The Zappos Experience: 5 Principles to Inspire, Engage, and WOW

Amy Smith and Ruth Bolton, published in the Journal of Service Research, shows that a company’s recovery from mistakes has substantial impact on customer perceptions and on the future purchases of those consumers. Research indicates that customers who experience a service breakdown and receive a swift, helpful resolution are more likely to recommen

From my perspective, customer expectations are easily evaluated in terms of those that are predicted and those that are normative. By predicted, I am talking about realistic, practical, or anticipated outcomes that emerge from personal experiences, reported experiences of others, and sources of knowledge such as the media. In essence, predicted exp

As an alternative to the word speed, I suggest the term service velocity. As you may recall from physics class, “velocity” is the measurement of the rate and direction of change in an object’s position. So when I refer to service velocity, I am talking about service speed coupled with an accurate and well-positioned customer experience.

As business leaders, we would be wise to assume that service velocity is something our customers are always either consciously or unconsciously assessing.

Through strategic partnerships, there is no end to the variety of inserts that customers might find in their Zappos box. In essence, Zappos has found a way to intermittently surprise customers with items that are unexpected. The mere act of delivering something that the customer did not know was coming is a key to widespread wow delivery.

César Ritz, founder of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, once said, “People like to be served, but invisibly.” Two areas where invisible but important service takes place at Zappos are the load speed of pages on the Zappos website and the urgency with which Customer Loyalty Team (CLT) members answer calls.

Companies like Zappos act swiftly, take responsibility (often even when the fault is beyond their control), enable staff discretion to fix problems, compensate fairly, do a little something extra to acknowledge inconveniences, and follow up until the issue is brought to satisfactory closure.

Often the difference between okay service and great service is a matter of executing on the basics and offering a slight extra that makes the customer go ‘wow.’ From our point of view, the cost difference between a ‘wow experience’ and an average experience is not much, while the benefit to the customer is huge.

from a customer’s perspective, loyalty is less about delivering to your word and more about what you do when you don’t deliver. It’s what we do that 0.1 to 1 percent of the time when we screw up that really matters.