The Nordstrom department store is legendary for exemplary customer service: from the earliest beginnings of Nordstrom, a sign hung from the ceiling that read, “If We Sell You Well, Tell Others. If Not, Tell Us.” Well known for putting customer over company, Nordstrom salespeople are empowered from above to always make it right for the customer. With lessons that can be useful for solo agents, team leaders, and brokers alike, Nordstrom’s business philosophies easily translate into the real estate industry. By taking a page out of the Nordstrom book, from practical translation of the Nordstrom way into customer relationships to incorporating the Nordstrom beliefs into our personal values systems, we can revolutionize our businesses and our industry. Take a closer look at how to: * Put Nordstrom’s ”customer before company” philosophy into practice – in a written mission statement and/or company policy (personal and/or brokerage) – to maximize the customer experience, focusing on service rather than commission. * Strive to nurture the long-term relationship. Nordstrom’s top salespeople don’t go straight for the sale: one sale equals one commission; one relationship equals a lifetime of business. * Recognize the importance of follow-through and incorporate it into your daily routine. * Decipher the Nordstrom mystique and make it work for your real estate business.

1. Customer Before Company
Revolutionizing Your Business the Nordstrom Way
Maura Neill, CRS, ABR, CDPE, e-PRO, REALTOR®
about.me/mauraneill

2. WHAT IT MEANS
Customer Before Company

4. “The only thing we have going for us is the
way we take care of our customers.”
~ John Nordstrom,
on what sets Nordstrom
apart from the competition

5. The Best Policy Ever!

6. The Best Policy Ever!

7. Nordstrom Employees:
In Their Words
“I’m a customer-oriented service person. You’re
looking for something, and I’m determined I’m going
to find it.”

8. Nordstrom Employees:
In Their Words
“If it’s not nailed down, I’ll find it for a customer. I
don’t make commission on [everything], but it’s part
of the service I provide.”

9. Nordstrom Employees:
In Their Words
“Never judge a book by its cover. If you treat the kid
who is buying a $19.95 belt the same as a
businessman buying a $1,995 Oxford suit, you will be
successful. That kid might become a customer for
life.”

10. WHEN YOU’RE THE CUSTOMER
Consider This:

11. Flying the Friendly Skies?
 “My goal is to
make you happy.”
Photo credit: “Lady with Luggage” by digitalart on freedigitalphotos.net

12. Would you like
being your own client?

13. {GROUP ACTION ITEM}
Be the client.

14. Be Your Own Client
 What would be important to you if you were
on the other side of the client relationship?
 When is attention to your personal
needs/personality most important to you?
 What expectations would you have at every
step in the process?
 Do you fulfill those items for your own clients,
every transaction, every time?

15. {ACTION ITEM}
Your last transaction.

16. HEROICS

17. Nordstrom: Heroics
 Weekly V.I.P. Club and Employee of the Month –
recognizes sales AND going above and beyond
 Examples:
 warming up a customer’s car in winter
 taking an order over the phone and bringing
merchandise to the curb when customer arrives
 driving a customer’s airline tickets to them at the
airport when they left them behind at the store
 Employees encouraged to “report” the heroics
of others – circulated in a weekly printed
heroics list
Photo credit: “Rubber Stamp with VIP Word” by Stuart Miles on freedigitalphotos.net

18. Leigh Brown, CRS
“I took an IOU on a commission on a
house last year to keep the deal
together and to keep my client from
having to short sell. Strikingly enough,
she paid me 11 months later. The other agent
was flabbergasted.”

19. Dawn Thomas, CRS
“Last month, one of our buyers
brought in their own lender.
Needless to say, a pretty straight-
forward transaction on a jumbo loan went
sideways and several delays, to the point the
husband had to cancel his trip to Europe even
though his wife was going to spend Christmas with
family. I hate the idea of anyone being alone
during the holidays, so I invited him to our house
for a crab feast on Christmas Eve and movies the
next day.”

20. Shannon Williams King
“We flew a client from Australia on
our dime prior to closing to make
sure she liked the home - and was in
person to sign her closing docs.”
Note: this price point was $400,000.

