When the Customer Service Fits...

Last week I attended the Portland Advertising Federation's luncheon which featured two great shoe companies -- Nike and Zappos.com. In a nutshell, Steve Hill, VP of Merchandising for Zappos.com and Michael Benno, Sr. Internet Consultant for Nike.com, talked about the in's and out's of their e-commerce sites and their relationships with retailers, distributors and the like.

What really interested me was Zappos.com's approach to customer service. I've been shopping with Zappos.com for a few years and have always loved their fantastic customer service. In particular, I'm a big fan of their free shipping both ways policy -- it's like shoe shopping at the best department store but never having to leave your house. That policy alone is a no-brainer for becoming a loyal customer. But here's what else I learned:

• If you order your shoes before 10 a.m. EST, you'll have them on your doorstep before you leave for work the next morning. I've never ordered that early in the day, but that's really good to know. Goodbye shoe dilemma.


• Every employee that works for the company, whether you're the CFO, VP of marketing or an attorney, has to go through a two week call center training, followed by actually working in the call center for two weeks, and then staffing the fulfillment center for one week. It's a brilliant way to ensure everyone knows the inner workings of the company!


• If after two weeks of working at Zappos.com, you decide it's not a fit (pun intended), they will pay you $2,000 to leave. Yes, they pay you to leave. They figure it's cheaper to pay you the money up front then to have an employee who jeopardizes customer relationships and doesn't embrace company values.

posted on September 29, 2008