Good Customer Service vs. Great Customer Service
Many years ago my grandmother, who lived in San Diego, saved up to buy a dress to wear for my wedding. My grandmother raised me from an infant because of the death of my mother. My grandmother, and grandfather, dedicated their lives to raise me.
My grandmother lived in a mobile home and was content while I lived in Portland, OR at the time. My grandmother was living only off of her Social Security. Period. So it took her some time to save up to buy this special dress to wear at my wedding.
When she arrived in Portland she showed me and my future wife the dress she was so proud of, a dress she really could not afford.
She hung the dress up in her room at our house where there was an old radiator heater. Our house was a huge log cabin located on the Sandy River in Sandy, OR.
During the night the heater came on and the heat from the radiator literally melted the dress. My grandmother was heartbroken. We comforted her and took the dress to Nordstrom’s to buy another dress close to the design of the dress that was ruined. Of course the dress that the clerk found was too much for my grandmother’s budget but I decided to purchase it for her.
After hearing the story that my grandmother was on a fixed income and saved for many months to buy this dress the clerk left for a moment then came back. She took the ruined dress as a return and gave my grandmother the new dress…at no charge! My grandmother had no receipt and was upfront that the dress was purchased in San Diego at another store (Not Nordstrom).
This didn’t matter. The store had compassion and from that point on I became a life long customer of Nordstrom. This is the difference between good and great customer service.
