Respect
Our frontline people don't work for us; we work for them.
Our job is to support them in their job.
—James F. Nordstrom
Respect is defined as “a feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements.” Isn't that what every business desires?
Robert Spector grew up working in his father's butcher shop, Spector's Meat Market, in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. As a young boy, he would occasionally accompany his father, Fred, to the abattoirs, where he would find himself standing in a large walk‐in meat freezer with his dad and his dad's suppliers. Even though Robert couldn't have verbalized it at the time, he could sense that these suppliers respected his father. (Of course, it helped that Fred Spector paid his bills on time.) It was clear to Robert that respect was essential to conducting business.
The best companies are generous with their respect—for colleagues, vendors and, of course, customers.
Does everyone in your organization have respect for their colleagues? Do they appreciate the unique role each individual plays in their collective success? That's the essence of teamwork. Sometimes in competitive sports and in business, there are teammates who might not necessarily like or love each other, but who nevertheless respect each other's contributions, which enables them to work together for the greater good.
We once gave a full‐day program to people who worked in the supply chain department of a major health care organization. Our material is presented in plain English. Most of our slides have just one simple sentence. Nevertheless, at one point, the department head, who had arranged the program, said to us, “Do you think you could dumb down your presentation for this audience?” Dumb down? All we could think of is: “If this is what you think of the people you hired, what does that say about you?” Clearly, this person did not respect the rank‐and‐file employees.
This cavalier attitude was reinforced by the head of the department when he introduced us to the frontline employees that we were working with, for what was going to be a four‐hour training session. This session was on a Saturday, which meant that the employees were there on their day off. The department head stepped up to a lectern in the front of the meeting room and told the employees what a great session they were about to take part in, and how much they were going to learn. And then he added: “Unfortunately, I won't be a part of this today because I have to go back home to renovate my kitchen.”
Where was the respect? Certainly not for the frontline workers who sacrificed to be there.
Compare that approach to that of Harry Home, a retired, long‐time Nordstrom manager. “I always sold the premise to new employees: You are not good because you are at Nordstrom. You are at Nordstrom because you are good.”
Throughout all of its changes, Nordstrom's foundation of service remains the same. It's based on having a motivated, energetic, empowered person dealing directly with the customer. Those kinds of people are what best define Nordstrom, its reputation, and its ability to survive and thrive.
Inspirational leaders never ask a staff member to do something they wouldn't do themselves. Jim said it best: “Be the kind of boss that you would want to work for.”
Back in the mid‐twentieth century, while making buying decisions at the New York wholesale shoe markets, Everett of the second generation encouraged young buyers to develop their own ideas and make their own decisions. After the sales representative of a women's shoe vendor showed the company's line to both Everett and a young Nordstrom buyer, the rep asked Everett for his reaction. “Don't talk to me,” said Everett, “Talk to my buyer.” The sales rep then turned his eyes toward the nervous 22‐year‐old buyer and asked him for his opinion. After that, the employee became a true, dedicated Nordy, who rose up through the organization. Once that young buyer felt that he had earned the respect of the estimable man known as “Mr. Everett,” he felt that he could accomplish anything. That's powerful.
Respect for the Culture
In the Nordstrom culture, talented individuals develop personally as well as professionally. By investing in the whole person, Nordstrom retains employees and builds teams to lead growth, expansion, and innovation.
Like every other value at Nordstrom, respect for the culture includes storytelling, which plays a critical role in spreading Nordstrom's values and priorities throughout every level, department, and region. Reflecting the company's Inverted Pyramid, Nordstrom's philosophy is that neither “corporate” nor “leadership” creates the Nordstrom story; employees and customers do.
Stories of customer service and teamwork above and beyond the call of duty have their own word at Nordstrom: “heroics.”
Heroics demonstrate and illustrate qualities of teamwork and customer service that ultimately produce sales. Heroics pass on the company's cultural values to fellow employees, and serve as reminders of the level of service to which all Nordies should aspire or surpass. Heroics also allow team members to recognize their colleagues for the special lengths they went for a customer.
