Visiting Neiman Marcus – Bringing a case study to life

Prof Dewar has given us so much insight into Neiman Marcus’s legendary customer service that Toby and I had to step in to check it for ourselves.  After catching some action at the Chicago Air and Water Show (do F-22′s really stall vertically or was my mind playing tricks in the afternoon sun?) we casually strolled into the Neiman Marcus on the Magnificent Mile.  It was time to test our MORS case study in action … and we were not dissapointed.

All quarter we had learnt how at Neiman, customers were ‘clients’ and how sales people literally strive to ‘sell the store’ when they see a bright prospect.  Neiman obviously has a treasure trove of lessons in customer experience management that ‘lesser stores and mortals’ can learn from.  We have learnt how their ‘approach to market’ is “kiss every need” and how they build their brand with people strategy that ties in strongly to their desired brand [sales hiring ratio ~ 2% (approx. 20/1000 who apply for a position in 'round 1' are around 1 year out)]. 

We had also heard amusing ancedotes of how customers who “look” like Neiman material get a rarified level of service while others could risk being studiously ignored.  Were Toby and I up to the mark?  We just had to find out!

Our first destination was the men’s clothing section on the first floor.  This section seemed to be filled with casual wear.  Some of the shirts were perhaps pulled straight out of the wardrobe at ‘Two and a Half Men’.  A paradoxical combination of gaudy and class!

We asked for the men’s suit section and were ‘adviced’ to take the elevator to the second floor.  We quickly caught a line that Prof Dewar had mentioned many times over this quarter – “Can we show you the latest designs we just got?”.  Of course, we had to see what the latest was, and how could we miss what they just got?

Anthony gave Toby and I a couple Italian suits to try on.  He reminded us that these were couture (hand crafted, no less!) and were fine for gentlemen like us.  We were frequently reminded how “marvellous” we looked and how “the suits were fine garments”.  Oh, the suave sales pitch again.  I did pity Anthony a bit since Prof Dewar had over the quarter literally given us the ‘sales lines’ at Neiman and I almost seemed to know what was coming next!  Anyways, we spent a few minutes admiring the suits (they were fine) .. ignoring the price tags ($2300 for a suit would need me to find a larger dog-house).  After confirming that our respective spouses would rather have us not spend a fortune on suits we stepped back into the normal world outside.  Oh, and as we left the store we saw a ‘classic’ Neiman customer … a “lady” in an elaborate hat (think Victorian) and an elegant dress … she was soon surrounded by a Neiman sales team that really could separate the grain from the chaff*! 

A quick SMS reply to a friend who asked us where we were … and by the time we walked back 2 blocks to school, I had a few curious colleagues asking about our ‘living case’ study experience.  I plan to go back to Neiman in a few weeks and check out the shoes.  I figured the $350 belts were not appropriate for ‘students’ like us, but shoes may be a different story.

PS: Toby, had fun catching the air show before the NM walk-in.  I did not realize you were a plane-guru … I dont know too many others who can differentiate a F-16 from a F-22 when the metal is hundreds of feet above you.  And yes, I did come back and read more about the F-22s.  I am retro-actively even more impressed by the vertical-stalling and ‘lift’ we saw during the show!

PS 2: *Chaff: Merriam Webster definition – ˈcha-fē adjective – “something comparatively worthless”