?

Perhaps every sales associate or customer service agent in retail should have a list of their favorite videos on YouTube that answer the most frequent questions received. I’m not suggesting employees take the first result that appears in a YouTube search but rather the one that the sales associate, using their expert knowledge, feels best answers the problem for the consumer.

And as tempting as it may be, don’t send me back to your corporate site and tell me to search for my problem and find the video. Give me a direct link to the resource you recommend or show it to me on your phone right when I have the problem. That’s the type of service that bolsters a brand’s reputation.

The new economy that merges both physical showrooms and convenient eCommerce sites will need to offer value to the customer above and beyond what they are expecting. Is your company prepared to compete with employees of other stores willing to help using any means available? At least one Lowe’s employee seems to be doing just that.

Lowe’s employee was from the Arlington Heights, IL store. Great Work!

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