When a Nordstrom employee witnesses a coworker providing great service—whether for a customer or a colleague—he or she is encouraged to write up what that coworker did and submit it to the department manager or store manager, who will publicly praise that employee. The best stories are shared through as many internal corporate communication channels as possible.
There are many examples, such as the manager in the men's suiting department, who sent a tailor to a customer's office when he heard the customer was unhappy with his suit. Or the member of the housekeeping staff who found a customer's bag and airline ticket in the store parking lot, contacted the customer, and drove to the airport to return what she had lost.
By sharing these heroics, management honors and salutes employees who go above and beyond the call of duty, which sends the message that customer service—both internally and externally—is what makes Nordstrom Nordstrom.
“Make sure all heroics are fussed over in front of everybody in store meetings,” John N., the founder, wrote in his book. “Bring the person to the front and have them stand slightly in front of you while you brag about them. Everybody in the room will love it. Next time it may be them!”
Most frontline workers get it. They understand that the people who run Nordstrom single out, honor, and reward outstanding acts of customer service. Consequently, they know that one sure way to advance in the company is to give great customer service. If you see a great example, you're going to imitate that example because you work in an organization that encourages such behavior.
Here's an illustration of instantly transferring the culture to new associates: At the then‐recently opened Nordstrom store in Richmond, Virginia, a woman, who had been shopping elsewhere in the mall, walked into Nordstrom with large, cumbersome packages and boxes and asked a couple of young, new male Nordstrom employees if they would help her take the items to her car. The two Nordies happily honored her request. A reporter for the Richmond Times‐Dispatch, who witnessed this scene, asked the employees why they seized the opportunity to help a woman who had not bought those items in their store. Their answer: “This is Nordstrom.” Enough said.
Respecting Colleagues
Every Nordstrom manager understands the challenges of the sales floor because they have all been there, done that. They understand that the way to nurture the career paths of the frontline people that they are supporting is to empower them to take care of customers and colleagues. Managers are there to be a listening board, to give advice, and to answer questions.
The best store managers embody the Nordstrom culture and perpetuate that culture by developing their own individual mentoring programs based on the individual needs of the frontline people that they support. Although this is not a one‐size‐fits‐all approach, support always includes praising colleagues, recognizing their accomplishments at every opportunity, and rewarding them for a job well done.
One often‐overlooked element of empowerment is encouraging new hires to observe, take notes, and ask questions.
“Over the years, we've done more and more mentoring for people at the entry level,” said Bruce. “Newcomers get a quick understanding of what we're trying to do, but some of them don't buy into it. If you lay it out for them, via a mentor, the people who have it within themselves are more apt to buy into our deal.”
Inspirational mentors transfer that culture to new Nordstrom associates. That's how this company has been able to thrive for more than a century, through four generations of management. Literally every Nordstrom employee we have spoken to over more than three decades can point to at least one significant mentor in his or her career.
“I have three mentors who I talk with regularly,” said manager Callie Hutton. “They play a big part in my decision making. When I have issues, I call them and ask how I should deal with those issues. It's important to have that kind of relationship with other people in the company, so you can bounce ideas off of them because they've gone through it and seen it.”
Buyers and department managers (and vendors) regularly ask salespeople for their opinions on merchandise because salespeople are touching the product and seeing the reaction from a broad cross‐section of customers, many of whom they know well. Menswear personal stylist Chris Sharma regularly relays customer feedback to the buyers because, as he said, “When you run a business, you have to do that. You can't wait for walk‐up business. I always make sure I know what I have on the floor and what I need from the buyer. If I don't see anything that I want to sell, I always call the buyer and ask what's coming in. What's available in this month and next month? Then I can communicate with my customers and tell them when I will have things coming in for them.”
Respecting Customers
Nordstrom does not follow a strategy built around price, process, brand, technology, or any other corporate tactic or buzzword. Everything Nordstrom does is viewed through the lens of the customer—and how it can improve the customer experience. Every aspect of the Nordstrom experience starts and stops with the customer. When it comes to exploring new ways of improving its service and results, Nordstrom asks itself one simple but profound question: What would the customer want?
