In a ‘Web 2.0′ world, excellent customer service matters…

As Seth Godin points out in his post about this, the company probably didn’t do this for the PR, but it’s a heartwarming story with a very great lesson for online retailers…

A woman orders several pairs of shoes shoes from Zappos for her mother. Intending to return some, but due to a series of circumstances, she misses the 15-day return window. Zappos contacts her to ask why she did not send them back, she tells them her mother has passed away and she isn’t really prepared to deal with it right away. They tell her not to worry, and they arrange for a UPS truck to come pick up the shoes, so she doesn’t have to. AND THEN, they send her a bouquet of beautiful flowers. Read the full story…

Wow! First of all, I’m not certain, but I don’t think Zappos is just some tiny little store–it has tons of inventory, and according to its web site it is “The web’s most popular shoe store.” Secondly, even though they have a rigid return policy in place, they were willing and able to bypass for special circumstances.

It’s definitely true that people are more likely to speak out about a bad customer service experience vs. a great one. And that can be really scary in the online world. However, when you can do something remarkable– like Zappos did– people will talk and it will spread… At the time of this writing, there are 83 reactions to the post

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Posted in Kelly Rusk, eCommerce