Leaders: Do You Follow the Nordstrom Code?

I'm writing Spoil Your Customers Rotten! as a story, complete with plot and characters, in order to show how five-star customer service should happen in a real-life situation. The setting is Boldt's supermarket; the protagonists George Boldt (named after the first manager of the Waldorf-Astoria hotel, a distant relative of mine) and Candace, a college student inspired by the hero of Voltaire's Candide.

In this excerpt, Candace has just asked Mr. Boldt what the over-arching secret is to his company's five-star reputation and commensurate success. This dialogue ensues:

“Are you familiar with the Nordstrom Code?”

“The stores, yes. They’re icons in the service industry. The code…? No, what’s that?”

The Nordstrom Code: Use good judgment in all situations.
There will be no additional rules.

“I like it!” Candace said. “Before starting here, I would’ve thought that was impossible: my impression of most managers is, they’d tell you that if you trusted your employees to use their heads rather than their handbooks, the whole company would disintegrate in a day!”

“But you’ve noticed something different is possible here at Boldt’s, haven’t you?”

“You live by the Nordstrom Code, don’t you, Mr. Boldt?”

“I didn’t invent customer service, Candace. When we come across a trick that works somewhere else, we adopt it without hesitation. Nordstrom is a phenomenal company, with a top-rate reputation. They hire competent adults, and give them the freedom to use their talent for the benefit of the customer—and the stockholders.

“There’s a flip side to the Nordstrom Code, you know. Got your pen handy?”

Candace held it up, poised for action.

If you treat your employees like children, guess how they’ll act?

“That’s why our standard operating procedures aren't a list of rules made to be strictly enforced. Instead, they're a collection of practices that we encourage. Strongly encourage, mind you. But we prefer the carrot to the stick around here.”

This section of the book is a litmus test for business leaders. I ask you to pose it to yourself right now. How does the Nordstrom Code make you feel? Are you comfortable with the idea of treating your employees like adults? Truly? Are you ready to throw away your employee handbooks; your stifling policies and procedures? Or does the very thought make you squirm in your chair as you read this?

You can lie all you want, but only to yourself. For a fact-check on how closely your firm observes the Nordstrom Code, look at your policies and your management practices. Better still, ask your employees - though I wonder how many of them will have the guts to tell it to you like it is.


*****

For those of you who are curious, a couple of notes.

1. I happily give credit where credit is due: the style of parable I've incorporated for this book is based directly on my own enjoyment of Ken Blanchard's books, including my favorite, Raving Fans. Fortunately, he was kind enough to recognize the compliment and write a generous endorsement, which will be featured prominently on the back cover.

2. If this passage seems remarkably familiar, then thank you: you've clearly read Spoil 'Em Rotten, which I co-authored with my wife Jane and published in 2007. There's a whole story behind this, but not a very interesting one, so I'll spare you. The bottom line is, this new Spoil book started as a brief clean-up of the first version, but has morphed into almost an entirely new work altogether. So, I'm in the process of removing the earlier version from the market to allay any confusion.

Another of my favorite authors, Aldus Huxley, rewrote Brave New World 13 times before his editor surreptitiously published it. An artist's work is never good enough for himself, I'm afraid. Still, I'm going to try to make this second version of Spoil my last. I have too many other works to share with you.