Crate and Barrel reviews

Our competition is kicking our butt in so many levels. The company is stubborn to effective change. Corporate changes things that don’t necessarily need to be changed. Like the structure of the leadership in the store. The change that needed to happen should be more technological vs people. We are lacking in systems that would make the selling process easier. The fact that we are still using the “green screen” is ridiculous in 2018. The company is stubborn to adapt to product change. Furniture is a huge part of the business and to ignore the fact that furniture and decor is moving in a modern direction, is hindering sales. “Design Studio” was released prematurely. Period. We were late to the party of design consultants. But what was rolled out was sub par and laughable to what our competitors are doing. Lastly, stop the Mystery Shoppers. If you aren’t going to move away from it completely, at least stop letting it have such a heavy weight on the stores. The staff feels like they are being spied on and it’s not a comfortable feeling no matter how the leadership tries to sugar coat it. Mystery shop your stores and take that information and keep it in HQ unless the shopper sees something so ridiculous it needs to come down to the store. If the investors want to see if people are using the iPads or other technology they put in place in the store then gather that research and move on. By the way, if you’re going to put iPads and such into the stores, please have the equivalent technology to back it up. Get someone from Apple into HQ to help understand that the old “swipes” you have attached to the iPads are so far behind it’s ridiculous. Take a trip to the local Apple store in Chicago and see how smooth and amazing their technology is.

Poor training of new associates, inadequate training for managers brought in from outside the company, managers promoted despite lack of preparedness for actual new position, accountability standards not consistent throughout the store, and often a lack of consequences for "certain" associates. The attention to high customer service standards that were a hallmark for Crate and Barrel has shifted to email and phone capture, procurement of credit cards, and heightened awareness of sales numbers for associates. All of the aforementioned have contributed to less than optimal associate morale and functioning as a team and a less customer centered experience.