Zappos is an internet shoe store that is known around the world for its service. One of their connections with customers is that they actively promote that they give free overnight shipping of orders and also free return shipping.


Recently, Zappos decided to stop advertising that every customer would get free overnight shipping of their orders; opting instead to surprise as many customers as they could with upgraded overnight shipping. They still give everyone free shipping; just not overnight in all cases.
Some have taken Zappos to task for that. But I actually praise them for their decision and explanation. Zappos says that they made the decision to not advertise or promise it, because they found that customers were happier when they were surprised by the upgrade. They acknowledge that they would probably get more customers if they continued to market free overnight shipping as opposed to surprising customers with it, but they want to be known as a customer service company, not a marketing company.
THAT'S a company that knows how to distinguish themselves with customers–all the way down to their (umm) soles. (Pun intended)

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Zappos.com: True to Their Sole

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

image of Jeanne Bliss
Jeanne Bliss began her career at Lands’ End where she reported to founder Gary Comer and the company’s executive committee, ensuring that in the formative years of the organization, the company stayed focused on its core principles of customer and employee focus. She was the first leader of the Lands’ End Customer Experience. In addition to Lands’ End, she has served Allstate, Microsoft, Coldwell Banker Corporation and Mazda Corporations as its executive leading customer focus and customer experience. Jeanne has helped achieve 95% retention rates across 50,000 person organizations, harnessing businesses to work across their silos to deliver a united and deliberate experience customers (and employees) want to repeat. Jeanne now runs CustomerBliss (https://www.customerbliss.com), an international consulting business where she coaches executive leadership teams and customer leadership executives on how to put customer profitability at the center of their business, by getting past lip service; to operationally relevant, operationally executable plans and processes. Her clients include Johnson & Johnson, TD Ameritrade, St. Jude’s Children’s Hospitals, Bombardier Aircraft and many others. Her two best-selling books are Chief Customer Officer: Getting Past Lip Service to Passionate Action and I Love You More than My Dog: Five Decisions that Drive Extreme Customer Loyalty in Good Times and Bad. Her blog is https://www.ccocoach.com She is Co-founder of the Customer Experience Professionals Association. www.cxpa.org