Is your company planning being around for the long pull or are you simply trying to sell houses? If you expect to still be here when the market turns around – and stay here for a long time – here is a suggestion: Go on a sabbatical for six months and take a job selling suits at Nordstrom.

During your six months within the Nordstrom culture, you would have an opportunity to learn first-hand why this company has developed such a “legend” about its service orientation. What do Nordstrom employees do which differentiates this company not only from its competition but from most of the other companies in this country? More importantly, how has Nordstrom successfully connected its name with the concept of ‘Quality Service?’

After six months on the job, you will have begun to understand why the name Nordstrom is synonymous with ‘Customer Service.’ You will also know a lot about selling men’s suits. This skill may come in handy if you don’t quickly learn how to improve your company’s ‘service image’…

What’s that? You say you don’t have time to take a sabbatical? Well, you are in luck. Having just recently reviewed Nordstrom’s sales and management training programs, I am more than happy to share the three key techniques used by this retailer to sell more product:
 

1.       View every customer interaction as a STORY OPPORTUNITY. Have you heard the story about the Nordstrom employee who drove to Guatemala to return a shoelace dropped by a customer? Ken Blanchard, whose “Legendary Service” training program has itself become legendary, reminds us that these “service stories” communicate more about a company’s culture and values than any single act. These stories also leave a more lasting impression than any advertising or public relations effort.

 

How do you get customers to pass these stories around the dinner table? Train each of your employees that every customer interaction is a story opportunity, the first step in creating a legend about your company. Every customer should be considered to be a reporter for the local newspaper, who is ready to spread the good word about your firm.

These stories, repeated over and over, eventually become legends and serve to form the image of your company. Your employees have the power to create positive legends by serving their customer in an exemplarily fashion.
 

2.       Define service from the customer’s point of view. John Akers, IBM’s ex-president, once said, “I’m sick and tired of visiting our plants to be told all about our high quality – and then visit customers who tell me of their problems.” Akers is painfully aware that there is often a wide difference between management’s perception of exemplary performance and the customer’s viewpoint.

 

When evaluating the quality of your product and the performance of your staff, ask your customers! No one is in a better position to judge.

This means you need to continuously talk with your customers. Go to their homes, call them on the phone, send them surveys in the mail. And you can’t afford to wait for people to complain: if you are simply listening to your customer’s unsolicited comments, that isn’t enough. Be proactive: ask questions right after your buyers move in; talk to them again after they’ve lived in your home for 10 months. Ask and you shall receive.
 

3.       Exceed your customers’ expectations. If you are meeting your customers’ expectations, you are already ahead of the game. You’ll have satisfied customers who will recommend you to their friends. But you cannot create LEGENDS by simply meeting customers’ expectations. Legends are the result of an event which goes beyond the expected.

 

My firm was recently asked to design IBM’s new customers’ satisfaction survey. IBM insisted on the inclusion of a question which asked, “Has IBM service exceeded your expectations?” Not “met expectations,” but “exceeded.”
 

Nordstrom employees are taught about the importance of each customer interaction and of the importance of exceeding each customer’s expectations. Nordstrom management has also learned the importance of setting goals which are based on customers’ requirements, not management’s.

You can consciously influence the development of a set of legends about your firm by following the same three basic guidelines.