21. Sasha Farmer, CRS
“For the past 4 years I have kept a “sunshine
fund” – at the end of each month I take
1% of my commission checks and put them
into a separate small checking account.
Inevitably, one of my clients will call a month or two
after closing asking for a recommendation for a plumber
because they have a sink leaking, or an electrician
because they've blown a fuse, or HVAC because
suddenly the AC isn't kicking in, or something
unexpected has popped up. I have that extra little
cushion of account that I can use at my discretion to
offer some towards helping.”

22. Nobu Hata
“I drove five hours for four signatures
on a $125K relo deal for the nicest
couple in the world. Incidentally,
that same couple sent me a $15million
commercial buyer.”
Note: Nobu had to give away that $15million
commercial buyer – referral fee-free – because he had
already taken his new position at NAR.

23. Julie Beall, CRS
“The house of a client burned
down. They had just moved. They
called me from the emergency room.
They were new in town and knew no one. They
only knew their REALTOR®. I offered them a place
to stay. They lived with us for four months. I
remember laying in bed the first night they were
there thinking what the hell had I done to myself
and my family. These people are now special
friends in our lives.”

24. Jeremy Hart
“Next time I'm feeling like real estate is
full of arrogant a**holes, I'm coming
back to read this post again. Full of
awesome stuff.”

25. SMALL GESTURES

26. Some Examples of Small Gestures
 Creating playlists that match your clients’ music
preferences for a day of househunting in the car
 Research restaurants that fit an out-of-town
client’s favorites while in town (especially for
clients with special dietary needs!)
 Make your closing gifts personal, instead of “one-
size-fits-all”
 Creating video previews of homes at the top of
your out-of-town clients’ lists – OR – visiting a
property to FaceTime with a client on their
lunchbreak

27. Some Examples of Small Gestures
 Creating a private Facebook group for each
transaction to share updates/reminders with
that client
 “Giving away the milk for free” – giving
consumers the information they want to build
trust and credibility
 Simply being flexible

28. CREATING THE EXPERIENCE

29. The Nordstrom Experience
 Carefully choreographed customer
experience
 Ease of navigation
 Improved comfort and familiarity
 One-stop shopping
 Local feeling
In short:
 They listened to the customer.

30. The “We” Experience
“The more information I have…the better I can
serve the customer…This isn’t just my deal. It’s
not an “I” experience; it’s a “we” experience.
Photo credit: “Multi Ethnic Team Indoors” by ambro on freedigitalphotos.net
~ Patrick McCarthy – top Nordstrom sales
associate, 15 consecutive years

31. {GROUP ACTION ITEM}
Create the experience.

32. Buyer/Seller Questionnaires

33. GOAL SETTING
Client-centric

34. What Do Your Goals Look Like?
What does your business plan measure?
Transactions
Volume
Commissions
Listings taken/listings sold
Where is the client here?

35. Incorporate Client-centric Goals
 Happily Closed Clients
 Incoming Testimonials
 Referrals from Past Clients
*Doesn’t have to be warm & fuzzy, but focusing on
these things can help you stay focused more on
your clients and less on yourself.

36. {ACTION ITEM}
Measurement.

37. Customer service redefined
Social Media

38. The Personal Contract-to-Closing
Facebook Group
 Secret Facebook group for you and
your client
 Post video messages and reminders
every step of the way
 Better than a phone call because they
can replay
 Great with more than one person in the
transaction – they each get the same
message

39. The Personal Contract-to-Closing
Facebook Group

40. Video:
Face-to-Face Redefined
Image courtesy of Ambro at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
• How are you already using video?
• Where can you use video?
• How can you make it personal?

41. Consumers and Video
 Increase length of time they’re on your site
 Increase your likelihood of being found
 Build trust and credibility
 Help potential clients feel like they know
you

42. Consumers and Video
 Increase length of time they’re on your site
 Increase your likelihood of being found
 Build trust and credibility
 Help potential clients feel like they know
you

43. What Do These Messages Say?
 “I’m out of listings! Who wants to sell?”
 “I’m in LOVE with my new listing!”
 “Just wrote contracts today for 3 lucky
buyers!”

44. How can your blog give better
customer service?

45. Can Social Media =
better customer service?

46. EARNING YOUR WORTH
Commission

47. Proving the Difference
 Nordstrom considers its culture to be the key
element that separates them from the
competition:
 Employee autonomy
 Customer first mentality
 Lack of rules limiting employees’ ability to serve
 Salespeople take a true interest in the
customer
 Money-back guarantee/return policy – truly
sets them apart

48. You vs. Them
 What’s your value proposition? Do you even
know?
 What’s your “money-back guarantee”?
 Easy-exit listing agreement
 Easy-exit buyer brokerage agreement
 How else do you offer a guarantee?

