Nordstrom Customer Relationship Essay

It shows that Nordstrom has $1.84 of non-operating liabilities for every dollar of shareholder’s equity. The company has less financial leverage compare to year 2008.

Consumers are always satisfied with good customer service. When it comes to retail store customer service and satisfaction it is important because department stores are large in size and finding help can be difficult. Colloquy, a company concerned with building customer value, released a survey and asked 3,000 consumers across five geographical areas to rate their personal experiences with retailers. Macy’s was ranked number one in the department store category, with the most loyal customers. To keep up with technology advances Macy’s has invested time and money into developing a more efficient online shopping site, Macys.com and Macysweddingchannel. This investment cost nearly $300 million in 2006-2008 is being used to scale-up these fast-growing businesses through improvements in delivery efficiency, online site functionality and customer service. To enhance the shopping experience at Macy’s 100 stores in 2007 experienced remodeling and began introducing the most advanced POS registers and systems to the sales floors nationwide. Macy’s passion is product and people. There continuing pursuit is to have unique fashionable merchandise ready for customer satisfaction. Macy’s promise is to always carry the best brands and the most-wanted items. They also believe in hiring the right employees. With the right employees, there will be a sense of motivation and helpfulness. The American Customer Satisfaction Index covers 200 companies’ products and

Nordstrom has famously been known for its lean retail prices and its tight inventory. Nordstrom uses demand forecasting to minimize leftover inventory. Nordstrom’s total corporate management is based on two main goals. One is to associate purchasing with demand to keep inventory as lean as possible. Second is to present customers and sales associates with a wide-ranging view of Nordstrom’s entire inventory, including all stores and warehouses. Nordstrom relates purchasing with demand to keep inventory lean and show customers and employees Nordstrom’s inventory. Nordstrom keeps its items in stock for an extremely short period of time so that if a customer wants it, they only have

Customer service can be taught anyone to a certain point. That being, interacting with the customer for their immediate benefit or encompassing positive language in their conversation with the customer. However, there are some who just don’t have the ability to interact with customers. Whether it be a personality trait, inability to interact with people, or they just don’t want too. The best way to start teaching good customer service skills is with management. Management must first develop a positive work environment in where they treat their employees. An environment where employees are treated badly fosters an avenue for them to treat customers the same way. As I stated, nearly everyone can learn basic skills along with exceptional customer service skills as well with extended training. But there is a certain percentage of people who have the knack for truly exceptional customer service skills, usually inherited with one’s personality. Things that can’t be taught commitment and enthusiasm, you have to like who you work for and what you do. This can be faked, how you find out? The employee finds a slightly better paying job usually with no relationship that the employee was previously doing.

As for “personnel”, customer service at Nordstrom is priority one. They firmly believe that word of mouth advertising is the best kind of advertising. Their committed personnel go above and beyond what is expected of employees to make the shopping experience a great one at Nordstrom. The example in the case study of the lady that only needed one shoe is a great example of how Nordstrom goes above and beyond to meet its customers’ needs.

Recognizing any success Nordstrom enjoys basic quality of their relationships with customers, employees, vendors and communities. Striving to be a socially responsible company and know that the trust of the customers is to have is not to be taken

Talbot’s stores had a welcoming residential feel and their sales associates received extensive training in both customer and merchandise content. The associates were required to greet the customers within a minute of entering and ask specific questions to satisfy the customer needs. Talbot’s catalog operations were fully integrated with its store operations and items could be returned to the store to save customers time and cost of shipping. Their automated inventory search program allowed them to locate an item instantly that was out of stock. Using “Red Line” telephone located in every U.S stores Talbot connected with their customers instantly. Those who used this service were offered reduced shipping and handling charge. Talbot also made sure their assortments were fresh and aligned with lifestyle and fashion trends. Their merchandise process was driven by a merchandising team that consisted of a New York based product development office, the buying and production planning staff, manufacturing staff, technical and design staff. Talbot’s 13 week planning cycle involved five major decision points. This process was followed four times a year. The styles for all merchandise were developed on previous year sales history and current fashion trends for each of the company’s two main seasons. Talbot merchandise development

An additional method Zara utilizes to ensure the right product is produced is to constantly monitoring the sells at every store in real time through the use of computers. Sells managers are the individuals that play out this strategy. When the clothing sells well or does not sell well, they can quickly let the designers know to swiftly create new designs (“Case 3-4. Continued Growth for Zara and Inditex”, 2013). However, the competition is changing their strategies in an attempt to successfully compete with Zara. The methods that Zara has implemented to ensure fast fashion is truly fast has pressured the competition into reducing their lead times on stocking their stores (Hayes & Jones, 2006).

During research on this final project, the author found an example of Wal-Mart's communication in backing customer service. A Wal-Mart customer returned a completely thawed turkey including all the fixings for a dinner because her relatives could not make it due to car trouble (Now That's Customer Support, 2006). Wal-Mart returned the customer's money which was $19 plus some change and the customer returned the complete turkey dinner which included two boxes of stuffing, some cranberries, stuff to make pumpkin pies, green beans and a package of rolls (Now That's Customer Support, 2006).

A store like Nordstrom has built a successful model on availability of knowledgeable salespeople, and other luxury or near-luxury retailers would be advised to pay attention. But a mass retailer like Target is not dependent on “high touch” customer service; rather, the most important things it can do to satisfy its shoppers are to ensure that goods are on the shelf and the checkout process is efficient. As more consumers migrate to

Amazon must also ensure that its products are delivered in a timely fashion, given that speed of delivery is yet another significant competitive component of being an online retailer. Amazon has a special algorithm "to determine the best shipping route and method for each item to make sure the consumer good arrives on time as its specified location" (Master 2012). However, the use of this system is not purely

Second, in fulfillment, we can also see speed in responding to demand. For example, the replenishment, as well as production will be optimized according to supply and demand as quickly as possible. Besides, the fulfillment will commonly completed in one or two days, clothes flowed quickly, and without stopping, from factories to DCs to stores, where they were immediately put on the sales floor. Third, in design and manufacturing, we can find how Zara respond quickly to demand. Zara brought out new items continuously throughout the year, including both changes to existing garments and entirely new creations. The network of production had made design from conception through production and into the DC in as little as three weeks. Besides, Zara did not have to predict what would be selling six months, or even one month, in the future; it could continuously sense what customers wanted to buy and respond “on the fly.” All these operations reflect the speed-chasing and target-oriented nature of Zara business.

An effective Customer Relationship Management (CRM) program can be used to identify, retain, satisfy and obtain customers by using technology to optimize strategies for understanding customers’ needs to manage business interactions with current, former, and prospective customers. Additionally, CRM also enables companies to maximize internal, external, marketing and customer service operations to better address the needs of the customer building a better relationship with customers that a more profitable. (Ahmad & Buttle, 2001)

The main goal of Customer relationship management is to create a strong bond between customers and the company. The strong bond can be build by focusing on the two main objectives of CRM. Providing the organization and all of the employees that treat customers with a single and complete view of every customer at every touch point and across all channels and providing the customer a single and complete view of the company and its extended channels (O’Brien, A & Marakas, G. 2004).

Today, customer relationship management is very important to the business world. Most of the companies established a department and the programs to manage their relationship with the customers. Customer relationship management (CRM) is a business strategy which designed to help a company to understand and look forward to the needs of its potential and current customers (Anderson & Stang, 2000). Customer data is being collected in several different areas of the company, stored in a central database, analyzed, and distributed to key points (Anderson & Stang, 2000).The business world once was “product-centric”, the companies just provided what they could produce. However, it is now become “customer-centric”, they provide products and service