Robert Spector

Topics

Presentations

How To Become the Nordstorm of your Industry
Spector's presentation details the management principles that have made Nordstrom the gold standard for customer service, and a company that has inspired companies and organizations in every walk of life.

The Nine Management Principles of America's #1 Customer Service Industry
Spector discusses the nine key principles in order to succeed as a company that caters to customer service.

The Future of Retail
Spector is the author of "Category Killers: The Retail Revolution and Its Impact on Consumer Culture", published by Harvard Business School Press.  With the current upheavel in retail, Spector will predict where this vital economic category is going.

Minding the American Dream
Based on Spector's forthcoming book, this talk explores the importance and value of small retail business for our communities.  It is based on Spector's background as a retail historian, as well as interviews with men and women all over the country  who run mom & pop businesses.  There are also interviews with well-known people who have worked in mom & pop stores, including Colin Powell.  

Summary Profile

Robert Spector is a bestselling business author and international speaker.

Robert gives keynote presentations and conducts customized customer-service workshops for a vast cross-section of companies and organizations throughout the world.

He is best known for writing the national bestseller, THE NORDSTROM WAY: The Inside Story of America's #1 Customer Service Company, the first and only up-close and personal look at how this company became the national standard of customer service. Robert is the only journalist ever given total access to the inner workings of the Nordstrom culture.

The Nordstrom Way spent 17 weeks on the Business Week Bestseller List, and was nominated for the Booz Allen Hamilton/Financial Times Global Business Award. It has been translated into Japanese, Korean and Chinese. Tom Peters called The Nordstrom Way, "A real winner," and Business Week said it "bubbles with customer service insights."

Robert's newest take on this world-class retailer is THE NORDSTROM WAY TO CUSTOMER SERVICE EXCELLENCE: A Handbook for Implementing Great Service in Your Organization. This book updates the original THE NORDSTROM WAY, and features new interviews with top Nordstrom executives and salespeople, as well as unique customer-service training excercises.

Robert's talks break down the elements of the Nordstrom philosophy and explain how they can be adapted for virtually every kind of organization.

His book, CATEGORY KILLERS: The Retail Revolution and Its Impact on Consumer Culture, analyzes modern retail's most influential players—including Wal-Mart, Costco and Home Depot—and guides readers down the aisles of retailing history and reveals what's in store for the the future.

Robert is also the author of AMAZON.COM: GET BIG FAST: Inside The Revolutionary Business Model That Changed The World and ANYTIME, ANYWHERE: How the Best Bricks-and-Clicks Businesses Deliver Seamless Service to Their Customers.

Robert also wrote the foreword to CUSTOMER SERVICE , the second in HarperBusiness's "Business Masters" series. Edited by Fred Wiersema, co-author of THE DISCIPLINE OF MARKET LEADERS , the book spotlights Southwest Airlines, Charles Schwab, Lands' End, American Express, Staples and United Services Automobile Association. He has been a television guest on the National Business Report, CNN, CNBC, Fox News, Bloomberg Business, CNET News.com and numerous radio interview shows across the United States.

He is the author of corporate histories of an eclectic array of companies, including Chevron, Eddie Bauer, Kimberly-Clark, and the Space Needle.

Robert has written on business for the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, UPI International, NASDAQ Magazine, Customer Service Management and Corporate University Review ; fashion for Women's Wear Daily and Details , and civil liberties for Parade ; and has been a ghostwriter for Dr. Joyce Brothers. His humor writing has been published in The New York Times, Sports Illustrated and National Lampoon , and performed by Don Imus and Stiller & Meara.

A native of Perth Amboy, New Jersey (and a member of the Perth Amboy High School Hall of Fame), Robert is a graduate of Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He lives in Seattle with his wife, Marybeth, and their daughter, Fae.

MOST REQUESTED TOPICS:
How To Become the Nordstrom of Your Industry
The Nine Management Principles of America 's #1 Customer Service Company

Robert's presentation, “How to Become The Nordstrom of Your Industry,” details the management principles that have made Nordstrom the gold standard for customer service, and a company that has inspired companies and organizations in every walk of life.

Robert shows your audience how Nordstrom:

• creates, maintains, encourages, and nurtures a 45,000-employee culture that is 100 percent committed to serving the customer.
• empowers its entrepreneurial employees to take customer service to new heights.
• gives frontline people the freedom to make decisions-and then supports those decisions.
• values the nobility of customer service and encourages employees to become othercentered rather than self-centered.
• transfers this culture as it expands throughout the U.S.
• has created name-brand recognition of what the company represents.
• serves as a model of employee empowerment that can be emulated by your organization.

The Nine Management Principles of America 's #1 Customer Service Company:

• Provide your customers with choices—of products, services and service channels.
• Create an inviting place for your customers—in person, online and on the phone.
• Sell the relationship: Service your clients through the products and services you offer.
• Hire nice, motivated people.
• Empower employees to take ownership…by minimizing the rules.
• Sustain the people on the frontlines through a culture of support and mentorship.
• Nurture a service culture through recognition and praise.
• Advocate teamwork through internal customer service.
• Commit 100% to customer service.

Amazon.com: America's Most Unpredictable Company
Spector, the author of the definitive book on amazon, explains how the company has evolved and has become  the best known e-commerce Web site, with an unrelenting focus on customer.  Spector also explains how amazon is as much as technology company as it is an online retailers.

The Future of Retail
Spector is the author of "Category Killers: The Retail Revolution and Its Impact on Consumer Culture", published by Harvard Business School Press.  With the current upheavel in retail, Spector will predict where this vital economic category is going.

Mom & Pop Store
Minding the American Dream
Based on Spector's forthcoming book, this talk explores the importance and value of small retail business for our communities.  It is based on Spector's background as a retail historian, as well as interviews with men and women all over the country  who run mom & pop businesses.  There are also interviews with well-known people who have worked in mom & pop stores, including Colin Powell.