We were raised selling shoes, which is a humble occupation. You're down on your hands and knees, waiting on customers, which I find an appropriate position for our level of service.

—Bruce Nordstrom

Humility is a modest view of one's own importance.

Despite their success, the Nordstroms have never had an inflated opinion of themselves. Through four generations they continue to project a public image of disarming, small‐town modesty that might strike the casual observer as disingenuous. They say that there is nothing special or magical or difficult about what they do and that the system is embarrassingly simple. “We outservice, not outsmart,” is a typical Nordstromism.

“Our success is simply a matter of service, selection, fair pricing, hard work, and plain luck,” said Elmer. “As the owners, we felt that we should work harder than anyone else. If we didn't, our lackadaisical attitude would spread to the next level, and the next level on down until everyone was taking it easy.”

In 1968, Elmer's son John N. told the New York Times, “We don't know anything the other guys don't know, and we don't have any secrets. All publicity does is give us a swelled head, and we can always do better. The salespeople are the real stars.”

John N.'s brother Jim once conceded to the trade publication Footwear News that, “Many people think that we Nordstroms are secretive, because we don't talk much about ourselves. The truth is, we can't afford to boast. If we did, we might start to believe our own stories, get big heads, and stop trying.”

The Nordstrom family views service as a personification of selflessness and humility. Noting that the company's roots are in the shoe business, Bruce has said that “kneeling in front of the customer is a literal and symbolic way of how we view our business because it says more than one thing. First, it obviously speaks to worshipping the customer and appreciating that that's where our living comes from. We wouldn't be here without the customer. Second, the shoe business is the dirtiest, hardest, most difficult part of the soft‐goods business because you have to handle the inventory so much. In every other form of soft‐goods retailing, most of the inventory is out on the floor, but in the case of footwear, you have to go get it in the backroom. You have to decipher what the customer has in her head. And then you have the size element; the foot is the most difficult part of the anatomy to fit. You've got to have the right size; you've got to have what they want and when they want it. So, there you are trying to do these things—humble, sweating, on your knees.”

After more than three decades of interacting with members of three generations of the Nordstrom family, we are happy to report that this is no act. The Nordstroms are self‐effacing people. But don't ever mistake humility for a lack of competitiveness and a powerful will to win. This was demonstrated in another endeavor: their majority ownership of the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League from the team's inception in 1975 to when they sold the team in 1988.

Their participation in securing the franchise, “was a civic venture,” said Mike McCormack, a member of the Professional Football Hall of Fame, who once served the Nordstroms as director of football operations for the Seahawks. “The local Seattle group needed a major player, so the Nordstrom family stepped up. They made a family decision for the good of the area.”

The price tag was $16 million, which seems comically low by today's financial standards. The NFL insisted that one person had to be the majority owner, but none of the other Seattle investors had the required $8 million‐plus. Lloyd Nordstrom convinced the NFL, particularly his friend, commissioner Pete Rozelle, to designate the Nordstrom family as the owner of 51 percent of the team. That was the first time a family, not an individual, was majority owner. It was a show of faith that the family would make unified decisions.

It was a good decision for the Nordstroms. “Lloyd was aware of the fact that if the league did well, it would bring Seattle along with it,” Rozelle told us back in 1995. And it was a good decision for the NFL. “As a family, they were always on the same page. You are always going to have trouble with a club somewhere along the line on some issues, but we never had one single bit of a problem with the Nordstroms.”

In more ways than one, the Nordstroms were unique owners in the NFL, seeking a degree of anonymity that is unheard of in a business where owners often battle their players for a share of the limelight. In fact, they didn't even want to have their names and pictures printed in the Seahawks media guide. John N. was the family member most involved with the team, and when it was later acquired from another owner by Paul Allen, cofounder of Microsoft, John N. joined the team's advisory board.

