The Nordstrom service standard is no big industry secret. There are retailers all over this country that aspire to reach half of the Nordstrom standard. One particularly boring Monday evening, I decided it was time to try jeans that didn't come from The Gap. So, to Nordstrom I went. Upstairs, I found all of the really (expensive) hot brands...Citizens, 7, and a whole host of entirely-too-expensive-for-my-blood jeans. And unless you are a very slender woman, some of these brands just aren't quite right, even if you can afford them!
After trying on countless pairs of jeans and deciding I would come back in 20 pounds...errr...a few months, Yardly found me. She showed me JAG jeans. They are exclusive to Nordstrom and are still to this day my favorite jeans. But that's not the point.
About a month later, I was asked to read a passage at a good friend's wedding and was also asked to not wear a business suit while reading...I officially had nothing to wear. I went back to Yardly. Not only did she remember my name and the size jeans I was looking for, but she made me feel like a long lost friend. When I explained the situation with the wedding, the reading and needing a dress, Yardly walked me over to meet Vanessa Williams. Yup, that was her real name. She was equally beautiful but instead of being an actress/singer, she was a personal shopper. And she was from Grand Rapids, Michigan!!! YAY! Someone in Dallas who understands the mid-west and how DIFFERENT it is!
Vanessa took as much time as I needed to fit me for a dress, the accompanying jewelry, undergarments and shoes, and I bought it all ($$$$) and happily! While I was there, she took my measurements and made notes about my likes and dislikes. I wasn't sure why, but whatever! For the record, my favorite color is red, I hate flower patterns on anything, I love strappy sandals in the summer and will find a way to pull them off in the winter, and I will never don polka dots even if they are the newest hot trend of the season.
A few days later, I got a note in the mail from Vanessa Williams, my personal shopper at Nordstrom, inviting me to preview the new fall line. She also noted that I should bring my recent purchase with me, in that one of the new dresses was in a light reddish color and did not have a pattern...and that she had found a really great shoe to go with it.
I attended the sneak preview, returned my first purchase and bought the light red dress with the great strappy sandals to match. I had kept the original jewelery in that it was so cool, but ended up buying a new necklace to go with the new dress and sandals.
I could go on and on about all of my incredible experiences with Nordstrom and Vanessa, but I think you get the point. So, you get the point of the story, but do you understand how this relates to banking? Let me clarify.
Vanessa and Yardly are not magicians, mind readers or any psychic of the sort. They are, however, savvy with their CRM systems. Yardly may have gotten lucky, but Vanessa was smart. She knew that I would spend the money if I could fall in love with whatever it was she was showing me. And by asking a few simple questions about my favorite color and how I feel about patterns she was able to deduce that a light red dress with NO pattern would be great for me.
Do you ask your customers about what they like and don't like? Have you asked your retail customers about their family? If they volunteer that they have children, ask how old they are and make a personal connection. With your commercial customers, GET A WISH LIST!!! Ask them what ultimate tool would make their business run more efficiently and do some homework...find it for them...then find a way to finance it for them.
I know I have said this before, but banks are not that much different from retailers. Once we begin to think like them, and leverage our customer intelligence, we will then begin to truly serve our customers and earn the share of wallet that we deserve.
So, while we are talking about service standards...here's a link to a website that has lots of tools on it...and this one will really make you stop and think. Making small changes to increase our standards of service are not hard and they do not have to be expensive...take Johnny for example:
http://www.simpletruths.com/simpletruths/a.aspx?af=219&mo=stsr
Enjoy!
Jenna
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