Stories that make good content – Featuring the legendary Nordy Stories

Due to the massive explosion of easy access to content creation, everybody is jumping on the content creation wagon. But the challenge is to create a truly authentic content that resonates with the customers. And if you want authentic content then the brand has to do authentic work to bring out those emotions in people. Some brands have been doing this for years. One such example is ‘Nordy Stories’.

Nordstrom

American fashion retailer Nordstrom began collecting examples of great customer service from its employees. They called them Nordy stories.

For example, a customer enters a store, laden with items already purchased from a rival company- Macy’s. The customer shops in the Nordstrom and takes advantage of Nordstrom’s free gift-wrap service. The Nordstrom employee obliges and then, to the surprise and delight of the customer, offers to wrap the Macy’s gifts too for no extra charge.

Another Nordstrom association goes as forthwith. A man ventures into a store in Anchorage, Alaska, to return a set of tires. To his surprise, he discovers the tire shop closed, and a Nordstrom that mostly sells apparel, shoes, and accessories, and does not sell tires stands in its place. After some discussion, the Nordstrom store manager decides to allow the customer to return the tires AND refunds him the money. Why?
That employee knew very well that a Nordstrom customer has an average lifetime spend of $8,000. Whereas $17 worth of tires brought decades of publicity to them. 

Another example is about a member of the housekeeping staff at a store in Connecticut who discovered a customer’s bags, along with her receipt and a flight itinerary, in the parking lot. Noticing that the customer had likely left the store to catch her flight at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, he looked-up her phone number in the company’s system and tried to call her several times. Despite receiving no response, the employee drove to the airport and had the airport page her to let her know he had her bags.

Nordstrom started publishing these stories which not only started strengthening the brand in the minds of the consumers but also reinforced the work culture and attitude of the brand in the minds of the employees.

For every brand there is a story in your backyard, look for them.

by Vincent Panangadon