“Aside from football, Mr. John gave me the opportunity to learn the business of retail, and I've never forgotten that. He was looking out for me,” said Sherman Smith, a former Seahawk running back and coach, in John N.'s book, entitled Mr. John. “He said, ‘Let's talk about what you're going to do after you're done playing football.’ He was always such a regular guy with us, and that's what I liked most about him.”

Don't Be Cocky

When you discuss customer service with members of the Nordstrom family, they frequently use the word humble, which is not often heard in corporate offices and boardrooms. They believe that a commitment to service requires employees to put themselves in the shoes of the customer.

“If you are really looking to the customer, if you're really sensitive to the customer, and sensitive to the people on the front line, you are aware of your shortcomings,” said Erik. “That keeps us focused on the things that are necessary in order to give [great] customer service.”

His brother Blake added, “It's not about us.” He described his role and that of his family members as “stewards of the business and the culture. We are here to help everyone achieve his or her goals. Companies that have a strong culture have an asset—a point of difference. We try to create an atmosphere where people feel valued, trusted, respected, and empowered, where they have a proprietary feeling and an entrepreneurial spirit. The magic occurs when all these things come together.”

Erik said, “We like to tell stories around here. Not a day goes by when the three of us don't communicate with customers.”

A retired company executive noted, “There's something magical about how the Nordstroms feel toward the customer that just connects with employees. The passion of the Nordstrom family for this business is hard to replicate. It's so powerful when they come around to talk to our people and remind them that our company is only as good as they are today and every day.” That executive cited how meaningful it is for frontline people to have a Nordstrom family member visit their store and ask them what they need to do their job better. “The people on the sales floor think: If these Nordstroms are fighting it out, I'm going to fight it out, too.”

What's fascinating is that Nordstrom does not boast about its service to the outside world. The company never runs advertisements crowing about its customer service, nor does it ever send out press releases blowing its own horn about the company's customer service. Top company executives rarely comment on customer service to the press. Nordstrom does not brag about its customer service because it knows it can always get better. In fact, the company goal every year is to improve its customer service. Yes, even Nordstrom believes there is always room to get better.

“Fortunately, there is no secret formula,” said Blake. “Otherwise, many of our competitors would have discovered and adopted it.”

As one Nordstrom executive once told us: “It's not that we're so good, it's that everyone else is so bad, and we look better by comparison. The moment we get cocky is the moment that we hand a shoe box to the customer with two left shoes. Our reputation is only as good as our last customer experience.”

Adrienne Hixon, a store manager, said, “It's a daily thing. We can take two steps forward with one customer and then go 20 steps backward with the next phone call. I'm humbled every day through customer feedback.”

Nevertheless, Nordstrom's reputation for customer service has spread throughout the world. We have given keynote speeches and workshops about the company in a couple of dozen countries in every part of the world. Even people in London, Mumbai, and Sydney who have never set foot in a Nordstrom store, are aware that Nordstrom is known for its service.

If Nordstrom doesn't advertise or boast about its service culture, how has the reputation spread? The answer is simple: word‐of‐mouth, which is the most powerful advertising of all.

“If we sell you well, tell others. If not, tell us,” read a sign on the first Nordstrom store a century ago. Though the forms of “telling others” have changed, the dedication to service remains the same.

Today's customers are smarter and are armed with more knowledge that at any time in the history of commerce. Consequently, smart companies must be smarter and more knowledgeable.

“Hopefully, we have the humility to understand that our customers are better informed than ever because they have access to great product information right on their own mobile device,” said chief innovation officer Geevy Thomas. “We have to be sponges. We have to be present with our customers, attentive and empathetic to their needs in the moment. We need to anticipate their needs and fulfill them before they ask.”

Starting at the Bottom

Virtually all employees—including people whose last name is Nordstrom—begin their careers on the selling floor, before they rise up through the ranks to become managers. The founder's three sons all began working in the store by the time each of them reached the age of 12, establishing a Nordstrom family tradition that continues to the fourth generation, each member of which worked in the store through high school and college. At various times, all the Nordstrom family members have been buyers, merchandisers, department managers, store managers, and regional managers.