Does your organization start every initiative and every discussion with that question? If not, why not?
Nordstrom's philosophy is to adapt to the wants and needs of the customer in order to ensure that the Nordstrom system works for the benefit of the customer. The customer is the one who drives the business. That's the ultimate show of respect.
“We stand where the customer stands,” said a top salesperson in a women's sportswear department in the Midwest. “We're on the floor where the customer is. And we strive to serve one customer at a time.”
“Selling clothes isn't what we do,” said a retired Nordstrom executive. “It's filling people's needs and making them feel better emotionally.”
Bob Bender, a retired senior executive who worked very closely with the third generation of Nordstroms, told us, “We learned early on that you have to show respect to your product, your customer, and to every part of your business. When we brought that shoe out to the customer, it was tissued right, and it showed you had respect for the merchandise. The Nordstroms believed that there was a lot of money in those boxes.”
This focus on the customer is emphasized and reemphasized and re‐reemphasized at each and every opportunity—including in its annual report to shareholders, which always opens with this salutation: “Dear Customers, Employees, and Shareholders.” Note the order of importance. Nordstrom believes that taking care of the customers and employees ultimately benefits the shareholders (which include management, employees, and customers).
Nordstrom's respect for customers begins not just when the doors open in the morning but even before the doors open. Even though Nordstrom officially opens at 10 A.M., the retailer actually opens its doors at 9:50. Why would it do that? Because it wants to show customers that Nordstrom values customers' time. If a customer arrives 10 minutes early, Nordstrom doesn't want the customer to have to wait outside for the store to open. That small gesture satisfies an unexpressed need. Customers don't know that they need it—until they do. Again, it's a small gesture, but it speaks volumes and it's an experience that a customer will not soon forget. After all, retail is detail.
In today's business world, Nordstrom thinks only about what customers expect in their shopping experience. Convenience is paramount for today's time‐crunched customers. Whatever kind of experience the customer wants on that particular day, Nordstrom just wants to make it perfect. On any given day, a customer might want a three‐minute experience; on another day, she might want a three‐hour experience. When you're flexible, you are serving the customer on her terms. Nordstrom is continually work on improving the speed and convenience of its customer service. “How much time do you have?” is the best opening question you can ask a customer.
Nordstrom is constantly speeding up its process of accepting returns to just a few painless minutes. Customers asked for this courtesy. Nordstrom responded. That initiative is good for the customers because it gives them back the time they had expected to lose. And the initiative is good for Nordstrom because that gift of time puts most customers in a positive frame of mind to shop while they are in the store. As Adam Smith, the eighteenth century moral philosopher and economist aptly observed, “it is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.” Smith was not criticizing these shopkeepers, but merely stating a universal truth.
Respect begins when Nordstrom customers are small children. When working with a child who's trying on footwear, a top salesperson advises, “Talk directly to the kid. Make the kid feel good. Don't talk to the parent. The parent wants you to show respect to their kid. If we do a good job of making that kid feel good, it translates into so many other things, mainly sales.”
Imagine that you're five years old and a grown‐up is talking directly to you and wants to know what you think. If you don't believe that such a public display of respect means something special, then you don't remember what it's like to be a kid.
Beyond Sales
Sometimes, customer service has nothing to do with selling things to the customer. Here are a few examples:
A customer contacted her Nordstrom salesperson in Tacoma after the customer had gotten a botched hair coloring at a salon. The salesperson called her own hair stylist and booked the customer in for an appointment the next day. “The true sign of a person who has their client's best interest at heart is going the extra mile to help without any expected return,” wrote the customer.
A customer, who was traveling in France, was out of money, her ATM card was not working, she had no place to stay and nothing to eat. The customer contacted her credit card companies, hoping they would temporarily increase her line of credit. None were willing to help her. She contacted Nordstrom and spoke to Kristi, a telephone customer service specialist. Without hesitation, Kristi increased the customer's line of credit so that she would be able to afford food and lodging until her flight back home. The customer said that Kristi took care of her “like family.”
