With its first OfficeMax Business Solutions Center unveiled in Milwaukee on March 29, the office supplies company is focused on providing small business owners a new experience framed by store associates trained to offer heightened customer engagement.
While the new OfficeMax Business Solutions Center offers 5,000-11,000-square-feet of merchandise space -- less than half the size of a regular-sized OfficeMax – Kristin Muntean, OfficeMax's Vice President of Strategic Initiatives and Innovation, told Loyalty 360 that the Business Solutions Center is “more about how to best service small business customers.”
“The advantage to these stores is we have a focused integrated solutions area where store associates can assist customers with products and services,” Muntean said. “We believe that engagement is incredibly important for our business customers so they can grow their businesses.”
The Milwaukee OfficeMax Business Solutions Center comprises an open layout, communal spaces, Wi-Fi and Apple-inspired tables filled with laptops and tablets. The store also has a kiosk where customers are presented with 4,800 office furniture options -- whereby they can create specific rooms and view the results in 3D.
Five service pillars in the store focus on IT, Web, Marketing and Promotion, Printed Documents, and Furniture and Space planning. These pillars are complemented by OfficeMax’s top-selling SKUs and an “Endless Aisle” kiosk – the latter allows customers to order an item online for delivery if it’s not available in the store.
Muntean said the second OfficeMax Business Solutions Center is set to open in Portland, Oregon on April 11. She said the idea for an OfficeMax Business Solutions Center smaller store format was conceived less than a year ago and involved many discussions with small business customers to better understand their needs.
“In particular, we spoke with smaller and more entrepreneurial business owners who need many different kinds of solutions to grow their businesses,” Muntean said. “That was the impetus for us to explore this.”
In-store associates are trained to become experts – with tablets in hand – so they can help business customers address any problem.
“It’s really a new store concept that’s more about how to best service our business customers and not about size,” Muntean said, referring to the smaller-store format. “Our main goal is to provide a differentiated and optimized solution for our business customers. We think it’s a big opportunity for our business customers to go locally to have all of their business needs addressed.”
Based on feedback received, Muntean said three main priorities for small business customers include growing their companies, keeping up with technology, and keeping their offices organized either in a traditional fashion (filing systems) or through advanced technological, cloud-based systems.
“Our store associates engage with customers, gauge their needs, and recommend solutions to provide real value,” Muntean said.
At a VIP event on March 29 in Milwaukee, Muntean said local business leaders and government officials attended the grand opening of the OfficeMax Business Solutions Center.
“The reaction was extremely positive,” she said. “Customers found the actual store design more contemporary and much more technologically advanced. They enjoyed having their own personal business solutions adviser help them. We’re really pleased it’s come this far. We’re very proud to help businesses because they are really the lifeblood of our economy.”
Muntean said OfficeMax is currently evaluating additional sites to locate OfficeMax Business Solutions Centers.