“Our family was well served by not having succession determined by votes of stock or battles within the family,” said Erik. “The stockroom was open to anyone who wanted to grab a shoehorn. Most of my generation did to some degree. It was nice for us to have that latitude to explore what we wanted to do. My brothers and my cousin Jamie and I ended up liking it and sticking with it all these years. Our cousins chose to do other things. It was all very natural. There's not a lot of drama in my family.”

Erik felt it was a natural progression for him and his brothers to start working in stock and then move on “to co‐third assistant in women's shoes, then to a second assistant,” and so on, long before ever taking on any management responsibilities. “We were all well served by that. In our culture, you learn by doing it.”

His older brother Pete said, “I can't imagine doing my job, or any job I've ever had in this company, without being grounded in how it all plays out at the point of sale. For example, I would be of no help to a salesperson who has a question about returning a suit if I hadn't done that exact same thing a few times myself.”

Starting on the sales floor sends the signal from management that it values that role more than almost anything. All up and down the organization, people appreciate the importance of this function and what it means for everything else in the organization.

“No matter who you are reporting to, at one point, they did what you're doing,” said regional manager Greg Holland. “I've sold, I've been a buyer, a store manager, a regional manager. I can look anybody in the eye and say, “I relate to you and what you're doing. I understand. I've been there.'”

Clear evidence of this culture of upward mobility is that only a small handful of corporate officers (in specialized roles) came from outside the company; all of the others rose from the stockroom and the selling floor.

Nordstrom employees universally appreciate the promote‐from‐within policy because it creates a culture where every manager and every buyer has gone through the same experiences as the people he or she is managing. No one manages until he or she has “walked in the shoes” of those being managed.

You start at the bottom and do it the Nordstrom Way, and those standards are nonnegotiable.

Servant Leadership and the Inverted Pyramid

Nordstrom's Inverted Pyramid (see figure 5.1), which we talked about in Chapter 1, is not merely a symbol; it is the way that Nordstrom runs its business.

“When business gets tough, invariably that Pyramid starts to tip,” says Blake. “The minute a manager starts walking around thinking, ‘I’m the boss and I have all the answers,' it doesn't work. If the culture is strong enough, it bitterly rejects that.”

To Adrienne Hixon, a store manager, “Anyone who is promoted understands that you're moving down the Pyramid, not up. You are taking on more responsibility to support the people above you. What has worked at Nordstrom is having a living, breathing understanding of servant leadership, making sure that everyone on the team knows what servant leadership is. You're not going to ask other people to do something that you're not willing to do yourself. That is a core value that's worked over the past century‐plus.”

Leaders in workplaces where there is a high level of trust are comfortable asking for help from colleagues, which increases their trust and cooperation. “Asking for help is effective because it taps into the natural human impulse to cooperate with others,” writes professor Paul Zak.

For manager Callie Hutton, it's having an awareness that it takes a team working together to achieve their goals. “If you are taking all the accolades for yourself, it shows through and your team doesn't want to work for you. Every day I thank people for what they did yesterday, and I am telling them what I expect from them today. To get people to want to work for you, you show that you care for them as a person who helped you get to where you are today.”

What Nordstrom Owes to Its Employees

“Employees are taking their character, reputation, and integrity—and deciding to associate with us,” said Blake. “Can they go home at the end of the day and be proud of the company they work for and the people they work with? Are we providing them with an environment that trusts, values, hears, and respects them?

“When you come in the door and you've heard good things about Nordstrom, you find out that we're human, we make mistakes. We are trying to create a culture and an environment that allows an individual to make a difference. If you feel you're just a number punching a clock, it will not work. We need 72,000 people to feel that this is their deal. We've got to listen to them talk about how we're going to improve every day. If we can do that, we're excited about what's possible.”

Nordstrom doesn't give out figures on its annual employee turnover, but the company will say that although its turnover rate is lower than other retailers, it can always improve.

