Try walking in Zappos' shoes

Here’s an example of why Zappos is the shoe-in…sorry, shoo-in…for the world’s best online retailer. When I recently purchased a pair of shoes from Zappos, I received an email informing me that they had decided to upgrade me to overnight shipping, free of charge. That was a moment of pure delight.

That’s par for the course for a company genuinely dedicated to their core value: "Deliver 'WOW' through service.” To understand why this Nevada-based company has become such an e-commerce success (spurring Amazon to purchase the company), you’ll want to read the book “Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose” by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh.

Surprisingly, it turns out that Zappos—which takes its name from the Spanish word zapatos, meaning shoes—had a very rocky start. The startup nearly ran out of money multiple times. It nearly ran out of customers several times, too. The company’s early attempts at outsourcing proved disastrous and it was only when Zappos moved its warehousing services and shipping back in-house that they were able to control their promise to wow customers. (See the video, above, for a fuller account of their early travails.)

I really appreciated learning about how, where and when they decided to keep evolving their business and refining the passion they now have for “delivering happiness.” They have mastered the art of creating experiences that customers want to repeat.

What Zappos has accomplished is all the more remarkable given its line of business. Most people think of e-commerce as cold and impersonal transactions since they rarely involve interpersonal interaction. Yet Zappos makes its customers feel warm and fuzzy. That’s a startling accomplishment for an online store.

One quote from Hsieh’s book explains one of the many ways that  Zappos has been able to foster its relationship with its customers.

“A lot of people may think it’s strange that an Internet company is so focused on the telephone, when only about 5 percent of our sales happen through the telephone. In fact, most of our phone calls don’t even result in sales. But what we’ve found is that on average, every customer contacts us at least once sometime during his or her lifetime, and we just need to make sure that we use that opportunity to create a lasting memory.”

That tidbit reminds me of the story I read in the latest Jeanne Bliss book (“I Love You More Than My Dog”) about how a company called Zane’s Cycles realized that each customer was worth a lot more than just one transaction – like one repair or one replacement part. So they provide free parts to their customers, they loan out bikes without asking for your driver’s license in exchange, and they make amazing leaps in service to create memories that keep customers coming back.

What would the world be like if even an additional 1% of businesses really oriented themselves to wowing customers?