For that matter, when was the last time you shopped at a Best Buy?
A couple of years ago, the company was brash and made headlines by categorizing its customers as angels or demons … and talking about it publically.
For example, from a Fortune article:
Best Buy concluded that companies are often oblivious to the fact that not all customers are profitable ones. Some are very lucrative to deal with, while others cost more to sell to than the business is worth.
They called the first group angel customers and the second demons.
By catering to the angels, companies can reward customers, employees and shareholders alike.
In short, here’s how it works: Figure out which customers make you the most money, segment them carefully, then realign your stores and empower employees to target those favored shoppers with products and services that will encourage them to spend more and come back often.
Sounds good.
Unless you’re slotted as a demon, in which case you get shunned as profitless instead of being cultivated for your potential.
Even at the time, critics argued that intentionally dissing a bunch of your customers was a bad idea for retailers. Someday, you may just need those demons to keep you afloat
Well, it seems that those days have come for Best Buy.
A recent Forbes article is titled: “Why Best Buy is going out of business gradually”.
In a nutshell, the author points out that a nimble Amazon is cleaning Best Buy’s clock, that killer electronic products are few and far between, and that having money tied up in brick & mortar isn’t where you want to be these days.
He forgot to mention the demons … maybe they’re getting their revenge.
Thanks to AY for feeding the lead
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