“We have lots of opportunities,” said Blake. “We work hard to attract somebody to be on our team. We want to do a good job of listening, and to give them the tools to be able to reach and exceed their goals. If someone stays two years with us, they tend to stick. After two years, our turnover goes down considerably. The majority of leaders began their careers on the sales floor. More than 26,000 employees have been with Nordstrom from 2 to 11 years.”

It's not uncommon for people who started on the sales floor or in the stockroom to stay with the company for 20 years or more, taking on new assignments as they grow.

The Rack offers a first‐time employment opportunity and a developing ground in which department managers, store managers, and people in other key positions can grow as leaders. One general merchandise manager said, “The number one thing I learned at the Rack is that the best ideas come from the floor. That's something I practice to this day as I get out in the stores and listen to our people. It makes a big difference in your business. The Rack experience reminds you of the importance of the team, and the importance of each player being the best at their position. You must surround yourself with the best people, articulate the expectations, and then let them soar.”

New Markets

Because Nordstrom considers its culture the key element separating it from the competition, when the company expands to other regions, it relies on experienced Nordies to bring the culture with them and to teach and inspire new employees to provide customer service the Nordstrom Way. They are motivated by opportunities to move ahead in the company and to have the experience of being involved in building something from the ground up.

When Nordstrom expanded into Canada in 2014, the company treaded softly and humbly in order to make the best impression. When another major retailer, Target, entered Canada, it took a we‐know‐best approach and the results were disastrous. Target eventually retreated from Canada and was forced to take a write‐off of $1 billion. Nordstrom adopted the opposite attitude.

“We don't assume anything,” said Karen McKibbin, then president of Nordstrom Canada. “Earning our customers' trust isn't something we take lightly, and we're going to work hard to compete and give customers a reason to choose us. . . . We are going to stub our toe. We are not going to get everything perfect.”

Instead of opening four stores within short succession, Nordstrom spaced out the openings so the company could learn from its mistakes and make “the adjustments, things that customers are telling us they want, and then apply that to our next store,” said McKibbin. They made sure that they did it right because you only get one shot.

Because expanding to Canada with six new stores over a three‐year period was the biggest challenge to the culture, Nordstrom changed the way it trained people. Although Nordstrom historically promotes from within, it was unable to do that in Canada because it wanted the stores to be filled with Canadian employees. For the first time in company history, Nordstrom hired people that had never been in the stores nor were familiar with the Nordstrom Way. They hired dozens of Canadian managers, who were brought to Seattle for three months to be assistant managers in each of their respective departments in the company's Bellevue store. They eventually went back to their markets, hired their crews, and brought the culture with them.

Humility

No employee at Nordstrom is above doing a little housekeeping. That includes people named Nordstrom.

A woman who had worked at Nordstrom in the 1980s told Robert Spector a story about Bruce Nordstrom walking through her department one day. Bruce spotted a can of pop on the counter. He picked up the can, deposited it in a wastebasket, and continued on his way. He didn't ask who was responsible for the can being on the counter and he didn't order an employee to take it away. He just did it himself. This woman, who went on to run several of her own successful businesses, never forgot the day that she saw the chairman of the company set an example for her—without his even uttering a word.

“If Bruce Nordstrom was not above doing a little housekeeping, then neither is anyone else,” she said.

The Honest Truth

Trust builds loyalty with team members who will not be afraid to tell you bad news.

Sometimes you need to hear things from your team that are not pleasant. In the late 1990s, Nordstrom went through a difficult stretch, which culminated in the then‐CEO of the company being fired and replaced by Blake of the fourth generation. Blake's father Bruce was brought out of retirement to again be chairman. Bruce and his three sons—Blake, Pete, and Erik spent the next six weeks traveling the country, speaking with top salespeople, soliciting their unvarnished opinions on what went wrong and how things could be fixed. These loyal and outstanding employees told the Nordstroms that they felt “maybe we didn't trust them anymore and we weren't listening to them, that we didn't value them as much,” said Blake.

