• Los Angeles Times, Wednesday, November 11, 2009 10:32 AM

Columnist David Lazarus decided to put Best Buy's new marketing campaign -- "They'll be happy, you'll be happy, we'll be happy" -- to the test. He took to the field and chatted with customers in several outlets. He did not find an overabundance of happy campers, he reports. When he himself asked a clerk for some advice on a computer under $500, the response was: "I don't know. I guess they're about the same."

I'm guessing, along with Lazurus, that your experience has been about the same at most retailers, and that's the point of his piece. No matter what they say in their marketing, he feels, customer satisfaction is not really a priority: "Epic lines at the cash register. Salespeople who don't have a clue about what they're selling or are nowhere to be found when you have a question. Customer support that makes you feel like an uninvited dinner guest ... "

But Lazarus reports that he was quickly attended to when he stopped in front of a $10,000 home theater setup. And a friend reported undue attention when shopping for a power cord at a Best Buy near Sacramento, Calif. So there's hope, as there should be, because "it's not rocket science" to make customers happy, he says.

And the happier customers are, the less likely they are to be a grab-and-goer.

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