Amid growing anger over the decline of American service, many U.S. companies defy the trend and flourish handsomely because of the care they lavish on customers. A sampling:
Nordstrom. In the low-margin, highly competitive world of department-store sales, Seattle-based Nordstrom has turned exacting standards of customer service into a billion-dollar annual business. The rapidly expanding chain, which has 45 stores in California, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Montana and Utah, has drilled its staff incessantly with the venerable dogma that the customer is always right. Result: the chain's sales, 73% derived from women's retailing, passed the $1 billion mark for the first time in 1985 and reached an estimated $1.6 billion for 1986. Sales per square foot of space, a basic retail performance yardstick, is about double the average for the industry.
A major ingredient in Nordstrom's success is the quality of the salesclerks. They are paid about 20% better than those of competitors, and they are well trained and encouraged to do almost anything within reason to satisfy customers. In Seattle, a store salesclerk personally ironed a customer's newly bought shirt so that it would look fresher for an upcoming meeting. Thomas Skidmore, vice president of a Los Angeles-area real estate brokerage, tells of bringing back a squeaky pair of year-old shoes to a local Nordstrom outlet, hoping merely for repairs. Instead, he got a new pair of shoes free.
Throughout the chain, the sales help strictly follow a dictum laid down by the company's president, James Nordstrom, 46: replace anything on demand, no matter how expensive, no questions asked. Although the policy is sometimes abused by shoppers (who may, for example, order a $500 dress, wear it once to a party, and then return it), it works well for Nordstrom. Says Skidmore: "I < couldn't believe how nice they were being. I bought another pair of shoes on the spot."
Nordstrom was founded in Seattle in 1901 as a retail shoe store by a Swedish prospector, John Nordstrom, who had struck it rich in the Klondike. Now a publicly traded concern, the firm is still closely controlled by members of the founder's family and propelled by their hands-on style. Says Edward Weller, a senior analyst in the San Francisco office of the Montgomery Securities investment firm: "Nordstrom's movitates people, not just by paying them well but by congratulating them and encouraging them."
Byerly's. In the 19 years since Don Byerly, now 47, opened his first store in the Minneapolis suburb of Golden Valley, he has almost never publicly advertised a product or price. "We spend the advertising money on service," he explains. The payoff has been impressive. There are seven Byerly's outlets in the Minneapolis area, and an eighth is under construction. Sales for the chain reached $135 million last year, and are expected to climb to $150 million in 1987. Byerly analyzes his success this way: "The only reason people will come back to our store is because of what happened to them the last time they were here."