Camera Experience Shop

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Client: Best Buy

Role: Creative Direction, CX Strategy

Program: Camera Experience Shop

Tags: Reinventing Retail, Brand Strategy

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We took this game-changing in-store experience from its pilot in 6 Chicagoland stores, to a few dozen stores regionally, to being a nation-wide experience that continues to grow in featured markets. 

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When investing in a new DSLR camera, you've got to test it. Really test it. The experience of walking into a brick and mortar retail store and poking around on a camera tethered you a counter would simply not do. You could maybe take a picture of your feet under fluorescent lighting. If you were lucky.

 

Not only is that a bad customer experience, but it's a missed opportunity to sell cameras. Consumers, employees, manufacturers, and Best Buy were all missing out. Our solution was to untether the cameras, train interested employees an added thing or two about photography, build and create interactive 3D displays that allowed the cameras to sell themselves. An added component of the Camera Experience Shop is that we even invited the public to register for exclusive events and workshops in stores for workshops and one-on-one sessions with professional photographers and experts from Canon, Nikon, and other camera brands.

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This had astronomical effects on the in-store experience and, importantly, the employee experience as well. The focused in-store experience allowed employees to show off their photography skills and really feel like they were helping individuals. Sales conversations went from basic product knowledge to dynamic conversations about which camera is actually better at capturing what they wanted to document whether it be low-light settings like their child blowing out their first birthday candles, to capturing their grandchild crossing their first finish line with a perfected rule-of-thirds and no blur. 

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This was such a rewarding program to work on and the continued success and growth over the years speaks volumes to where the future of customer experience and service design are headed—and it's going to be fun, educational, and meaningful for everyone involved.