SUCCESS

A lesson learned and learned without compromise  is to treat customers well, treat employees and suppliers well, and sell a good product. It sounds simple, but the dying art of customer service really does set a company apart. Here's a good example and lesson from a shoe and clothing company.

The Zappos Model

Zappos, the online shoe and clothing shop, has extraordinary customer service: free shipping and free return shipping within 365 days of purchase. It trains its customer service people intensively. By the end of the training period, if the customer service representative thinks he can’t live up to expectations, he is paid $1,000 not to accept the job, because Zappos knows a bad employee costs more than that.

If you call Zappos, it takes just moments to get a human being. There is no offsite call centre, no rush to get off the phone, no time limit. They charge full price for most of what they sell, which is unheard of online. But even if you want to return a product a year later, they will pay for the return shipping.

A customer ordered from Zappos a pair of sailing shoes at 8 p.m. on a weeknight. He got them at 9 a.m. the next day.

"I was freaking out about how great Zappos is. But I didn’t like the way the shoes fit. I called to exchange them, and Zappos emailed me a UPS label for the return and immediately shipped me a new pair. The next day I got my new shoes. This company, which Amazon bought for $847 million in 2009, acts like a mom and pop. There is no way they didn’t lose money with that order of mine.  That is why I will never shop anywhere else for shoes, and will tell everyone I know about my experience. And that’s why their service will make money for them in the long run".

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