Nordstrom department stores are often hailed as the pinnacle of retail customer service with, as their own website promises, a “commitment to an extraordinary shopping experience.” I think it’s primarily because the employees are empowered to make decisions without having to run to the backroom to “ask my manager†– in that time, at that critical moment, a dissatisfied customer might even leave the store and never come back.
These “moments of truth” often critically shape a customer’s
perception of the company. I touched upon this in a previous blog regarding perceived quality being realized at the moment of truth, when the service provider and the service customer confront one another at retail. Bottom line, if employees are not empowered to perform to or above certain standards of service the opportunity in that moment of truth is lost.
By the way, while conducting a national research study for an apparel brand, we actually had a focus group respondent say, “Nordstrom? Yeah, they’ll let you return anything. They’ll take a dead chicken back!” That’s some pretty strong word-of-mouth, to say the least….
Posted by: Colin Mangham