In store service-Nordstrom Effect

On the 21st of September 2007, I was driving home to Pune after having attended the India International Retail Convention in Mumbai. It was 9.15 by the time I pulled into the Furniture Bazaar parking strip and we were relieved to see a large sign indicating that store hours were 11.30 to 9.30.

For the last few weeks, my mother-in-law had been looking around for bedroom furniture for the spare bedroom of the house she had recently rented. These days a wide range of imported furniture is available at very attractive prices. She had finally decided on the range from Furniture Bazaar. The store being really far from where we live, we had been delaying the purchase, and this was a good opportunity to stop and buy on the way home.

As we entered, we saw a barrier displaying the sign “Store Closed”. We rushed around it, but the sales person was talking on his cell phone with a faraway look in his eye. “Is the store closed?” I asked loudly. He nodded absentmindedly, waving us away, and moved off.

“It’s not 9.30 yet!” I called out, but he was gone.

Rather than driving all the way on another day to this place an hour from home just to sign a credit slip for reasonably high-value goods, we would probably go and buy something similar from a nearby store of another chain. The extra thousand or so rupees we might have to pay would be compensated by the time and effort saved.

“It’s not 9.30 yet!” I pleaded to the two young men engaged in day-end activities at the till. One of them, who later told me that his name was Raju, stepped out and said “Yes, sir, we are open sir, what can I do for you?” Phew.

Then the security guard Yogesh who had been watching us, dismayed that the store might lose a customer, came up and offered a seat, and involved himself in clarifying price and availability.

As the processes of ordering from warehouse and invoice preparation were started, I smiled to myself.

A few hours before I had heard a story at the IIRC about a woman who entered a Nordstrom store at closing time. Even worse, the size of the garment she wanted was not available. Instead of shooing her away as had nearly happened to us, an employee of the store had warmly escorted her to a comfortable seat, and plied her with coffee while she waited, having arranged to have the item she wanted brought across from a competitor’s store across the street.

Nordstrom is a high-end fashion specialty retailer in the U.S. known for their carefully and impeccably presented merchandise. Quite apart from that, Nordstrom has achieved near-legend status with the coining of the phrase “Nordstrom Effect” which retailers enviously associate with their unparalleled, even obsessive, customer service.

Another Nordstrom anecdote concerns a woman who phoned a store as soon as she returned from a shopping trip there. Apparently one of the hubcaps of her (very expensive) car was missing. The attendant went out and scoured the parking lot, located the hubcap, and phoned her back to ask whether she would like to have it home-delivered.

I spent some time chatting with Raju and Yogesh. The other young man who had been on the phone and eager to get rid of the nuisance we presented him by arriving so close to closing time had retired to a far corner of the store and was relaxing on one of the comfortable sofa displays, still chatting away. He was obviously senior to Raju because he had to be called to enter the authorization code required. He refused to make eye-contact but I called him and inquired in a friendly tone who he’d been talking to. His category manager, he said. He confided that he had been under a great deal of stress and was very tired. I controlled myself from laughing, wondering what kind of training he’d been given.

Yogesh in particular impressed me a lot. We’ve all got used to sluggish and indifferent security people, telling ourselves that if Shah Rukh Khan and even the Prime Minister of India can have incompetent security staff, who are we to complain? But here was a young man who instead of spending his idle hours yawning, was adding totally unexpected value to his post.

In India we certainly do not expect service of the Nordstrom level. In fact, many of our retailers believe that Indian customers are mere yokels looking for nothing but bargains and product range, and are not the least interested in good quality service. They patronisingly imagine that the Indian customer with a crafty bargaining mindset, would not even RECOGNIZE good quality service, or would be embarrassed by it or take advantage of it. With this attitude, one can’t imagine how many customers are turning away to go and shop at other stores, as we nearly did.

On the other hand, with the right type of training, the security guard Yogesh (a true asset to the Furniture Bazaar store in Pune) and the sales assistant Raju, and the hundreds of others like them at your stores, could surely evolve to the Nordstrom level.