Friedman’s Home Improvement Streamlines Drive-Through Pick-Up Process

Friedman’s Home Improvement recently implemented changes to its drive-through pick-up process to simplify and secure the customer experience. 

Friedman’s drive-through pick-up process allows customers to search for products online and order over the phone or in-store for pick up at a designated parking stall in the store’s lumber yard. Once they arrive at the store, customers call the number on a sign posted by the stalls and an employee brings their product out to them. Friedman’s is set to launch online ordering mid-year. 

Recently, Friedman’s has streamlined the process to increase efficiency and security, says Troy Garcia, Friedman’s Sonoma store manager. Instead of customers coming in any entrance of the store to pick up their order, there is one designated spot for pick-ups. 

“We’ve done a lot of streamlining because in the past, [the process] was all over the place. A customer would come into the building. A customer would come in through our nursery. A customer would come in through our contractor sales desk,” Garcia says. “Now, customers go to one location, the customer calls and we try to get them in and out of here within minutes.”

Customers are also now required to show their ID to pick up items, ensuring Friedman’s doesn’t encounter fraudulent purchases and protecting customers from someone else using their account, Garcia says. 

To ensure the process ran as smoothly as possible once it reached customers, Friedman’s invested in extensive employee training for the new operation.

“We did a lot of training to prepare our teams,” says Nicolette Roberts, Friedman’s Home Improvement senior project manager. “Before these processes go customer-facing, they’ve been with our teams and in training with our teams for months ahead of time. We’re always certainly thinking about our processes through the eyes of the customer and what’s best for them, but we solicit the feedback from our teams doing the work.”

Through clear communication with customers, primarily through social media, the company’s website and new store signage, Friedman’s has received positive customer feedback about the new policy changes to the pick-up process. 

“Customers have been ecstatic to see that we do have an option for them to come in and do an order. They can call in and have a process that simplifies things for them, is easier and saves them time,” Garcia says. “There has been some really good feedback on the ID process.”