The Invisible Mentor

Posts Tagged ‘Apple’

I wanted to learn more about Nordstrom, the company I knew in name only, after participating in the webinar “Innovate the Steve JobsWay: 7 Insanely Different Principles for Breakthrough Success,” and reading and reviewing The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs: Insanely Different Principles for Breakthrough Success byCarmine Gallo so I purchased The Nordstrom Way to Customer Service Excellence: A Handbook for Implementing Great Service in Your Organization by Robert Spector and Patrick McCarthy.

Steve Jobs, Co-founder and head honcho at Apple studies companies like The Four Seasons, Nordstrom and Mercedes Benz to deliver impeccable customer service. I wanted to learn for myself what made these companies so special so I started with The Nordstrom Way to Customer Service Excellence: A Handbook for Implementing Great Service in Your Organization.

The co-author Robert Spector has written several books about Nordstrom, and you can see that he is an expert in the ways of all things Nordstrom. Like Carmine Gallo in his book The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs, Robert Speck has spoken to many Nordstrom employees, present and past. In addition, he has also spoken to many of the Nordstrom clan.

The book is divided into three sections:

1. Part I: What Managers Can Do to Create Nordstrom-Style Service
2. Part II: What Supervisors Can Do to Create Nordstrom-Style Service
3. Part III: What Employees Can Do to Create Nordstrom-Style Service

It is truly a handbook because at the end of each chapter there are exercises for the readers to do and keys to success nuggets. The book is splattered with mini case studies on other companies that have introduced Nordstrom-like service.

The book is a very practical guide because while you are reading you get a sense of how things are done at Nordstrom, and you could easily replicate it. Robert Speck and Patrick McCarthy even include a section on compensation at Nordstrom. What I also appreciated, was that they included some negative information as well. There are about five Nordstrom store that were unionized, and there was a class action suit against the company for not paying employees for their time when delivering impeccable service such as dropping off a product for a customer after work or writing Thank-you notes to customers while at home. As a result of the lawsuit Nordstrom made changes.

For anyone who wants to up the level of customer service they deliver in their business, this is one book that they should read. But, I’m never for copying everything that one company does, but instead look at other companies, and introduce the elements that make sense for your kind of business, that’s what Steve Jobs did.

So what makes Nordstrom so special?

• The company is decentralized
• One of the company’s mantra is to “Use sound judgment”
• The customer is king and queen
• The company cuts down on the number of rules for employees to follow
• Employees have a lot of power to make decisions on their own
• Employees are allowed to take care of the complete needs of the customer. For instance, a customer initially wants a dress for a party, she finds the perfect dress but doesn’t have a purse or shoes that matches the dress. The employee can take the customer to the shoe department and service her there as well. So employees can work in other departments when serving customers, which allows them to earn more commissions
• The company makes it possible for an employee to say yes to a customer by giving them the authority, as well as stocking merchandise in a variety of colours and sizes
• The company hires people who are nice, knowing that they can train them on the technical aspects of the job
• They promote from within
• All the Nordstrom clan who work within the company started off sweeping the floors and working their way up
• Employees work on commissions, so they set the amount they can earn
• The company has a profit sharing plan

The Nordstrom Way to Customer Service Excellence: A Handbook for Implementing Great Service in Your Organization is a good book if you to want to learn about how to deliver Nordstrom-like service, but I recommend that you also read about The Four Seasons (Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy) and Mercedes Benz who also deliver impeccable service. You can also read up on companies on BusinessWeek’s Customer Service Champs to identify other companies that are doing customer service right.

Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right side) by email or  RSS Feed.

Book links are affiliate links.

In the recent webinar, “Innovate the Steve Jobs Way: 7 Insanely Different Principles for Breakthrough Success,” Carmine Gallo shared seven principles for innovation which he learned from studying Steve Jobs for many years. The webinar was a prelude to his book The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs: Insanely Different Principles for Breakthrough Success. I found it extremely useful to attend the webinar before reading the book and I combined what I learned in the webinar with what I learned from the book. I have also expanded what I wrote in a previous blog post. The book provides concrete examples of how Steve Jobs innovates and the author conducted several interviews with former Apple employees.

To support what he says in the book, Carmine Gallo also looked at what other innovators were successfully doing.  He defines innovation as, “A new way of doing things that result in positive change.” How can you innovate the way you do your job? What innovations are occurring in other industries that you can transfer to yours?

Carmine Gallo has identified seven principles to guide innovation based on what he has learned from studying Steve Jobs, the Co-founder and CEO of Apple. The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs has 15 chapters, an introductory one and two chapters devoted to each principle. Though the book presents a lot of information on the way Steve Jobs approaches innovation, there are many examples of others who are innovating in similar ways and achieving success.

Principle One: Do What You Love

Passion is everything, and it keeps you going when you face inevitable setbacks. Be obsessed and improve the areas that you love. To achieve success, passion is not enough – follow your obsessions, tailor them to your skills, and focus on what you can make money from. What is your calling and your destiny? How can you change the world?

A simple formula is Success = Passion + Skills + Market Demand

Principle Two: Put a Dent in the Universe

Innovation doesn’t take place in a vacuum. Have a vision, because innovation cannot occur without one. What’s the bigger picture and how can you share your vision with enthusiasts who will make your vision a reality. How is your product or service going to change the world? How can you leave the world a better place than you found it?  How can you make your customers’ lives better?

