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When was it last that something or someone wow’ed you? . Sachin Tendulkar‘s  perfectly elegant cover drive normally has that effect on his millions of fans. Actually, it needn’t be a  Sachin always, to evoke a ‘wow’ . A small  gesture from you as well as a customer service company can do the same.

Zappos.com is an e-commerce company which specializes in footwear and has grown from being a startup in 1999 to gross around a billion dollars now. So, How did they market themselves?  Zappos.com answers “We are ever evolving. If we want to continue to stay ahead of our competition, we must continually change and keep them guessing. They can copy our images, our shipping, and the overall look of our web site, but they cannot copy our people, our culture, or our service. As long as embracing constant change is a part of our culture, they will not be able to evolve as fast as we can.“

What does Zappos.com do?

Sells footwear online. If I tell this to a VC in India at this point in time, I don’t think the meeting would last even 15 minutes. Read this interview of  Tony Hseih in which he reveals his reactions on this idea before joining Zappos.com.

So What is it about Zappos that makes it the success that it is?

We could just quote  the core values put up by Zappos on their website, but it is all about getting that wow from their  customers. Zappos.com understands the fact that their employees are their first customers and engaging their employees is the first step towards engaging their customers.

What does Zappos.com do for its employees?

The hiring process at Zappos checks whether a person is a cultural fit at Zappos.com above anything else. Whatever post you are hired for, you are made to work at the warehouse for two weeks so that you understand what it means to work at the front-line and what Zappos.com actually stands for. After 2 weeks, you are offered  2000 USD to quit your job and it costs Zappos quite a bit, but those who remain are engaged employees.  Zappos.com publishes a 300 page employee manual written by the employees themselves every year. An amazing video underlining their amazing work culture can be seen here. Their amazing Zappos channel is thoroughly enjoyable. You may get to see what zappos stands for and how they do it here.

What does Zappos.com offer to its customers?

Shoes,  good quality shoes and the best possible customer service. Free customer shipping and back within 4 days (They do it overnight to get the ‘wow’ from their customers). The free customer service did cost them 100 million USD in 2006 and Zappos.com turned profitable only in 2007 earning a few million dollars. Their competitive advantage is solely their customer service and the ‘word of mouth‘ marketing that they get from their customer. They are the companies with most repeat customers and why not? Their customer testimonials tell a story to say the least.

In an interview(about Zappos.com), Bill Taylor, from Harvard Business Review tells a story ( very well known in America but little known in India, the man as well as the story about Zappos.com) . We could’nt resist  from putting a copy of the story (Zappos send the flowers) here on microreviews.

Zaz Lamarr meant to return some shoes to Zappos, but her mom passed away and, naturally, she just didn’t have time. Zappos arranged to have UPS come pick up the shoes—and then sent her flowers:

When I came home this last time, I had an email from Zappos asking about the shoes, since they hadn’t received them. I was just back and not ready to deal with that, so I replied that my mom had died but that I’d send the shoes as soon as I could. They emailed back that they had arranged with UPS to pick up the shoes, so I wouldn’t have to take the time to do it myself. I was so touched. That’s going against corporate policy.

Yesterday, when I came home from town, a florist delivery man was just leaving. It was a beautiful arrangement in a basket with white lilies and roses and carnations. Big and lush and fragrant. I opened the card, and it was from Zappos. I burst into tears. I’m a sucker for kindness, and if that isn’t one of the nicest things I’ve ever had happen to me, I don’t know what is.

The Blog went on to become a viral in America and the proved how a small gesture of Humanness can help you reap huge rewards. Something, which companies all around the world need to learn from.

Social Media Marketers talk about viral marketing but if your customer writes something as emotionally touching as this about you, I dare say, you need nothing else. The facebook page of Zappos.com can be seen here. Zappos.com is obviously considered a company powered by tweets. You can follow all that is being said about Zappos on twitter at http://twitter.zappos.com/ The tweets of their employees are just normal and nowhere trying to seize the deal as most other companies do.What works for them is  the fact that Zappos.com is able to show their human side every time you take a look at them.

Amazon has recently bought out Zappos in an 807 million USD deal.

In India, it is difficult for companies to give customer service as competitive as Zappos, as the price competition is just too damn hot. Moreover, we are not very sure  how much the customer can shell out for such amazing service. But, still there is a lot to learn from the humane nature of business that Zappos.com is doing and I hope to see Indian companies learning.

It was truly an amazing experience to get to learn about Zappos.com. We, in India, have not yet seen their service, but we hope Zappos  sets its feet in India someday or at-least some company  tries to emulate them.

I must thank Aditya Devurkar for recommending a post about Zappos.com on microreviews.org.

We, at Microreviews, wish  Zappos.com the best in their quest to set an example on how customer service is given.

Follow Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com on Twitter.

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