Chapter 10
The Sale Is Never Over
Establish, Nurture, and Sustain Long-Term Relationships With Your Customers
When our customers have a “go-to” salesperson who’s in tune with their style and budget, they spend more. Customers appreciate having one person they can count on for all their wardrobe needs, because it saves them time and they leave our store happier with their purchases. And happy customers become repeat customers.
—The Nordstrom employee newsletter, Loop
Asked about the best advice he gives his shoe salespeople, Bruce Nordstrom replied: “I tell them to measure both feet.”
Measure both feet? In the literal sense, a knowledgeable shoe salesperson will measure both feet because she knows that a customer’s right foot might be a slightly different size than the left foot. So, by measuring both feet, she is showing the customer that she’s a professional, that she knows what she’s doing. Nordstrom people are trained to understand the nature and anatomy of the foot, in order to insure the best fit.
As we have previously mentioned, if a customer has more than a size-and-a-half difference between his or her right and left feet, Nordstrom splits sizes so that the customer doesn’t have to buy two full pair of shoes.
Just as important as the actual measurement is the salesperson’s taking the time to talk to the customer and to begin planting the seeds of a relationship by asking pertinent questions. What kind of business are you in? Are you on your feet all day? Do you need dress ...
