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

For example, a customer comes into the store, laden with items already purchased from rival store Macy’s. The customer shops in Nordstrom, comes to the till and takes advantage of Nordtrom’s free giftwrap 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.

In another example a customer comes into Nordstrom wishing to return a $17 tyre iron. They don’t have a receipt. Nordstrom doesn’t sell tyre irons. The employee gives the customer a full refund.

That employee knows full well that the Nordstrom customer has an average lifetime spend of $8,000. What’s $17 compared to that?

By publishing these stories, Nordstrom not only gives concrete examples of how great their service is to customers, but also to new employees as well.

Your employee handbook might say ‘give great customer service’ but to the average employee that basically just says ‘smile, make eye contact and tuck in your shirt’.

Nordy stories give concrete examples to the employees to show them exactly how good customer service is given.