Microsoft Store associates working from home.

In the last month, retail employees have virtually trained 65,000 people in government, health care, education and finance on using Microsoft Teams. Demand for the program, called Customer Success Trainings, has surged among customers wanting to transform their remote work environments with the collaboration tool, including medical center Cleveland Clinic, accounting firm Ernst & Young and transportation and logistics company CN (Canadian National Railway).

“As an essential service that keeps the economy moving, CN delivers vital goods to those who need them most. Many of our functions are mission-critical, and decisions need to be made quickly to keep operations fluid and trains rolling,” says Doug MacDonald, CN senior vice president of information and technology.

“When the pandemic hit, the decision to deploy Teams was an easy one. We needed the right collaborative platform that would provide a seamless transition and maintain business continuity in a remote environment. Teams ensures that we can stay connected, remain productive and continue to deliver for the North American economy.” The Montreal-headquartered company was able to set up the tool for more than 3,000 employees in about the span of a week with training by Microsoft Store team members.

Store associates have also helped school districts teach remotely with Microsoft 365 and are rolling out virtual coding workshops for kids. Many associates can deeply relate to customers adapting to new environments, having traded gleaming storefronts for workstations now squeezed around home, spouses, kids and pets.

We’re all in this troubling time together, and even though I’m working remotely, I’m still on a mission to develop my skills and train people on how they can use technology to do more.

“Our teams are customer-obsessed,” says Jennifer Luke, senior director of operations, communications and training for Microsoft Store. “It doesn’t matter if the customer is standing in front of you, on the other side of a Teams meeting or chat, or on the other side of a phone line. Our teams are passionate about creating solutions that empower customers to do more.”

Even though Microsoft Store has been serving a variety of customers for years, shifting its large retail staff to remote work was no easy task. It involved setting up new priorities and workflows, assigning employees to activities based on skillset and providing compressed “boot camp” trainings for new skills. Microsoft is continuing to provide regular pay for retail team members, regardless of number of hours worked, with remote workers earning a weekly bonus.

Samantha Janiec wears a green Microsoft Store shirt and smiles in front of her laptop while working from home
Samantha Janiec, an assistant Store manager, works from home in New Jersey.

For assistant Store manager Samantha Janiec, who oversees interactions with enterprise customers at the Flagship Store in New York, working in her dining room is a point of pride.

“Even when we can’t physically see our customers, it makes me really proud to work at Microsoft and know that regardless of the situation, we’re still able to provide the same impact and empower as many customers as we can,” she says.

That impact often has long-lasting ripples. Last year, a few teachers at Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, New York, became certified Teams trainers at the Flagship Store, enabling them to train fellow teachers when COVID-19 closed their school. That helped the large public school quickly set up virtual classrooms, student communications and secure video meetings in Teams.

“Our teachers were prepared to run their own workshops for other teachers, so we were ahead of the curve when the outbreak happened,” says Corissa Fontana, an assistant principal at Abraham Lincoln. Store team members are now training other schools across New York City on using software like Teams, Flipgrid and OneNote to help students learn remotely and stay connected.

Ethaniel Sinclair wears a yellow Microsoft Store shirt while smiling, giving a thumbs up sign and working from home
Microsoft Store manager Ethaniel Sinclair works from home in Alexandria, Virginia.

Store associates include Ethaniel Sinclair, manager of the Microsoft Store in Arlington, Virginia, who feels the importance of serving customers during a difficult time from the confines of his living room desk. Having built a 16-year career in retail, Sinclair normally thrives on in-person interactions and reading facial expressions and body language. He says managing his 21-person team remotely is out of his comfort zone and that he’s learning how to pick up conversational nuances in chat and email.

“I’m uncomfortable with it, but I like being uncomfortable because it means I’m learning something new,” he says. He figures he and his team will be stronger with new skills and closer-knit through video meetings that reveal homes, families and pets, and often segue into happy hour on Fridays.

“We’re all learning on the fly, and we’re very open to feedback,” Sinclair says. “And right now, the world is on pause, and we have a chance to positively impact the world on a larger scale with the work we’re doing.”