A female customer was driving past the Salem Mall in Oregon on her way home. She heard a noise from her car but kept on going. When she arrived home, she examined her car and discovered that one of her hubcaps had fallen off. She figured it happened when she was driving past the mall. She couldn't get over there right away, so she called the Nordstrom in the Salem Mall, told the operator what had happened, and asked if a store employee could venture out onto the road to see if the hubcap was there. This being Nordstrom, an employee did just that. He found the hubcap, brought it back to the store, washed it, and notified the customer, who came in to pick it up.
“We love that story,” said Pete, “because it means people don't just think of Nordstrom for buying things, they think of us as a place where they can find solutions.”
Two employees from the store in Chandler Fashion Center in Chandler, Arizona, went above and beyond for some customers on their special day. One of the salesperson's personal customers was planning a surprise wedding, full of special touches for his fiancée, in her best friend's backyard. Everything from the invitations to the photographer was falling into place—except for somebody to perform the ceremony.
As the day of the wedding drew near, the customer went to his Nordstrom salesperson to have his tuxedo fitted—and it came up in conversation that the salesperson was an ordained minister.
“Does that mean that you could marry us?” the customer asked.
The salesperson said yes.
His department manager happily gave him the time off. The wedding was a success, and the customer's bride was cheerfully surprised. The salesperson held up very well under the pressure of meeting family and friends for the first time at the wedding. And the department manager, who is also an artist and owner of his own gallery, invited the happy couple to the gallery to pick out a wedding present. The couple continues to frequent the store as they live happily ever after.
Recognition
Neuroscience indicates that recognition has the biggest influence on trust, “when it occurs immediately after a goal has been met; when it comes from peers; and when it's tangible, unexpected, personal, and public,” according to professor Paul J. Zak's Harvard Business Review article on “The Neuroscience of Trust.” Zak adds, “Public recognition not only uses the power of the crowd to celebrate successes, but also inspires others to aim for excellence.”
Nordstrom believes it is essential to publicly and privately express recognition and praise for a job well done.
“There are two things people want more than sex and money,” Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics, has said. “Those two things are recognition and praise.”
A Nordstrom store manager told us that, “Recognition and praise are the best motivators I know. When you recognize and praise your people, they will go out and do anything for you. Every time you talk to me you're going to hear me talk about my team and how wonderful they are and what they did. We have so many good folks who have made a career of this, and it's up to us to provide them some uplift as they work day after day, week after week, year after year. We put people in front of their peers and tell them that they are the kind of person we want others to emulate. We tell them that we value and cherish their input to this company, and we wouldn't be as successful without that individual. That's strong stuff.”
Recognition is powerful, as long as it's authentic and specific. Whatever their level on the Inverted Pyramid, employees want to feel needed and valued.
“We are at our best when we recognize good performance,” Bruce wrote in his memoir Leave It Better Than You Found It. “Why are we constantly finding ways to praise and recognize our people? Because selling is tough. Sometimes you're dealing with angry and complaining customers who are yelling at you. Believe me, I know from experience.”
Seven times a year, each region has Recognition Meetings to achieve what Bruce referred to. Showing employees that the leadership cares is a powerful way to reinforce the values and principles of the Nordstrom Way.
These meetings are buoyant affairs that begin at 8:00 in the morning. Upbeat music blares over the speaker system and colleagues hug each other like long‐lost friends. The energy is infectious. Some people bring pom‐poms, clappers, flags, and even bullhorns to create a celebratory atmosphere.
Each store in the region has its own nickname, hashtag, and slogan. For example, the store in Tacoma (“T‐town”) chose as its slogan, “There will be service.”
An observer can't help but get caught up in the spirit of the event, which is almost like a pageant. While the surface objective is to recognize employees, individual stores, and departments for sales increases and promotional ideas that drive sales increases, the meeting is also used to rally the troops and to get everyone excited about the performance of their teammates in their department, their store, their region, and their company. Cash awards are given to individuals, departments, and stores.
