Customer Service Excellence at the Mom & Pop Store: How the Unsung Heroes of the American Economy are Surviving and Thriving

In the 1980s and 1990s, the economy experienced a boom. Big Box retail was in. According to Robert Spector, author of THE NORDSTROM WAY: The Inside Story of America's #1 Customer Service Company, it’s out! His book The Nordstrom Way was the first and only up-close and personal look at how this company became the national standard of customer service and spent 17 weeks on the Business Week Bestseller List, and was nominated for the Booz Allen Hamilton/Financial Times Global Business Award. In this podcast Spector talks about the inspiration for his newest book The Mom & Pop Store: How the Unsung Heroes of the American Economy are Surviving and Thriving (September 2009). Spector talks about growing up working in his parents butcher shop in New Jersey and His parents were immigrants and through stellar customer service were able to create a bustling and profitable business. Spector believes entrepreneurs are going to save our economy. He says entrepreneurs are going to bring back the economy through a focus on customer experience. He says consumers are starting to understand the value of community. Customers, according to Spector, are returning to "good old fashioned neighborly values." Customers want to keep the money in the community. Customers have lost faith in financial and political institutions. In this podcast Spector sheds light on everything from last year’s shareholders meeting with Blake Nordstrom to why we are seeing a shift in how Americans do business.