Best Buy invaded by clones
What happens when a Best Buy gets 50 customers who all “accidentally” show up dressed like Best Buy employees?
Street-theatre improv troupe Improv Everywhere has the answer to that.
I think it’s a brilliant stunt, as it showed just how quickly an organization can be exposed as unimaginative, short-sighted and humourless.
By contrast, a bunch of non-employees showing up at the Apple Store and being helpful to other shoppers is considered normal and welcome.
No matter what your business is, if you can’t take a joke, if you won’t welcome the improv-ers, clowns, pranksters, Daily Show interviewers and Michael Moores of the world in for a chat, you’re missing an opportunity to put a positive, human face on your company. Oh yeah, and don’t send a PR flack with prepared talking points. You go out and talk to them, listen, discuss and have a laugh…
In the movie The Corporation, we’re treated to a scene of Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, then-chairman of Royal Dutch Shell, receiving human rights protestors on the lawn of his house with warmth, empathy, compassion, and tea. He listened to them thoughtfully, consented to be filmed, and agreed to look into their concerns. He didn’t overreact, call the police, or do what most corporations would have done had this taken place at their offices. He put a human face on Shell - brilliantly. Shell may have a long way to go in such matters, but by stepping out from behind the walled compound, even for a few minutes, they showed imagination, farsightedness, and even a sense of fun.
so…is your business actually talking to its customers? Or are you putting up elaborate defenses to avoid doing so?
June 12, 2006 1:19 PM
Oh that was hilarious. :) It just so clearly goes to show how unhelpful such store employees can be. Myself, when shopping for necessities at Future Shop, I avoid ALL contact with any store employee as they tend to get in the way of shopping and are usually largely misinformed.
wrote zura on June 15, 2006 10:18 AM