Bruce wrote in his memoir, Leave It Better Than You Found It, that those encounters with employees were “a tempering experience. We asked for criticism and we got it, but it was positive criticism from loyal employees. At the end, I felt strangely invigorated. These are amazing folks. They were a little ticked off and certainly had things to say. I felt so good about the amount of input I got. Listening to our people helped this company more than anything else we could have done. Ask your top people what they need, because they have the answers.”

Accessibility

Within the company and the consuming public, the Nordstroms are approachable and accessible. All of the Nordstrom family and top executives are constantly visiting Nordstrom stores all over North America. “Blake Nordstrom could never be on the television program Undercover Boss because everyone would recognize him,” joked chief innovation officer Geevy Thomas. “All of us are always in the stores. We are on the floor all the time.”

Departments are trained to answer the phone on no more than the second ring. When you call a Nordstrom store, an actual person answers the phone. There is no recording offering the caller options from a menu.

All of the Nordstroms answer their own phones—and return calls. This has been true through four generations.

Jim, of the third generation, told us in the 1990s, “If I'm a supportive manager, who am I to have someone screen the calls of the people who are slugging it out every day on the sales floor and doing the work? If I don't call our people back, they'll never call me again. And if they don't call me, I don't learn anything and I don't get any better.”

Jim noted that when retailers from other countries would come to Seattle to study Nordstrom, they would amass “a big stack of notes. When I asked them what they were going to do with all their notes, they'd say that they were going to have sales contests and other things that we do. I asked them if they were going to answer their own phone. They said, ‘No, I can’t do that.' I told them, ‘Then you may as well throw all those notes in the wastebasket, because it’s all got to start with you.'”

Here is a pair of “like‐father‐like‐son” stories:

“I've taken thousands of calls over the years from customers who had one thing or another to say about how we were doing our business,” said Bruce.

One day, while Bruce was sitting in his office, his phone rang. Bruce picked it up and said, “Hello.” After a second or two of silence, the voice on the other end asked, “Is this Bruce Nordstrom?”

Bruce said, “Yes.”

After introducing himself, the man explained that he was on a break from a seminar in Toronto with the management guru Tom Peters, coauthor of In Search of Excellence. Before the break, Peters had told his audience that the only executive he knew who answered his own phone was Bruce Nordstrom. When the seminar went back in session after the break, Peters took the stage. Before he could get started, a man in the audience waved his hand to be called on. It was the man who had called Bruce. He told everyone what he had just experienced. Big round of applause. Peters later sent Bruce a thank‐you note for validating what he had said.

When we told that story to a convention of dentists, one dentist said, “I don't answer the phone in my practice. If my staff is busy, I'll let the call go to voice mail. But, if Bruce Nordstrom isn't above answering his phone, I guess I'm not above it, either.”

Bruce's son Blake estimates that he gets 20 to 30 customer calls and 20 to 30 e‐mails a day, plus letters.

Seattle resident Sarah Busch, then 79 years old, opened her monthly Nordstrom statement and was disappointed that the company had changed the format she had gotten used to over many decades. She phoned Nordstrom's corporate headquarters and asked to speak to someone in management. After a few rings, a voice answered the phone.

“First of all, I'd like to know to whom I'm speaking,” said Sarah Busch.

“This is Blake Nordstrom.”

“Blake Nordstrom? You're the president!” a confounded Sarah Busch exclaimed.

“I am indeed.”

“What are you doing answering the phone?”

“Well,” Blake deadpanned, “I was sitting here at my desk, and the phone rang, so I picked it up.”

She told Blake that she had been a loyal customer since Nordstrom was a shoe store and that she still had the first credit card Nordstrom issued when the company merged with Best Apparel in 1963 to become (temporarily) Nordstrom Best. She kept the card as a memento. But she didn't like the format of the new monthly statement.

Two days later, she received a letter from Blake, which included a brand new replica of her old Nordstrom Best credit card. They've been friends ever since.

Next time you're sitting at your desk and your phone rings, please answer it. The party on the line could be one of your most loyal customers.