The Nordstrom Way to Customer Experience Excellence, 3rd Edition

The Nordstrom Way to Customer Experience Excellence, 3rd Edition

by Robert Spector, breAnne O. Reeves
Released September 2017
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9781119375357

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Book description

The fully revised and updated edition of the classic book about Nordstrom's extraordinary customer service

In this new edition of the management classic, the authors explore in-depth the core values of the culture that have made Nordstrom synonymous with legendary customer service. These essential values have enabled Nordstrom to survive and adapt to dramatic market shifts regularly since 1901, and the new edition explains how the Nordstrom approach can be emulated by any organization—in any industry—in every corner of the world. This is not a book about selling shoes or clothes or cosmetics or jewelry. It is a book about how underlying values such as respect, trust, compensation and, even fun, are the building blocks of a culture where employees are empowered to consistently deliver a world-class experience to customers.

Nordstrom believes that the employee experience determines the customer experience, and that when you attract and reward people who are comfortable in a service-oriented culture, then everyone succeeds—both individually and collectively. No wonder Nordstrom is one of only five companies to make Fortune's "Best Companies to Work For" and "Most Admired" lists every year since those surveys have been taken.

With new interviews from senior Nordstrom executives and family members, the book explains how to successfully respond to today's tech-savvy, time-crunched customers who demand a convenient, seamless, painless, personal experience across all channels. Nordstrom gives its frontline people all the digital tools necessary to satisfy the customer—and your organization must do the same, if it wants to adapt.

The authors show what it takes to earn brand loyalty, lead through change and uncertainty, and combine extraordinary brick-and-mortar with online experiences.

'The single most important reason we try to provide great service is this: It enables us to sell more,' says co-president Blake Nordstrom, great-grandson of the founder. 'The best way for our company to achieve results is to do what's best for the customer.'

In this book, readers will find:

  • Suggestions for becoming the Nordstrom of your industry
  • The ten values that define a customer-driven culture
  • Lessons for providing superior service and experience across all channels

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Acknowledgments
  4. Foreword
  5. Introduction
    1. Introduction to the Third Edition
    2. The Customer Experience Conundrum
    3. Becoming the Nordstrom of Your Industry
    4. A Family Business, a Public Company
    5. What Makes Nordstrom Unique?
    6. Why a Third Edition?
    7. Values
    8. Research
    9. Notes to the Reader
  6. 1 Trust
    1. Trust Employees
    2. Trust from Customers
    3. Hiring
    4. Onboarding
    5. Reinforcing the Culture
    6. Find Your Own Way
    7. Empowerment
    8. Inverted Pyramid
    9. Trust Among Customers
    10. Return Policy
    11. Quality Center
    12. The Tire Story
  7. 2 Respect
    1. Respect for the Culture
    2. Respecting Colleagues
    3. Respecting Customers
    4. Beyond Sales
    5. Recognition
  8. 3 Loyalty
    1. A Career or a Launching Pad
    2. Diversity
    3. Leadership Model
    4. Best Places to Work
    5. A (Bob) Love Story
    6. Customer Loyalty/Sell a Relationship
    7. Customer Loyalty to a Salesperson
    8. Stories of Loyalty
    9. Vendor Loyalty
  9. 4 Awareness
    1. “Heads‐Up” Service
    2. Managers' Roles
    3. Making Memories
    4. Measure Both Feet
    5. Everyone Is in Customer Service
    6. The Diamond Story
  10. 5 Humility
    1. Don't Be Cocky
    2. Starting at the Bottom
    3. Servant Leadership and the Inverted Pyramid
    4. What Nordstrom Owes to Its Employees
    5. New Markets
    6. Humility
    7. The Honest Truth
    8. Accessibility
  11. 6 Communication and Collaboration
    1. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
    2. Shared Leadership
    3. Face‐to‐Face Communication
    4. Hearing and Listening
    5. Collaboration: Teamwork
    6. Social Media: Communicating with Customers
  12. 7 Competition and Compensation
    1. Commissions
    2. Top Performers
    3. Customer Service and Commission Selling
    4. Cross‐Selling
    5. Other Compensation
    6. Team Contests
    7. Teamwork
  13. 8 Innovation and Adaptation
    1. Customer Obsessed and Digitally Enabled
    2. A Legacy of Innovation and Adaptation
    3. Product Diversification
    4. What's Next?
    5. Role of Stores
    6. The Physical Store Is Digitized
    7. Channel Agnostic
    8. Convenience/Time
    9. Reserve & Try in Store
    10. Rack
    11. What Is the Value of a Values‐Driven Culture?
  14. 9 Give Back and Have Fun
    1. Store Openings
    2. Have Fun and Give Back
    3. Give Back
    4. Nordstrom Cares
  15. About RSi
  16. Index
  17. End User License Agreement

Product information

  • Title: The Nordstrom Way to Customer Experience Excellence, 3rd Edition
  • Author(s): Robert Spector, breAnne O. Reeves
  • Release date: September 2017
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9781119375357