Lessons from the Nordstrom Way: How Companies are Emulating the #1 Customer Service Company

by Robert Spector, Sheldon Ed. Spector

This book focuses on the customer service principles espoused by the Nordstrom department store chain, a legend in retailing and customer service. It shows how the Nordstrom customer service culture can work in any company or industry -- computer repair centers, bicycle shops, medical clinics, credit unions, and more. The book features case studies from many companies that have successfully adopted and adapted the lessons from The Nordstrom Way, the author's successful book about the founding of Nordstrom and the beliefs the Nordstrom family imparts to its employees. Helps other companies apply Nordstrom's principles to their own customer service practices Provides lessons on how to find and focus on customer needs, follow-up, and ensure customer satisfaction

Genres: Business

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Robert Spector is an author of business books, consultant and motivational speaker focusing on customer service.

Reviews

[CatReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Robert Spector is an American business consultant and writer probably best known for his 1995 book The Nordstrom Way: The Inside Story of America's #1 Customer Service Company; the similarly-titled 2000 follow-up Lessons from the Nordstrom Way again profiles Nordstrom and a handful of other companies he identified as having excellent customer service, including:

FirstMerit Corporation - a bank based in Akron, Ohio; 2026 status: acquired by Ohio-based Huntington Bank in 2016
W Hotels - a hotel concept that emerged out of Westin Hotels; 2026 status: still operating
USinternetnetworking - an application service provider found in 1998; 2026 status: no Google search results; presumably long defunct
St. Charles Medical Center - a nonprofit healthcare system in Bend, Oregon; 2026 status: apparently still operational and not owned by private equity!
Feed the Children, a nonprofit charity based in Oklahoma City, OK; 2026 status: still operating with a 92%/four-star rating on Charity Navigator
Mike's Express Carwash, a service company based in Indianapolis, Indiana; 2026 status: still operating though somewhat split due to family issues
Continental Airlines; 2026 status: merged/subsumed into United Airlines as of 2012

Spector writes with the typical breathless fervor of a business consultant who sees this book as a vehicle to gain more clientele. The stories are feel-good and such, though as you see with the quarter century that's elapsed since publication, instances of excellent customer service were likely not the deciding factor in which businesses survived and which did not. Top-notch customer service can't rescue businesses whose business models and profit structures are unsustainable, or single-handedly sustain companies through challenging market conditions, the increasing vulture circling of private equity, etc.

Books in a similar vein that read differently decades later:
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't by Jim Collins

My statistics:
Book 95 for 2026
Book 2401 cumulatively