To promote the opportunities for advancement within the company, employees see a PowerPoint slide on how many people have been promoted and to which positions. Employees are shown the career path of a Nordstrom leader, who's brought up on stage, to show others how they got to where they are today. These top employees serve as inspiration for newcomers: “Be like her. Do what he does.”
Recognition Meetings are not exclusively about sales. Employees are selected as “Customer Service All Stars.” They are nominated by their peers because they represent Nordstrom values such as reputation, drive, curiosity, honesty, and integrity.
At one Recognition Meeting we attended, Charlie MacDonald, who worked in the menswear department at a Nordstrom store in north Seattle, was selected as an All Star. This is what his manager and coworkers said about him:
“When we think of an All Star, Charlie is the first name that comes to mind. He is a role model and a team player on the floor. His ability to not only think about his own metrics, but those of the total department, helps him be influential in making the day.”
“Charlie's customer service is like no other. His customers trust and respect his opinion, and he creates strong relationships with them. When people shop with Charlie, they feel like they are shopping with a friend. His commitment to our customers and building relationships sets the bar for the entire store.”
“He constantly thrives to better himself and is happy to help others. He is driven and self‐motivated, takes initiative, and is open to feedback. His positive attitude and energy are infectious. He is here every day to work hard and make customers happy.”
It's recognition and praise like that that motivates Nordstrom employees to do their best.
Nordstrom also recognizes the efforts of people in support positions such as alterations, housekeeping, and logistics, to let them know, in the words of a Nordstrom manager, that “We do notice.”
Customers' letters of appreciation are read, and positive achievements are recognized, while coworkers stand up and cheer for each other.
Adding emotional drama to the proceedings, All Stars are not told in advance that they are being honored. However, Nordstrom does notify their parents and/or spouse and children, whom Nordstrom secretly sneaks into the meeting—unbeknownst to the honoree. Imagine that you are an honoree. You are called out of the audience and you bound up to the front of the room for a standing ovation in front of your peers. Then from stage left, you see Mom and Dad or Grandma and Grandpa and your spouse or significant other and kids, who are sharing this emotional moment with you and then pose with you for pictures. We've witnessed this scene many times. It never loses its power to inspire and motivate.
All Stars are given a 33 percent store discount (rather than the traditional 20 percent) for one year, special business cards recognizing their achievement, and an All Star pin to wear. Their photos are displayed in the Customer Service department of their store for the next year, as well as on the company's internal website. They also get the work shift that works best for them. Some prefer the busiest times; others opt for shifts that coordinate with their personal lives.
“It's important that we single people out for their extra efforts,” said Blake. “There is no better way to enhance our culture than to put a person who has gone above and beyond, who has used good judgment and taken care of their customer, on a pedestal in front of their peers.”
These morale boosters double as pep rallies. The people who attend these meetings get charged up and take that energy back to their departments.
But pep rallies can go only so far. “You can have all the pep rallies in the world, but the best motivation is stocking the right item in the right size at the right price,” Jim once said, “There's nothing more demoralizing for a salesperson than to not be able to satisfy the customer. Our number one responsibility to our salespeople is to have the products that the customers want when the customers come into the store.”
A good Recognition Meeting encompasses four key aspects:
- Sincere appreciation for the people being honored and detailing what makes these individuals valuable.
- Team spirit so that people feel that they work for a company that appreciates their efforts.
- Teach people something new, such as sales techniques or promotional ideas. Show motivational videos, skits, and performances.
- Perpetuate the culture—and each team member's place in the culture. Reinforce what makes the culture unique.
At RSi's keynote presentations and workshops, we ask members of the audience to think of one coworker they would like to recognize and thank for a job well done. We're looking for a simple, heartfelt acknowledgment for being a reliable and valued member of the team. If the person they'd like to thank is not in the room, we entreat them to say thanks when they get back to the office.
We also ask if someone in the audience would like to thank a coworker who's also in the audience. When one person publicly thanks a colleague in front of everyone, it's a powerful moment that neither will ever forget. That is respect.