Nordstrom began as a shoe retailer, and eventually transition into a fashion and apparel department story, but all along it was the strong desire of management to provide "the highest level of customer service" with "top of the line, high quality merchandize" (Chapter 5). This paper points to the need for Nordstrom to continue to expand its great customer service, and the risks it might take in that regard.
Nordstrom and Customer Services
How can a great company known for exceptional customer service continue to provide that service and at the same time boost customer loyalty? Given the extraordinary measures that Nordstrom already has gone to -- and goes to -- how can they continue to provide services that go above and beyond what other upscale department stores? These are the salient questions for this paper. Ideas for continuing to provide great customer care services are provided in the following paragraphs.
Child Care at Nordstrom
One service that could be implemented is child care for shoppers -- while they shop. While some Nordstrom stores provide child care for employees, why not provide it for customers? Let's say a woman with a 3-year-old child is shopping for Christmas gifts, and her usual day care services are not available on this particular day. Since Nordstrom had a licensed child care provider in a very child-friendly facility in the store, it would be a very helpful customer service for the mother. The licensed provider could be a registered nurse, who would also be competent to see to it that the health of the child was good, albeit, Nordstrom doesn't want to get into the healthcare / doctor business. Still, this would be a wonderful way of going the extra mile for mothers who bring their children to the store.
Fundraising and Support for Nonprofit Community Organizations
This is a project that would be very attractive to many customers who are involved in volunteer work for nonprofit community organizations, or for customers that make donations to certain community groups working for social change or are advocates for certain segments of the population. For example, customers...
Sally from a rural town comes into Nordstrom to shop once a month. She serves as a volunteer for a local wildlife rescue organization; once a week for four hours she volunteers on the organization's phones. Citizens call in with reports of injured wildlife, and she arranges for other volunteers to pick up the injured bird, for example, and bring it to the rehabilitation center. Sally nominates her group to receive benefits from Nordstrom; she asks specifically for the store to donate clothing for a silent auction her group is holding on its next fundraiser.
So, continuing the proposed program, the Nordstrom store would have an attractive box available for the filled-out forms to be deposited in. And numerous nonprofit donation suggestions from customers would be accessed once a week; one nomination would be selected at random, and the store would move forward by providing items of apparel or gift certificates so the nonprofit may benefit financially. It is already known that Nordstrom has a store in New York's Soho district called "Treasure & Bond," which was designed so it can "donate its profits to charity" (Martinez, 2011). Hence, profits from this store could be donated to one of the weekly winners in the fundraising strategy mentioned in the paragraphs above. Instead of donating merchandize or a gift certificate, those whose community nonprofits were chosen to be helped, a check could be sent (a 501c3 is a federally licensed public charity) to that organization (after it has been vetted) and that would be a tax-exempt donation.
Benefits for Customers
Nordstrom has a special benefits program for customers who spend $10,000, and also for customers that spend more than $20,000 annually as well. It would be very gracious and generous for Nordstrom to also offer special benefits for customers that spend $1,000 in a year's time. The middle class or lower middle class consumer is often a person that is trying to climb higher in the socioeconomic ladder…
