Question

At one time or another, almost every retailer claims that their first and only priority is to make the customer happy. Few, however, can duplicate what Nordstrom does. For the Seattle-based upscale retailer, “the customer is always right” is not just a promotional motto but a way of life that guides the organization. The entire company is directed towards one goal––catering to the needs of customers. Sales associates are given incredible freedom to do whatever is needed to make customers happy––refunding a purchase made years ago, personally delivering items to airports and hotels for busy customers, and even lending out jewelry for a customer who is attending a party. The importance of making a customer happy even extends into store inventory, as managers try to stock every conceivable size, color, and variant of an item so that customers will always find what they are looking for. And in the rare instance that they can’t, employees will call other Nordstrom stores, or even competitor stores, to track it down.

This emphasis on customer service has even spawned an urban legend. The story goes that many years ago, a man walked into a Nordstrom store in Alaska (or Seattle) with two snow tires. Nordstrom, of course, doesn’t sell tires (snow or otherwise); the man had bought them from a tire store that had recently closed, the site of which was taken over by Nordstrom. Nonetheless, the man took the tires to a counter, said that he was unhappy with them, and asked for a full refund. The sales associate, eager to please the customer, gave it to him.

As the HR team of Nordstrom, you face a particular challenge––you need to create a team that is not only skilled for the job, but also has the personality, attitude, and motivation to provide consistent, superior customer service. Form a group with three or four other students and discuss how you would approach staffing and training issues at Nordstrom by answering the following questions.

1. Can a friendly, customer-oriented attitude be developed in a person? Can Nordstrom “train” employees to prioritize making customers happy, or is it purely a matter of personality? Which training methods would you feel are most helpful? What would be there benefits?

2. What kind of selection tools from the ones you have learned would you use to find people who would fit Nordstrom’s culture of customer service? Why would they be beneficial?

3. What kind of training programs would help new employees learn what is expected of them at Nordstrom?

Answer 1

1) Training for the Employees to develop customer oriented attitude.

Plenty of organizations focus on product based approach which means to target selling only products to various customers. But with the change in the market trends, now many organizations have started using the customer focused approach which focuses on the needs of the customers and selling the product accordingly to them. Building such culture is the main target for any organization into their employees. Here are some of the approaches which a company can adopt for doing so:

a) Gather and share customer information - with the employees so that they are well aware of the needs of the customers and their specific demands

b) Customer service coaching - this should be the primary focus of the organization to train the employees on the customer based coaching as to make the employees attain an attitude which is customer friendly.

c) Customer retention - it is important to foster long term relationships with your old customer to build up on the rapport and the networking.

d) Social selling - involving the social media to sell products and marketing with the intent to provide more knowledge and culture to the customers will attract more bulk

e) Selling based on value - the important thing to note here is that customer are keen to know the value of a product that it will bring to their personal life rather than the price of it.

f) Maintaining a line - it is important to let the employees know how and when to draw a line while selling products and taking care of the customers at the same time.

g) Always learning - it is important to let the employees know that there is no specific time frame for them to learn and then stop learning, rather it is imperative to learn continuously with the change in the mindsets of the customers on a regular basis.

2) Recruiting people who fit Nordstorm's culture of customer service

the following ways can be adopted to hire people who can follow the culture of customer service:

a) Friendly attitude -- the candidate who have an outgoing and friendly attitude should be the best in this kind of approach

b) Communication - it is important to have fluent speakers to perform search work so that they can answer all the queries of the customers without hesitation and keep them happy and satisfied.

c) Asking questions - it is important to ask the candidate during the interview his thoughts about customer service. This will help in determining his philosophy.

d) Integrate core values - it is important to merge the core values of the company into the hiring process so that indirectly we end up hiring those who match the needs of the company.

e) Behavioral style assessments - with such tests included in the hiring process it will be easier to gather insights into the candidate who are fir for the job

3.

I think the best initial process to screen potential employees would be using man-made reasoning. In specific socioeconomics, I believe it's ideal to have a dominant part of a similar subculture. This will help and enable clients to shop uninhibitedly without feeling constrained or potentially judged. I additionally accept that because of Nordstrom's significant expense of product, that it is urgent to do a serious individual verification, as burglary is a significant risk at this sort of company. Ultimately, anybody can look incredible on paper, yet an up close and personal meeting is all the more recounting the worker. In this sense, I believe it's best for workers to experience different vis-à-vis meets so as to settle on the ideal decision to protect achievement.