When it comes to customers’ expectations of businesses, the COVID-19 pandemic has, in so many ways, raised the bar. Corie Barry, who became CEO of Best Buy around the start of the pandemic, has steered the company through that rapid shift.
Technology became the go-to medium through which people worked and lived during lockdowns—from Zoom calls and virtual school lessons to online food shopping. That push forward is unlikely to ease up completely soon (or ever).
For employees at Best Buy’s tech retail stores, “it was actually breathing life into what they were there to do every single day,” Barry says. “But the second thing that has happened is, we have also changed how we think about what our employees are here to do. Because when people are stuck at home, they want to chat more, they want to get on the phone more.”
But, she adds, there are expectations that go hand-in-hand with those changes. “People have now had digital experiences across multiple industries,” Barry says. “And once I have a great digital experience, if it’s an airline, I’m going to expect that to translate into a retail experience. Being the best in your industry is not enough.”
Barry joins Fortune co-hosts Ellen McGirt and Alan Murray on a recent episode of Leadership Next, a podcast about the changing rules of business leadership. Listen to the full episode below.
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