The NewEgg for shoes, Zappos, really tries to think different and defy industry expectations in order to succeed.
Zappos is a rising online retailer that sells shoes and does it well with stellar customer service.
You’re probably thinking, “So what?” I don’t blame you. Let me dive a little deeper on this one.
Bill Taylor, an editor of Harvard Business Review, recently blogged a bit about some of the radical things which Zappos is doing to succeed.
I was captured by the fact that the company bribes employees with $1000 to quit. The benefit of doing this is the fact that employees looking to just make a buck will take the bribe, and others who actually have the passion, the drive and the desire to succeed will reject it.
Zappos defies the industry expectations by openly publishing their toll-free phone numbers to help people, casual relaxed customer service reps without scripts or any kind of robotic customer service methods; in addition to providing free shipping (two-way) and priding themselves on service.
Oh, did I mention they let employees use Twitter and empower them to help customers? Zappos has been one of the first companies around lately to fully leverage Twitter for their own [moral] success.
I ask: if you work in a sales or service industry, interact with customers or manage customer service — consider the Zappos way to let poor employees out the door while impressing your customers each and every time. I have a hunch that Zappos has about a billion reasons why customer service matters.
Disclosure: I’m just sharing my feelings on Zappos’ customer service practices. I have not purchased any shoes or have interacted with them personally, nor do I have any financial interest with them. Keep it up, Zappos!
