Page 192 - DMGT510_SERVICES_MARKETING

Unit 10: Role of Employees and Customers in Service Delivery

overstepping his authority; instead it gave to every employee a golden pen-stand in the Notes
shape of a tyre as a reminder of what the company stood for – excellence in customer
service – and what all the employees should strive for.
Entrepreneurs: Nordstrom allows its people to operate like entrepreneurial shopkeepers
rather than blocks in a retailing monolith. It gives sales people and managers a wide
range of operational and cost controlling responsibility. This is mostly seen in their
returns policy. The store takes back the sold merchandise, no questions asked, if the
customers say that they aren’t satisfied with them - for whatever reasons. This might be,
and sometimes is, abused by customers but the Nordstrom customer service philosophy
is not to punish the “98 percent for the dishonesty of a few”. The company trains its sales
associates to tell the customer, ‘I guarantee [the return]. The company may not guarantee
it, but I do.’ That’s a great selling tool.”

Ann McLaughlin, Chairman, The Aspen Institute, described the return policy as symbolic
of Nordstrom’s authenticity. “They are authentic in that they say they’re going to do
something and they do it. They are authentic in how they represent themselves as a store
to the customer.” This is what she overheard a young woman in her twenties telling her
mother while shopping at Nordstrom, about a pair of shoes that she was unable to decide:
‘I really like them both, but if I decide when I get home that I don’t want one, I know that
I can always bring it back.’ “I don’t know how many times I’ve heard similar comments,”
she says. “That’s the authenticity of Nordstrom living up to their commitment on their
return policy. It emanates from their understanding of the customer.”
An executive with a well-known Swedish-based manufacturer had purchased some $2,000
worth of shirts and ties at Nordstrom’s Pentagon City, Virginia store. He had mistakenly
washed the shirts in hot water and they all shrank. On writing to the store, and admitting
that it was his mistake, he received a call from Van Mensah, a men’s apparel sales associate,
asking him to return the shirts – at Nordstrom’s expense - and he would replace those
shirts with new ones at no charge.

Question
What drives Nordstrom’s sales personnel to out-perform all industry benchmarks? How
has Nordstrom motivated its in-store personnel to become profitable and unique?

Self Assessment

State whether the following statements are true or false:

1. In a service firm, the employees have the role of information transmitting as well as
representing the firm.
2. The insurance agents can be termed as modifiers.
3. The chefs at a restaurant are the influencers.

4. Retailers, wholesalers, BPOs, franchisee’s, etc. are all known as internal customers of a
service firm.
5. In personalized services people make a lot of difference.

6. The internal customers of a service organisation can serve as a basis for differentiation.
7. In service organisations, the role and performance of internal employees is linked to
quality.

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