Nordstrom Customer Service Strategy

The physical store is an “experiential centre” where customers are able to interact with the brand and although e-retail provides choice, convenience and access, face to face customer service still reigns supreme (business insider article) the physical store plays an important role in the retail industry allowing consumers to touch, feel and take a product home fast. By increasing physical presence, and improving systems and processes, companies will be able to enhance the customer experience.

Before sending to each store, clothes are ironed in advance and packed on hangers, with security and price tags fixed beforehand. This system helps staff in Zara utilize their time efficiently with the inventory during busy periods.

(P1.1) In formulating a business strategy, it is a crucial factor to determine what the organization’s mission, vision, objectives and core competencies are because it sets an idea on what the organization should do and what purpose do they have in the industry to contribute to their customers. It also helps what markets should they target and what action should they plan to have a competitive advantage.

Second is place, the locations of the stores, and the hours in which the stores are open. This is where selective distribution comes into play. “Nordstrom has 157 stores in 27 states, but they plan to open 19 more by 2010, expanding into Boston, Ohio, and other untapped U.S. markets.” By limiting where Nordstrom’s are located, this allows them to maintain a superior product image, and charge a premium price for the products.

Identify the type of retailer that Nordstrom’s is classified as. Describe the characteristics it shares with other retailers of this type..

Nordstrom’s is classified as one of the biggest U.S. department stores. Along with Sears, Macy’s, and JC Penny’s, Nordstrom manages each department in their stores as an individual buying center. Every group functions separately from one another, and is administered by a buyer who is in charge of all varieties and styles of merchandise sold. Promotions that can be used in the stores are included, as well. “The company has also benefited from a new computerized inventory system that gives buyers and salespeople the necessary data to make smarter decisions about what is needed in the stores—and what isn’t.” (Lamb, Hair, McDaniel 569). This new and improved system allows the department store to market a greater amount of full priced items, which ultimately increase sales. The buyer is also able to easily determine what items to obtain and exhibit in the store by using this system.

• Treat the store as the brand. Individual products are not the brand. The store is. Brand is really the covenant between the company and the customer, and the real key is day-to-day consistency in meeting and satisfying needs. Last year we were very surprised and proud when an article came out in Entrepreneur magazine said three companies that got branding right were Krispy Kreme, Nike, and us.

Nordstrom Rack is a US based store which has items from Tech equipment’s to accessories you can purchase from the online store where you persist in making discounted use of online coupons whenever it is intended. There is a preferred use of coupons you find from this store and buying is possible with Nordstrom Rack coupon codes to have relieve that gets implied whenever you are looking to make online accessibility preferred for use by you.

The diagram above shows the principles of customer service. First, we have teamwork. Employees of Nordstrom Inc. need to work in unison to ensure that their customers are accorded with the best customer experience. First impression is everything. The Company will strive to ensure that the services , presentation and appearance of its employees captures the interest or attention of its consumers with the first impression. The company will use appropriate channels for instance social media to effectively communicate and interact with its consumers. The Company will continue to offer its consumers with high quality products and services consistently. Nordstrom Inc. will always strive to meet consumer needs.

Nordstrom today is known as one of the most innovative department stores because they are always coming out with new ways to improve their stores and delivery system to make it easier for employees and customers. One way Nordstrom is doing this is by implementing their program “Buy Online, Pickup in Store”. When shopping online you can find an item you would like to buy and if you need it in the upcoming days instead of between three to eight business day, which is the usual shipping time, you can see if it is in a store near you and then purchase it online and then the “Buy Online, Pickup in Store” team will go around the store to find your items and then you pick it up in the store at the service bar so you do not even have to go to the department that it was purchased from. I have as a customer used this program numerous times, one time I used it to pick up a last minute dress for an upcoming dance so I picked it up the same day I bought it online and it was a quick and easy process.

The business idea of Zara is to link customer demand to manufacturing, and to link manufacturing to distribution. And based on this general idea, Zara has several essential elements for its business model. First, speed and decision making, which means that in the external level, Zara need to respond very quickly to demands of target customers, and always keep in style. While for the inside, Zara treasure intelligence and judgment of common employees who enjoy a great deal of autonomy. Second, its marketing, merchandising and advertising strategy. Zara does not spend on virtually advertising, while it spends heavily on stores, and no selling online because of

Zara has inadvertently taken an operational approach to mitigating risk through having decentralised stand alone store systems that interact once a day with headquarters therefore requiring little protection and staff only having limited access and control over their part of the system, not a network of data (Austin and Darby,

Zara is an apparel company and the leader brand of the Spanish retail mogul, Inditex. zara was established in 1975 in Spain by Amancio Ortega who is currently the 3rd richest man in the world, the first store was opened as an outlet but by 1979 the establishment already had six stores at different locations in Spain and by 1985 the company branched out to Portugal new york city and Paris. Today Zara has over 1900 stores worldwide which are located in 22 different countries; these stores render employment to over 125,000 employees. Zara depends on information they gather from customer and organizational feedback from all their stores on a daily basis this information is then forwarded to the supply chain, which works in synergy with the stores to keep the level of storage in stores down to a minimum. Zara owns the production, supply chain and in-house production, which lead to greater speed in output (M.A.Cano)

Zara is a clothing company that was founded in 1975 and came from Spain. Its under Inditex group which owns other brands such as Massimo Dutti, Pull & Bear, Oysho, Uterques and many more companies. Zara grew very fast and currently in 2012 has 1,617 stores worldwide. With a large name in the fashion industry, besides that, Zara faces tough competition internationally including H&M, Benetton, and GAP. In order to keep up with the speed chic, Zara need to keep up also with the information system to run their business.

This is when business like John Lewis gives customer option to buy item from their physical store and