Aloha Everyone,
I recently attended the 15th Annual Spring Retreat held in Maui by the Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate organization. I was accepted into the organization at the end of 2016, so this was my first event with this group. I found them to be a great group of people; very friendly and open. I will definitely be attending these events on a regular basis.
In addition to networking with other luxury agents from around the world, I really enjoyed the presentation given by Robert Spector, who has written a number of books about “The Nordstrom Way.” As those of you who have shopped at Nordstrom’s know, they are an extremely customer service oriented company. A lot of what Mr. Spector spoke about was just plain common sense, but was presented in an unusual fashion.
I did not realize this, but Nordstrom’s started out as a small shoe store. The speaker asked how many of the people present had sold shoes in their life, and a surprising number of the attendees of the event raised their hands. In any case, fairly recently a long time customer of Nordstrom’s, after a bout with cancer, had the lower part of one of her legs amputated. After the illness, she went into Nordstrom’s to shop, decided that she needed some new shoes, and asked the salesperson if she could buy just one shoe, as she obviously no longer needed two. The salesperson never missed a beat, and sold her one shoe. That story has become lore at Nordstrom’s. The simple compassion shown by that shoe salesman should be a model for all of us who are in the business of selling anything, from shoes to luxury properties.
In my business, the next time I encounter a customer with special needs, I hope to emulate the shoe salesman who sold only one shoe. I can’t think of a better example to follow.
