Why I Heart Zappos More and More All the Time

I screwed up. I bought a pair of shoes at Zappos, thought I would keep them, threw away the box. Then the podiatrist said the shoes are all wrong for my hurty foot, worst thing i could get, etc. He said that the clogs I like to run around in are great and to keep wearing them.

I called Zappos. They answer the phone "We're having a great day at Zappos." And, instead of saying, sorry, no box, no return, they told me they'd send me the clogs via free overnight delivery. That usually costs $25.

When I get the new shoes, I just put the ones I don't want in that box and ship them back - no charge for shipping, of course. In other words. Zappos trusts their customers.

But that's not all. The lovely woman told me how much fun it is to work there. She said that every employee from the top to the bottom, spends 40 hours answering phones; learns to pick, pack and ship, and does every other job in the company so they know what employees encounter every day.

"It seems so obvious that this is a good way to run a company" she said, "so you have to wonder why everyone doesn't do it." Indeed.

I love you Zappos. And when my foot gets better, I think I'll need a pair of these.

UPDATE: : Zappos brilliantly harnessed the power of Twitter by randomly giving away 11 pair of shoes to Twitter followers. This company understands community like few others. Bravo!

I had a similar experience with Gevalia a few years ago. I received an extra shipment of holiday coffees I wasn't expecting (and couldn't really afford), so I called customer support. They told me, no worries, keep the shipment and we'll take it off your bill. Oh, and, we'll credit your regular shipment as well.

I could have fallen out of my chair! In fact, I think I did. I drank Gevalia for years after that and was more than happy to recount that story anytime the subject of customer service ever came up in conversations.

wow thats nice, i'll propably will also buy some shoes there :-)

And I'm here to say that B.L. has helped to make my business a better place to work. How? Well, B.L. recently announced that she was declaring e-mail bankruptcy. She was so inundated that she couldn't keep up with it. So, she asked one and all to call instead.

I can't say that my e-mailbox is flooded, but I've found that e-mail can really become a distraction. It's very easy to develop a "check that e-mail" tic, and I'm working on breaking that habit.

Just started week two of this behavior change, and you know what? Fewer checks of the e-mail, say, one or two a day and none during big projects, are making my little one-gal business a MUCH better place to work.

Thanks, B.L.

thanks martha! i wish i could say that i was mastering the email nightmare. but i continue to be overwhelmed.

i check less often, and stress about email less, but they just keep on piling up and piling up.
sigh

Paul - what a great story! and what did that cost them? $100?

it's like the lady at zappos said "you have to wonder why everyone doesn't do it."

This post looks pretty familiar....
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/04/zappos-wants-yo.html

He must have liked what he read here ;)

his post was two days after mine. maybe he decided to buy some shoes from zappos. i sure love the new ones i'm wearing.