Case Study: Best Buy achieves higher sales and improved customer satisfaction with Rosetta Stone

Best Buy - Customer Case Study

Best Buy HR manager Marjorie Santus faced a clear operational challenge: Spanish-speaking customers in her Dallas/Fort Worth stores were sometimes unable to complete purchases when associates couldn’t communicate, costing sales and harming the customer-centric strategy. With Latinos accounting for up to 30% of customers in the region, Santus needed rigorous, quantifiable evidence of the financial benefits of employee language training before committing limited resources during a slow economic recovery.

Santus evaluated a Rosetta Stone Spanish program, listing direct costs (one-time license fees, per-employee fees, lost training hours, and modest pay increases) and estimated benefits (a 3% reduction in turnover plus small but measurable increases in revenue per customer from upselling, satisfaction, and service). She built a 10-year cash-flow model to calculate IRR/NPV, identified the assumptions that drove returns, and concluded that—under conservative estimates—the training could deliver measurable financial benefits and be justified alongside other capital projects if the projected gains materialized.

Best Buy

Melissa Johnson

Senior Manager