Mar 9, 2010 View Comments
Nordstrom and the Kevin Smith Effect
Let’s start in the middle of this story, which is to say the present. I just saw a wonderfully polite tweet from Nordstrom, who is both my favorite department store and the purveyor of one of my credit cards.
@bentannenbaum Sorry u were given incorrect info at first. That was r mistake & we appreciate u letting us know. It will help us get better.
So how did we get here?
Let me preface this story with some facts:
- I have a Nordstrom Visa Credit Card. I signed up for this card because I shop often at Nordstrom. I have personally experienced their legendary tradition of customer service. It was this high level of service and satisfaction that promoted me to make the move to Nordstrom Visa. A credit card company providing that high a level of service? Sign me up.
- I manage the social media properties for my company, MX Telecom. While I wouldn’t call myself a social media expert, I’ll simply say that I keep myself up to speed with what’s going on in the space, be it strategy, tools, etc. Let’s simply consider this an area in which I am knowledgeable.
- In my first job out of college, I worked on the Customer Service Team for TheStreet.com. The biggest lesson I learned was that good customer service requires empathy. Every person calling has an issue unique to them. They may have seemed trivial or repetitive to me at times, but if I was going to be good at my job, I had to inject a minimun level of empathy into each call in order to leave the customer satisfied.
- I believe that customer service is marketing. Tonight I actualized that belief.
The Incident
Last month, I found a fraudulent charge on my statement for my Nordstrom Visa (and the vendor just happened to be Nordstrom.com…). While I was very disconcerted at first, I called Nordstrom and the service rep was polite and knowledgeable. The charge was clearly fraudulent. She resolved the issue right then and there (10AM on a Saturday morning) and promptly sent me a new card. Great. Now this was done and I could move on with my life.
Well, not exactly. Being neurotic, I contacted each credit bureau and created an alert. In the interest of honesty, even though this was quickly resolved, I still felt rather victimized by the whole affair. This was a big deal and significantly impacted my life. This was no fault of Nordstrom, and if anything, their customer service made resolving the issue quite painless, or so I thought…
Leap ahead to this month. As I was reviewing my statement I see the removed charge. Perfect. Then below, I see the same amount was recharged, and the merchant… surprise, surprise; Nordstrom.com
I immediately called to see what this was all about. On this initial call, the representative told me it seemed there was a processing error. He couldn’t see why. I would need to talk to the fraud department, which was closed for the evening. I wasn’t able to get much more information, as each question was deflected back to the ‘closed’ fraud department. To this reps credit, he was at least very comprehensive with regards to taking my information and ensuring me someone would call me in the AM. Look, I get it buddy. You deal with these issues daily. This is standard procedure for you. Not so for the rest of us. When this happens its a big deal to me, even if you’ve taken 25 similar calls today.
Too bad. This is my life. This is something that could potentially affect my steller, superior credit rating.
I was left with many questions. What the hell is a processing error? Why would they repost a charge they themselves had already deemed fraudulent? I wanted resolution, but short of that I wanted answers and empathy.
I have a Twitter account and I was pissed off. And I was going to let Nordstrom know about it. I was dissatisfied with the initial answers I received. I found it suspicious that these charges were related to the Nordstrom e-commerce site. I questioned the logic of using a department store for a bank/credit card company.
I bitched. Loudly. Publicly. And you know what? I got a response.
So I DM them my number. But as far as I know, the fraud department is closed for the day so this isn’t getting resolved tonight.
An hour later I get a call from Avery at Nordstrom. She’d heard I’d been tweeting about how bad their service is and she wanted to help. I informed her that there was little she could do, as I was waiting until the fraud dept. opened up tomorrow.
Avery informed me she was a member of the fraud department and that they were open until 10:30PM (2 more hours from the time she called).
FAIL.
Okay, so the initial person lied to me? Was he misinformed? Did he just want to get the fuck off the phone? Seemed that way. Disconcerting. Unacceptable. This is not the Nordstrom I have come to love.
Avery was nice (but I got the feeling she was annoyed by my nasty tweets). She walked me through everything. Explained what happened, why it might have happened, and the steps that would need to be taken to resolve the issue. It should be resolved before the end of the week. Thanks Avery. If you’re out there, I really appreciated the call.
The Lessons
I’m not Kevin Smith. I only have 159 followers on Twitter. It took me 5 tweets over the course of 45 minutes to garner a response from the object of my rage.
Sure, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, but this incident leaves me with some serious misgivings. The biggest issue I have is with the misinformation. Why are you going to tell me the department I need to speak with is closed when they aren’t? Unacceptable.
Beyond that though, where’s the empathy? I see a fraudulent charge for $1000, and you know what? That’s a big deal. ID theft is a no joke. So when I see the same fraudulent charge seemingly reinstated on my statement with no explanation, it does not sit well.
Clearly, I wanted this resolved tonight, instantly. That can’t always happen. I understand. However, I believe that in cases where issues cannot be immediately resolved, its the company’s (i.e the rep on the phone’s) responsibility to comprehensively walk through what happened and why. If they don’t know, they need to get me on the phone with someone who does. They need to explain the specific steps that will be taken in order to achieve resolution (which is not the same thing as saying, “Someone will call you tomorrow.”), which Avery did on when she reached-out.
Finally, exhibit some empathy. You’re sorry? Thanks. Don’t tell me that “these things happen from time to time and all I need to do is simply call and let you know.” They may happen from time to time for you, but this is the first time something like this has happened to me in 27 years. Maybe I’m just lucky.
I want you to explain to me that Nordstroms takes these ‘processing issues’ seriously and will do everything possible to resolve this in a timely and satisfactory manner. Tell me that my business is important to you. Indulge me, or I’ll do business with someone else who will.
I’m sure there were a lot of variables that factored into my situation including time of call, office locations and other things. Maybe that initial rep was having an off day. But when you have an incident, especially one involving credit, none of that matters at the time – not to the person being affected. If you aren’t going to resolve my issue on that initial call, you better do your best to make sure I hang up satisfied with the proposed next steps.
On the flip-side, I’m still not Kevin Smith. I now have 160 followers on Twitter. Yet it only took me 5 tweets over the course of 45 minutes to garner a response from Nordstrom.
I think its outstanding that Nordstrom was able use social media to locate me and assist me in a timely manner (i.e. get me to shut up). I was so impressed that I let them know about it.
I think there’s a natural synergy between social media and customer service. I’m also a big believer in customer service being a catalyst for word-of-mouth marketing, so this little incident really hit home for me.
The fact that they were able to use Twitter to enhance customer service was admirable. So much so that I almost (ALMOST) felt bad about my initial tweet-rant.
I’m genuinely happy Nordstrom took the steps that they did to address my issue. I really hope they read this and give my observations some serious consideration. I’ve always been an advocate of Nordstrom (not quite an evangelist) and am usually proud when I present my Nordstrom Visa because I know it represents a tradition of superior customer service. The fact that they’re employing social media strategies to maintain that tradition in the face of a changing consumer landscape is all the better.
Still, here’s a fine line between rectifying instances of poor customer service and preventing them from ever occurring in the first place.
At this point there’s still a mixed taste in my mouth. Will I continue to shop there? Will I continue to use my Nordstrom Visa? We’ll see how this issue is ultimately resolved.
Expect an update.































