Last month, Carl Richardson was commuting an hour by subway to his job at the flagship Microsoft Store in New York City with a scarf around his face as a makeshift mask. At work, he sanitized his hands constantly and helped customers from a safe distance to help limit risk from spreading the COVID-19 virus. When the physical store shut down on March 16 — along with every other Microsoft Store location in the world — Richardson and nearly 2,000 other Store associates quickly pivoted to remote work. A few short weeks later, much of the Store team has shifted into serving customers remotely during an unsettling time. [caption id="attachment_436947" align="alignleft" width="500"]

Carl Richardson smiles and wears a headset and yellow Microsoft Store shirt while working on his couch next to his three small dogs

Carl Richardson works from home next to his dogs Diamond, Beauty and Benny.[/caption] “I've always been super passionate about learning stuff and helping people,” says Richardson, a consumer service adviser who loved the retail energy and customer interactions at the bustling flagship Store location. He’s now grateful to continue working at home, where he hosts live software trainings for thousands of people from the two-bedroom Brooklyn apartment he shares with his wife and three dogs. “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,” he says. (Microsoft announced a new chapter for Microsoft Store on June 26.)

The transition to work-from-home environments has been a logistical challenge for many businesses including Microsoft Store, which reaches more than 2 billion customers from 190 global locations via its physical locations and online store. The Store’s goal has always been to support customers wherever they are — families, small businesses, large enterprises — with product advice, customer support, trainings and community events.

With many organizations forced to work remotely during the outbreak, the need for virtual training and support has been greater than ever — a call eagerly answered by Store associates. Nearly 80% chose to work from home in a new Emergency Remote Operations model covering five areas: serving small and medium-sized businesses and education customers; training enterprise customers; selling Surface, Cloud and Microsoft 365; supporting customers of all types; and delivering virtual community workshops.

“Microsoft’s mission, which is at the forefront of why we operate Stores, is to empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more,” says Scott Pearson, enterprise business development manager for Microsoft Store. “The global disruption has led to a broader platform to live out that mission in the face of a crisis. We’ve got energetic, excited folks with expertise helping businesses and organizations work remotely and transform quickly.”

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