Margaret Mead’s quote, “A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has,” encapsulates this principle.

Principle Three: Kick Start Your Brain

Seek our new and novel experiences, and bombard your brain with them. Who is doing something remarkable that you can learn from? Steve Jobs studied the Four Seasons Hotel and Mercedes Benz because they are aces when it comes to remarkable customer experiences. Jobs introduced a Concierge Service in the Apple Store based on what he learned from observing the Four Seasons Hotel.

A critical part of this principle is to make connections among disparate things and force yourself outside of your physical and mental comfort zone. To live a vision requires creative thinking which requires immersion in novel experiences.

New experiences expand the way you think. Surround yourself with people from different cultures. Experiment, and try new things. What are two things that you can do differently to improve the way in which you deliver your product or service?

Principle Four: Sell Dreams Not Products

Understand your customers, and help them to fulfill their dreams. Get to know them better than they know themselves. How can you change your customers’ worlds? Create remarkable customer experiences and market that.

Your customers often do not know what they want, so be a linchpin as marketing guru Seth Godin says and anticipate what they need before they do. It’s a twist to the concept of build it and they will come, to build it and convince them that they should come.

Principle 5: Say No to 1,000 Things

Take the road less traveled. Remove distractions so you can focus on the core product. Eliminate distractions from the customer experience. Don’t spread yourself too thin, and go for simplicity. Steve Job told Nike’s CEO  Mark Parker, ”Get rid of the crappy stuff and focus on the good stuff.” Go for simplicity and elegance.

Simplify and focus on your product and service offerings. What are you best at? What is one thing that you do extremely well? Focus on it and simplify.

Principle Six: Create Insanely Great Experiences

Create emotional connections with your customers. What are five ways you can enrich the lives of your customers? What relationships are you forming with your customers? Look outside your industry for examples. Create memorable experiences so you have rabid fans. Before you innovate, hold your customer in your mind’s eye, and proceed from there.

Principle: Master the Message

Effectively communicate your vision. Innovate around the way you communicate the vision. What are master presenters and communicators doing? Emulate them. Be a great storyteller, and be consistent in your messaging.

I enjoyed reading The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs: Insanely Different Principles for Breakthrough Success because I had to stop several times and think about what I was reading. The many examples demonstrated how others were using these seven principles with great success, and I understood how I could use them as well. I also learned about innovative products that others were delivering.

For instance, DNA 11 creates art with their customer’s DNA and became a multi-million dollar business in five years. The owners Adrian Salamunovic and Nazim Ahmed didn’t conduct focus group interviews to decide if there was a need for their product, they created the product then created the demand for it. They also noticed that some of their customers were asking for art with their pets’ DNA, so they offered that to other customers who might not have thought of that.

What Carmine Gallo has shown in his book is that innovation does not necessarily mean crating something radically new. Sometimes it is simply doing something in an entirely new way. This is a practical book written in a clear manner. I recommend The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs: Insanely Different Principles for Breakthrough Success.

How can you use this information? What do you have to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right hand side) by email or RSS Feed.

Book links are affiliate links.

Further Reading

Review: The Nordstrom Way to Customer Service Excellence

How to Build a Business by Doing These 10 Things

Review of How to Build an Empire on an Orange Crate by Honest Ed Mirvish

Review: Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy by Isadore Sharp

Many studies have shown the positive impact that mentoring has on both mentor and mentee. However, many people will never have the privilege of being involved in a traditional mentoring relationship. That doesn’t mean that you cannot reap some of the benefits of having a mentor.

What are the reasons for wanting a mentor? You have to know what you want before you can go after it. Identify two people who have done what you are trying to do (this may take doing some research to identify the appropriate people). What are three to five questions that you’d like to ask them?

For me, I’d like to make this blog content rich, since it’s an educational blog. Based on information in David Meerman Scott‘s book, Cashing In With Content, Laurel Touby has successfully done what I am trying to do with mediabistro.com the company she founded. If I got access  to Laurel, I’d ask her:

1. What are the critical steps you took to make mediabistro.com a success?
2. When you first started mediabistro.com, what are three things you did to secure subscribers?
3. Based on your experiences, what advice do have for someone who is trying to do what you did with mediabistro.com?

I have to spend time thinking about a second person because I do not think my choice, Steve Jobs would give me the time of day. While reading A Fine Line, a book I won in a Group Writing Project, the author Hartmut Esslinger, talks about Apple and their focus on consumer experience. I thought the strategy would work for this blog, for me to focus on reader experience. I then asked myself how would that work? How can I take an interview and turn it into a reader experience? How can I take a book review/summary and turn it into a reader experience. For the interview, I think interviewing the right person, will bring the interview to life and create a unique reader experience. Video and music would also enhance the effect.

For a book, that could be a bit tricky. What if the book was dry, but the content was definitely information that I think my readers should know about, what then? Whew, the heat is on, the onus is on me to figure it out. What are your thoughts? What are your two choices for mentors and what would you ask them?

At the off chance that Steve Jobs would give me the time of day, I would ask him, “What are the steps that I should take to create a unique reader experience. ” Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please comment. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

Bookmark & Share