49. What sets you apart?

50. HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY
Taking a Page From the

51. Hospitality vs. Service
“Service is the technical delivery of a product.
Hospitality is how the delivery of that product makes
its recipient feel. Service is a monologue – we decide
how we want to do things and set our own standards
for service. Hospitality, on the other hand, is a
dialogue. [It] requires thoughtful listening to the other
person, and follow-up with a thoughtful, gracious,
appropriate response. It takes both great service
and great hospitality to rise to the top.”
~ Danny Meyer, restaurantuer

52. Turning Over the Rocks
Photo credit: “Fly Fisherman Casting” by joe1642 on Flickr.com

53. Turning Over the Rocks
 Think like a fly fisherman
 Look for the story behind the story
 Collect the dots
 Give your clients a feeling of “shared
ownership”

54. What Do You Know About
Your Clients?
Raziel Ungar, CRS
Create space in your CRM -OR- a
spreadsheet where you can file
information/jot notes about your clients
Where can you find information/details?
 Facebook
 Your questionnaires
 Your notes
Notes, articles of interest, birthday/anniversary
cards, phone calls, conversation starters

55. Keeping Client Records
 Expand your database – vertically not
horizontally
 Add details about your current/past clients instead
of cold leads
 Depth and details instead of volume
 Take notes – after meetings, during phone
calls, as you think of them
 Facebook Graph Search

56. Facebook Graph Search
More about Graph Search:
http://facebook.com/about/graphsearch

57. What are they saying?

58. Your most unhappy customers are your
greatest source of learning.
~ Bill Gates

59. Client Reviews and Testimonials
 Thank You Note: “Even if it’s the tenth time
I’ve waited on that customer, I don’t thank
him for his business; I thank him for his loyalty.”
 Nordstrom provides its employees with free thank
you notes – plus address labels, postage, etc. – and
encourages them to use them daily!
 Follow-Up Call: “Ninety percent of the time,
they’re so stunned that you called, they
remember you.”

60. Third-Party Review Sites

61. INSPIRING LOYALTY

62. Follow-Through
 Thank You Note: “Even if it’s the tenth time
I’ve waited on that customer, I don’t thank
him for his business; I thank him for his loyalty.”
 Nordstrom provides its employees with free thank
you notes – plus address labels, postage, etc. – and
encourages them to use them daily!
 Follow-Up Call: “Ninety percent of the time,
they’re so stunned that you called, they
remember you.”

63. Spend a lot of time talking to
customers face to face. You’d be
amazed how many companies don’t
listen to their customers.
~ Ross Perot

64. NAR’s 2012 Profile Said…
87% of clients were satisfied with their REALTOR®
and would refer them again
BUT
Only 10% did. Why?

65. CO-OP(ERATION)

66. Is It Cooperation or Competition?
 DO make it a win-win – you’re in this for the
same reasons
 DON’T make it personal
 DO return calls, answer feedback requests, be
available to answer questions,
 DON’T be condescending, rude or otherwise
embarrass yourself
 DO remember that the way you interact with
other agents can affect your clients’ outcome

67. Impact on the transaction?
...And future transactions?

68. WHY IT ALL MATTERS

69. Why Does It Matter?
 We’re in the business of helping people
 The “depressed market” didn’t weed out the
bad agents, it just forced them into
hibernation.
 It’s about more than just commissions
People.

70. Final Thought:
“If We Sell You Well, Tell Others.
If Not, Tell Us.”

72. The Nordstrom Way
The Inside Story of America’s
#1 Customer Service
Company
By Robert Spector and Patrick D.
McCarthy
Recommended Reading

73. Setting the Table
The Transforming Power of
Hospitality in Business
By Danny Meyer
Recommended Reading

74. Four Seasons
The Story of a
Business Philosophy
By Isadore Sharp
Recommended Reading

75. The New Gold Standard
The Ritz-Carlton Hotel
Company
By Joseph A. Michelli
Recommended Reading

76. www.mauraneill.com/nordstrom-blackhills
Photo credit: “Computer mouse, mousepad, hand” by Si1veryon Flickr.com
Find This Presentation Online

77. Connect With Me
about.me/MauraNeill