WEST JORDAN — David and Gail Williams are hoping to save a little money as they build their new home, so they want to do some things themselves.
But when the Riverton residents decided to put in a Pergo floor, they knew they would need help.
Mark Raddatz to the rescue.
Raddatz, a part-time employee of the Home Depot in West Jordan, teaches one of the store's free how-to clinics on Pergo installation. On a recent Saturday, the Williamses took their seats on the metal bleachers near the front of the store, just under a sign reading "The Home Depot Customer Clinic," and prepared to absorb Raddatz's presentation.
"We need to be sure we know how to do it," David Williams said. "We hope we can be able to tackle it ourselves."
Raddatz was confident the Williamses would walk out with the knowledge they needed to master the project.
"They make their mistakes here," Raddatz said, "so when they do their project (at home), it comes out right."
Home Depot started offering free how-to clinics in 1982, but it is not alone in offering customers a little education along with a product or service. Whether it is tax preparer H&R Block or Macey's grocery store, businesses are finding that they can build loyalty — and maybe sell a few more widgets — by offering classes.
"We've cultivated basically an entire generation of do-it-yourselfers," said Kathryn Gallagher, Home Depot spokeswoman.
"I think it's a positive experience for Home Depot and the customer. . . . The object of (the clinics) is to teach people that they can do it themselves. But if they decide to make a purchase with us, great."
Shirley Oike, who oversees the Little Theater program at six Macey's stores in Utah, said the free classes it offers focus on cooking. "It could be Oriental, it could be Brazilian," Oike said. "Dutch oven is our most popular. Anything that has to do with food and cooking, we do it."
Oike said the Macey's stores in Sandy, West Jordan, Tooele, Orem, Provo and Ogden have Little Theaters now, and the remodeled Logan store will open a Little Theater in September. The theaters seat up to 50 people, with classes for adults running Tuesday through Friday evenings and children's classes on Saturday.
Teachers include professional chefs, Utah State University Extension experts and people who just happen to be good at cooking certain items, Oike said.
"My classes here in the Sandy store are always jammed full . . .," she said. "When people first hear about it, the first thing they ask is, 'How much does it cost?' When you tell them it's a free service, . . . then they just start coming."
Oike said the "students" go home knowing how to prepare a new recipe. And Macey's benefits from increased sales.
"My job is to sell the store," she said. "A lot of times, if we have specials down on the floor, I try to make a display up in
the Little Theater and tell people about it. . . .
"After about an hour and 15 minutes of being up here, then the people take their recipes downstairs and off they go and hit the meat department or produce, whatever it might be, and do their shopping."
In addition to helping sales, she said, customers say they like meeting the bakers or meat cutters who work behind Macey's counters.
"I think people certainly appreciate it," Oike said. "If you can get them to be loyal to you, well, that's a bonus."
Macey's and Home Depot are among businesses to offer free classes, but some others have found success while charging for clinics.
H&R Block started offering classes in 1966 as training for its professional tax preparers, according to company spokeswoman Janine Smiley. Since then, it has broadened and opened up the classes, which vary in price and duration. For example, one 11-week course costs about $149.
Smiley said the classes still provide training for H&R Block's seasonal tax preparers in its 10,000 offices worldwide. But they also attract tax do-it-yourselfers.
"We have hundreds of people who come and take the course just to (improve) their knowledge of taxes in general," she said.
And the company does not see teaching people to do their own taxes as something that detracts from its business of preparing tax returns.
"We believe that people who are going to do taxes themselves will continue to do taxes themselves until maybe their situation has become more complex and they need a professional to step in," Smiley said. "We're taking more of a leadership role and more of a service role to offer this knowledge to everyone. . . .
"They'll probably come to us at a certain point in their life, anyway."
Patti Ward, manager of Robert's Arts & Crafts in Salt Lake City, said its classes cost anywhere from $5 to $30 and cover topics like scrapbooking, oil painting and tole painting. The classes, which run five nights a week, usually attract between five and 15 students.
"It does help sales on products, but I think it's more of a customer service," Ward said. "I think people . . . expect somebody to be able to tell them how to use a product that they're buying."
The situation is a little different for David Hamblin, vice president of education for Thanksgiving Point Institute in Lehi. Although the institute's restaurants and shops give it a retail feel, offering education is a "core element" of the not-for-profit entity's mission, he said. It tries to fill that niche by providing classes in everything from gardening and cooking to tire crafting and golf.
The classes range in price from $5 for a single-session workshop to $30 for a four-part horticulture series, he said.
"Definitely we want to generate as much traffic here as possible, but with the retail activities here at Thanksgiving Point, the goal is that the net proceeds go back into the educational mission of the institute," Hamblin said.
People are growing more and more interested in "lifelong learning," he said, and that may be why more businesses are offering classes.
"We are living in a day and age where people do tend to expect overlapping experiences," Hamblin said. "They don't go shopping for just one type of item any more. We're used to very generalized retail situations, and we have come to expect a lot of our retail experiences to be entertaining at the same time, and sometimes educational."
Gallagher said Home Depot's classes have provided an education to millions of customers who would not have imagined doing repair projects themselves in the past.
"Ten or 20 years ago, most people just weren't aware that they could do it themselves, and they didn't have this resource," she said.
As for entertainment, Raddatz said he tries to keep his classes fun, whether they focus on hardwood floors or ceramic tiles.
"I keep it informal enough and upbeat enough and casual enough that (customers will) feel comfortable asking questions," Raddatz said. "They've done the hard part by walking in the door. . . . The customers benefit because they get some kind of education, so they're not afraid to go and talk to somebody (about a project)."
Gail Williams said that, without the free Pergo class she and her husband were taking, they probably would have been afraid to attempt the project themselves and would have hired someone to do it.
"You can save on the cost if you do it yourself," she said. "If they offer a class, it encourages me to buy here."
And that, David Williams said, is why more businesses should — and probably will — jump into the customer education game.
"There are lot of do-it-yourselfers out there who want to know the tricks of the trade," he said.