Businesses today are operating in the age of artificial intelligence (AI), but customers still crave an emotional experience, according to executives from clothing retailer Nordstrom who described their strategy for achieving the store’s trademark “legendary customer service.”
Speaking at the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) trade show in Dallas today, Nordstrom’s Miguel Almeida, president for digital & customer experience, said the company achieves that standard by combining inputs from multiple sources, including attitudinal—what customers say they think about their shopping experience—and behavioral—what steps they actually take when using the web site or making orders.
Being able to read those different signals is a critical skill for modern executives balancing competing goals, according to Alexis DePree, chief supply chain officer at Nordstrom. “We’re living in the ‘And Age’ of supply chain. We need to be better at cost, AND we also need to be better at speed. We need to do well in-store, AND we also need to do well online,” she said in a session titled “Delivering legendary customer service through the customer-facing supply chain.”
The two executives said they also need to strike that balance to meet corporate goals as measured by both a shoppers’ experience point of view and by an operational execution point of view. For example, Nordstrom was recently in a situation where it offered free two-day delivery to its membership card holders only, but DePree suggested to Almeida that they could open that service level up to all its customers. Within 30 days, the operational team had launched the new policy, and the change has now driven repeat behavior and better sales, they said.
