Speakers Stories: July 2011

Fear

I have accepted fear as a part of life, specifically the fear of change, the fear of the unknown. I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says: Turn back, turn back; you'll die if you venture too far.

~ Erica Jong

Customer Service and Judgement

Nordstrom, Inc. is an upscale US department chain store (many of you are probably familiar with) that sells shoes, clothing, accessories, handbags, etc.

For years, the Nordstrom Employee Handbook was a single 5×8” gray card containing these 75 words:

Welcome to Nordstrom.
We’re glad to have you with our Company. Our number one goal is to provide outstanding customer service. Set both your personal and professional goals high. We have great confidence in your ability to achieve them.

Nordstrom Rules: Rule #1: Use best judgment in all situations. There will be no additional rules.

Please feel free to ask your department manager, store manager, or division general manager any question at any time.

During this time, Nordstrom had the highest sales performance per square foot in the retail industry, by almost double.

Today, new hires still receive this card, along with a full handbook containing rules and legal regulations that they must be trained on due to the changing world we live in.

The lesson here is that customer service and good professional judgement are cornerstones to success.

Grabbing Opportunity

A young man wanted to marry a farmer's daughter. So he went to the farmer to ask his permission and the farmer looked at him and said, “son, go stand out in that field. I'm going to release three bulls, one at a time. If you can catch the tail of any one of the three bulls, you can marry my daughter."

The young man was excited because he knew he was fast and felt sure he would be able to catch the tail of a bull. So he stood in the pasture and waited for the first bull.

The barn door opened and out ran the biggest, meanest-looking bull he had ever seen. He was intimidated and decided that one of the next bulls had to be a better choice than this one. He ran over to the side and let the bull pass through the pasture out the back gate.

The barn door opened again. He was amazed! He had never seen anything so big and fierce in his life. He couldn’t have imagined a meaner bull and yet here it was. It stood pawing the ground, grunting, slinging slobber as it eyed him. Whatever the next bull was like, it had to be a better choice than this one. He ran to the fence and let the bull pass through the pasture, out the back gate.

The door opened a third time. The young man smiled immediately. This was the weakest, scrawniest little bull he had ever seen. This was his bull. As the bull came running by, he positioned himself just right and jumped at just the exact moment. He grabbed... but the bull had no tail!

The lesson is that life is full of opportunities but sometimes we don’t recognize them because we see them as challenges, so we pass them by in hopes of something better. When we do this, we run the risk of missing out altogether.