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Appreciating The Customer
Five Easy Steps to Customer Satisfaction! by Mary Jane Mapes, CSP "Use your good judgment in all situations. There will be no additional rules." Those words can be found in the Nordstrom Employee handbook. And they are more than just words. They are words Nordstrom employees live by. And because of them, Hank couldn't have been happier. Hank lives in Indianapolis, and spent a weekend in Chicago. While there, he purchased a pair of shoes at Nordstrom Department Store. The following Monday morning, he put on his new shoes to go to work, and noticed that they felt a bit tighter than he remembered them feeling when he tried them on in the store. "Maybe my feet are a little swollen this morning," he thought. By mid-day, he had to sit down and take his shoes off because they were pinching his feet so badly he could barely walk. Looking inside one of his shoes, he noticed that the shoe size was a half size smaller than the shoes he thought he'd purchased. The Nordstrom salesperson in Chicago had packaged up the wrong size shoes, and Hank had never noticed it. That evening, he returned the shoes to the Indianapolis Nordstrom store. Approaching the shoe salesperson, Hank said, "I've got a problem with these shoes," to which the Nordstrom salesperson replied, "Well, then I have an opportunity to provide a solution. Tell me your problem." After hearing Hank's problem, the salesperson apologized for the inconvenience, and with no questions asked, gave him another pair of shoes in the proper size, refunded him $10 because they were $10 cheaper in Indianapolis than in Chicago, and even refunded him the difference between the sales tax paid in Chicago and the sales tax in Indianapolis. The last thing he did was thank Hank for returning the shoes and allowing him to correct the mistake. Hank walked out of the store with a smile on his face, a new pair of shoes under his arm, and $10 plus more money in his pocket. But then, that IS the Nordstrom Way. Whether or not that's the way your organization does business, a lot can be learned from this example about how to handle a customer who has a problem with your product or service. Five Steps to Super Service Let's take a closer look at the way the situation was handled by the salesperson.
Appreciation in the form of expressed gratitude costs nothing, yet is priceless to the receiver. As Cicero said, "Gratitude is not only the greatest virtue but the mother of all the rest." In Summary Many times the customer in need of a solution is initially more expectant than difficult. It's only after they are met with distrust, a barrage of unexpected questions, and a skeptical attitude on the part of the service provider, that they become difficult. Handle the situation correctly up front, and you can often avoid an unpleasant scene down the road. As the Nordstrom Employee Handbook states, "Use your good judgment in all situations. There will be no additional rules." © 2000-2007 Mary Jane Mapes,CSP All rights reserved. Mary Jane Mapes speaks at conventions and for corporations on winning customers for life, dealing with difficult customers, and developing effective leaders. life, have helped to light the path and show the way to healthy, happy living. END | |||||||||
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