Home Depot to close call centers, cut 950 jobs | Reuters

Home Depot to close call centers, cut 950 jobs | Reuters


Home Depot started to cut expenses to manage its earnings in a slowing revenue environment. While the expense management and cutting is a must in slower economic times, HD is cutting what it needs the most: customer service.

HD needs to boost its customer service efforts to fend off Lowes and maintain its market share. HD rationalized the move by shifting customer service point of contact to the local store. This is a good call, as you can attest that I do not want to talk to a call centre mile and miles away about a problem while the store I dealt with is just two blocks away. However, HD stores may lack the man power to handle this shift of service calls. HD over the last few years have cut labour hours at the store levels to streamline expenses. Lack of customer service may prove costly in this environment, where sales are hard to come by and any customer perceived weakness in retailer's effort to serve him could be the difference in losing the sale.