Recommendations

Nordstrom is a very well established company. The company was built on superior customer service, and today the company has taken its' core values and is incorporating those values into modern technology. While many veteran companies witness the fast growth of technology and shy away from it, Nordstrom has decided to take it head on and use it to enhance it's business and relationships with customers. However, that being said, after speaking with Mr. Sanders we see that there are several points on which Nordstrom should improve.

SOCIAL NETWORKING

On a corporate, company wide level Nordstrom is doing an excellent job of trying to reach it's customers through the use of technology. Facebook and Twitter are amazing ways to get through to your customer on a very personal level. This instant messaging type of communication breeds open dialogue. Clients and customers feel free to voice their approvals, questions, and concerns. Nordstrom can use these things to do a better job of honing in on the consumer's needs and the best way to meet those needs. The Menlo Park store is not utilizing this powerful tool of social networking to the best of it's abilities. This branch should focus more on Facebook and Twitter to reach it's local customers. The store should set weekly goals and commit to increasing its online following so that more dialogue can be created amongst Menlo Park consumers. If Mr. Sanders had access to this kind of feedback he would then be able to train his managers and employees on what their customers are looking for.

VIRTUALIZATION

This store is currently operating on multiple databases.

• Direct-to-Customer ordering
• Personal Book
• Merch Serch
• Administrative

Multiple database systems and servers means LOTS of energy usage. Brian Sanders confirmed for us that the company running on several different databases. This not only makes it hard for the different departments to communicate with one another, but it uses up way more energy than necessary. If Menlo Park takes the necessary steps to consolidate into only ONE server, it will be reducing costs as well as energy, making the company much more planet friendly!

WASTED ENERGY AND ELECTRICITY

At the end of the night when the store is shut down and customers and employees are all cleared out for the night, hundreds of computers are left to run. These computers run throughout the entire night for approximately 6-7 hours not being used once. There is no benefit to this whatsoever. This is simply hurting the company by running up energy bills. The solution is simple: hire a private company like EnviProt Green IT, aka "The Power Saving Company." Specialists come in to install a simple yet very efficient program that will, "take full control of the shut-down, wake-up and sleep modes of your PCs and servers. With a program like this implemented, Nordstrom at Menlo Park saves money and lowers its impact on the environment.