Well, it’s that time again, Memorial Day weekend is here and I thought I would take another look at how Home Depot and Lowe’s are doing via Social Media/Twitter. Here’s the post from last year.

First, let’s compare how many are following each Twitter account:

Home Depot has 22, 350 followers and is following 21, 022.
Lowe’s has 7,355 followers and is following 3,700.

Home Depot now has a team of people helping with the social media work, so you can see how serious they are about social media. Another plus to me. I also like the fact that HD follows back most of the people that are following them. Lowe’s – not so much.

Second, Home Depot is still leading the way with interactions between customers, either positive or negative comments. I am very impressed with how they improving their in store experience and really listening to their customers. More about this later.

Lowe’s is doing an ok job, much better then last year, but they still need to improve. Many of their responses regarding negative comments are the same. Very robotish, which almost makes it sound like they really don’t care. “Doug, I’m sorry to hear about your store experience. We’d like to know more. You can reach us here: ”

Third, in store experience, I mentioned last year that if I have the choice, I usually go to Lowe’s over Home Depot. But I have tell you, the past two months, I’ve chosen to spend my money at Home Depot. Part of it is that they had some of the products I was looking for, but I have to say, both times I was there, I was greeted by employees and they were very helpful. I’m not taking anything away from Lowe’s because I still enjoy going to their store, but HD is impressing me with the improvements they are making. Keep it up Home Depot.

So, there you have it, how both Lowe’s and Home Depot are doing via social media one year later.

Final Grade, Home Depot A- and Lowe’s C+. Maybe I’ll do another review next year. Have a great Memorial Day Weekend.

Updated 2010 version, “A year later, another look at Home Depot and Lowes….”

Lowe's

The other day I was sitting back, thinking of things that I needed to do in order to get ready for Memorial Day weekend. Two places that I spend a lot of time throughout the year are Lowe’s & Home Depot. I enjoy spending my time at both places, but I have to say I enjoy spending my time more at Lowe’s then HD (Home Depot). Why? The customer service, product selection, staff & cleanliness here in Rochester is much better at Lowe’s. Maybe it’s different in other cities, but I find if I ever have a question, I can usually find a Lowe’s associate much faster and more helpful then I can at HD.  Sometimes there’s an exception, but for the most part I find this to be true. How are your in-store experiences with Lowe’s & HD?

I also notice that because I like my experiences more at Lowe’s I end up spending more there.  Just ask my wife. I like how clean Lowe’s is and how much easier it is to find products. Most of my neighbors and friends have the same opinion about the two stores. If I need something quickly I may end up going to HD, but more times then not I’ll end up going to Lowe’s.

Home Depot

Now if you visit both of their twitter accounts’ (@Lowes & @HomeDepot), I’m more impressed with what HD is doing with their twitter account then Lowe’s. HD’s customer service is much more impressive. HD has been using YouTube to show case projects that you can do around the house , eLearning videos & much more. I did notice that the Lowe’s account (1409 followers) seems to be newer and they’re trying to catch up to HD (with over 7K followers). HD is also much more interactive and responsive with others, posting back answers to questions and much more informative & interactive. I hope to see many new exciting things with Lowe’s in the future.

I will say Lowe’s and HD are providing great customer service in their own way. Kudos to both of the people running their accounts (Jesse @Lowes & Sarah @HomeDepot). They’re both doing a great job!

In closing, I have to say my online experience is changing my views of both companies. Will it change my shopping preferences, maybe? Time will tell. I’m very impressed by the quick responses I’ve gotten with Sarah @HomeDepot and I look forward to seeing some changes at the local HD store. As time goes on, I think Lowes will get better on Twitter and I’m looking forward to that.

What are your thoughts on these two companies using Twitter? I’d love to hear your comments!

Coming up, I’ll go more in depth on how HD impresses me with their social media presence in the next blog.

I hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend with your family and friends. I wanted to pass along my congrats to the Syracuse Men’s Lacrosse team for winning the NCAA tournament 2 years in row on Memorial Day! And to all of our troops – thank you!

If you enjoyed reading this post, check out the 2010 version “A year later, another look at Home Depot and Lowes….”