Question for retail professionals - and rave about GREAT service

So... here's my question. For those of you who work in retail, particularly at Nordstrom, what's the best way that I can make sure someone at the company - someone who matters as far as giving recognition or promotion/salary input - hears about the totally above-expectations customer service that a sales professional provided?

I'm trying to make a point to be more proactive about recognizing customer-facing employees for excellent service when I encounter it, because I know from experience how we often get good feedback from our clients to our faces - but the feedback rarely makes it up the management chain unless something goes wrong.

The backstory, if you are interested:

The other day I was browsing in Nordstrom looking at an item that was an almost-but-not-quite-there purchase - very close to the look that I was trying to capture. A sales associate came up and gave me some feedback, but in a very approachable, non-pushy way, offered to take some photos of me wearing the item on my cell phone in case I wanted to go home and think about it, and struck up a conversation. I let her know what I was looking for and gave her some criteria, and while we weren't able to find exactly what I was hoping for in the store (because my list was extremely specific and picky), she was very helpful and patient.

I placed an in-store order for a different & unrelated item that would be able to be delivered to my home.

Then a couple days later, the sales associate actually followed up with a phone call specifically to let me know that she had just got in some new items that met a few of the criteria that I'd been looking for in the store. She remembered many of the specifics days later and said that it would definitely be worth looking at the item on the website, and gave me the item number in case I wanted to check on it.

I was incredibly impressed. I don't spend the kind of money that usually warrants that level of service, and not only that, but she was incredibly professional and tailored her communication in a way that I didn't feel I was being pressured to buy something that I didn't want. (When I feel overly pressured I tend to back away and not respond at all.)

14 years ago

annagybe

(website)

Veteran

I've written out positive comments on the postcards they have at customer service. I've always gotten a letter back from someone higher up and they make a comment that my comment will be placed in the associate's personnel file.
Also on the flip side when Nordstrom badly screwed up a handbag repair I got a personal call from the manager of the handbag department. I had written a letter to corporate and mailed it in.

Kari

Thanks, Anna. Great idea! Submitting feedback in writing is not only great from a documentation/personnel file perspective, but it's incredibly meaningful when the employee in question gets to see something in writing that recognizes the work they are doing too.

RandomThoughts (Andrea)

What a lovely experience! No advice but it's wonderful when you get service like that. I have not worked in retail, but did work in tech support and I can tell you, when a customer wrote a letter in about a positive interaction with me it was deeply appreciated.

I'm like you - hard sells turn me off. That SA sounds like a real gem!

Suz

I agree that writing a note is the very best thing to do. If you know the associate's name you could also copy her.

Many years ago, I worked at SImpson's (big department store in Canada, since deceased). This was when I was a student. I worked there over the holiday rush. My first position was in wallets and handbags. Main floor, no commission.

But somebody liked my service. Actually TWO people liked my service enough to write letters about me to personnel. I had no idea, at the time. But when I came back the following year for another holiday job, I was promoted to perfumes (a partly commissioned job where I would inevitably make much more money). Why? Because of those customer letters.

It meant a HUGE amount to me, as a poor student.

marianna

At Nordstrom employee recognition is taken very seriously and the store manager reads every comment card/email that comes in. You can either fill out a comment card in the Customer Service department, or ask for the store manager's email address and write them an email. I'm so glad you had a great experience at Nordie's and I know the store manager would LOVE to hear about it!

Andrea, she was totally fantastic. I'm hoping she'll be there next time I head into the store.

Suz, what a beautiful reminder and encouragement to give feedback. (The hard part for me? I don't remember names of sales associates easily, so I'm striving to do that. I do have the name for this particular employee, though.)

Marianna, that is fantastic. I'll definitely make sure the manager receives the feedback and will ask her to share the thank-you with the employee, too. So glad that this is a crucial part of Nordstroms' company values.

Freckles

Kari for smaller stores it is really easy to ask to speak to the store manager and get immediate assistance. They're always delighted to hear about great employees. My son who is going to university works part time at a grocery store and their pay raises are increased when they have had good customer comments. Often another employee will forget to write it down or mention it to the appropriate person to get this logged in but the store manager never does.
I also know that when I used to work that if I heard an employee complimented I always took the person aside at some other moment and asked them to write me a note. These days you have to prove over and over again that an employee is worth their pay raise or superior rating. One way for your department not to get cut too much during layoffs too...

On another note...

Forgot to mention that I'm no retail professional but...

My husband calls me the only woman in the universe who has to speak to every store manager in every store she visits every time she visits...lol. It very rarely not complimentary and I know that if I know the sales associate who has treated me very well in the past I'm more than likely to pass a rare thing off as a bad day.

I bought a beautiful bowl for a wedding and when I was in the store weeks later with my husband we were discussing the rest of the errands that had to be completed that day. Some of them were to fill this wedding gift bowl with before it was wrapped. The manager must have been standing near us as she came over and said to bring the bowl in once we had purchased all the things we wanted to include and she'd wrap it for us no problem. She also said don't even think of buying the other things here either, I know you want to include all this and that... Of course it is not why I compliment staff but I thought that was really sweet of her. I know they would wrap it for me when I bought it but after the fact and with other items inside I was impressed. I may be easiyl impressed though...

Freckles, I think that's also very true that in a time period when *every* employer is looking for ways to cut corners, and a lot of employers are going through slow periods where staff are laid off or are paid less, it's especially important to give feedback when warranted because *anything* helps sometimes.

(That in mind, I really want to drop by my hair stylist's new salon and rave about the cut she gave me - I swear, I've got about 50 compliments out of the blue on the cut in the last week and a half!)

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