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MORE THAN A WALLET WITH LEGS
When I give presentations about service, I often suggest that customers today are tired of being treated like “wallets with legs.” Zappos gets what I mean.
The leadership at Zappos understands that business can be about more than discrete transactions or money/product exchanges. Business can be, and increasingly must be, about the development of personal relationships that span a customer’s lifetime. While average managers might think a company can thrive simply by selling goods or services to consumers, true leaders understand that all business is personal. In the end, business success relies on one group of people caring for or profiting another. Ordinary brands often take a “one size fits all” approach to service, but legendary companies like Zappos find ways to create individualized experiences that extend beyond their solid service platform.
ZAPPOS IS LEGENDARY? WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?
In his book Legendary Brands, Laurence Vincent notes that leaders in legendary companies “forge deep bonds with consumers through narrative devices. They are storytellers, drawing from a library of timeless narratives … to captivate consumers and sustain meaning across cultural borders. It is the narrative of the Legendary Brand that generates and sustains customer affinity.”
So, to use Vincent’s words, what are the “timeless narratives” at Zappos? At the corporate level, the Zappos epic storyline might include the tale of college roommates who transform their limited resources into a billion-dollar business through persistence, quiet demeanors, entrepreneurial skills, a little weirdness, and a lot of intelligence. Alternatively, it might reflect the journey of maverick leaders who truly placed their team and their culture above everything else and thus secured interpersonal, social, and financial wealth.
While those macro-level themes are important to the Zappos mystique, most legendary service companies have generated a lore surrounding employee interactions with customers. A classic example of such a defining service story is the Nordstrom “snow tire” example, as shared in a Newsweek magazine article: “The customer wanted to return a tire. Never mind that the Nordstrom department-store chain sells upscale clothing, not automotive parts. According to company lore, the clerk accepted the tire because that’s what the customer wanted.”
The myth-busting website snopes.com was unable to confirm or refute the existence of the Nordstrom snow tire exchange, but the site did offer a keen assessment of the story’s relevance: “This is possibly the greatest consumer relations story of modern times—it’s certainly pointed to as such in a multitude of business articles. In this one simple vignette is captured the essence of what it takes to build and maintain a loyal client base: The customer is always right … even when he’s probably wrong.” Like Nordstrom, other service leaders such as The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company (which I featured in the book The New Gold Standard) are rich with epic stories of staff members sacrificing themselves in heroic ways to meet the needs of customers or guests.
So if Zappos is truly a legendary service provider, what are the stories that form the foundation of the Zappos legend? How about customer service calls that last seven or eight hours? Lauren Spenser, Customer Loyalty Team member, handled one protracted call that went on for 7 hours and 28 minutes. Lauren notes that she developed an early rapport with the caller, Alice, even though Lauren wasn’t initially able to meet Alice’s need: “She was such a fun person who contacted me about items she had seen in a Zappos magazine advertisement at her doctor’s office. Surprise, surprise, the magazine was so out of date that we didn’t have any of the items she asked about.”
In the hours that followed, Alice talked with Lauren about “the good old days of service” when Alice enjoyed doctors’ house calls and front-door milk delivery. Alice shared highlights of her life and events that were significant to her. The call proceeded unaffected through a series of needed breaks, including the replacement of a couple of Lauren’s battery-depleted headsets. Lauren shares, “Alice was a delightful older southern woman much like my grandmothers, and she seemed to just want someone to listen.” Lauren continues, “Honestly, I consider that type of listening to be my job, even if this case was a little to the extreme. I’ve been asked why I didn’t get in trouble for taking such a long call. It’s just the way the Zappos CLT works. With no call times and no pressure to end a call, we all work together to make sure that every other call is getting answered swiftly.”
Lauren sums up the lesson of this extended phone contact by saying, “I didn’t consciously set out to be on a call for 7½ hours, and Alice didn’t buy anything. We didn’t have the product she wanted. She didn’t even have a computer to look at anything; she just remembered the items from the magazine. I served her what I had—my attention and care. If someone needs to talk, that’s what I’m here for. I’m not going to say, ‘Sorry, I don’t do personal.’ I’m not hired to sell anything. If I serve well, sales will take care of themselves.”
People who genuinely believe that if they “serve well, sales will take care of themselves” tend to build legendary brands. Aaron Magness, senior director of Brand Marketing & Business Development at Zappos, remarks, “It’s sad how a little bit of genuine care can make the difference between horrible service and amazing service. If companies thought more about interaction and less about transaction, people would flock to them.”
It is this attention to interaction at Zappos that propels people to connect further with the company. One example of a highly engaged connection even involved betrothal and marriage. This legendary event is best shared by the groom, Greg, who reports that the first time he and his girlfriend (now his wife) Tamara visited Zappos Headquarters, they got engaged, “the second time we got married, and the third time—we’re expecting her to be pregnant.” (Okay, that’s probably more information than we needed.)
In a YouTube video captured by Zappos staff, Greg shares that the wedding plans were the result of a call he placed to Pam Cinko, logistics ninja at Zappos Insights. After the couple secured a minister, Pam and team members at Zappos made the wedding possible. Tamara notes, “I didn’t want to get married in some place where I’d feel uncomfortable. We wanted a context of love, and we felt love when we first visited Zappos. It was palpable. … We walked through, and it felt like we were instant celebrities. We felt like we were somebody special and important. So when he asked me to marry him here, … it felt like we were coming home.” Wow! A Zappos service culture that was so enveloping that love and engagement were experienced on a tour! From my perspective, those experiences are the ingredients of legend. Robert Richman, Zappos Insights product manager, puts it slightly differently: “People want authentic connections these days. When staff members are not only permitted, but encouraged to bring their humanness to work, memorable—almost magical—things happen with customers and noncustomers alike.”
Some people might debate the service merits of 7½-hour calls with prospective customers or weddings at a business office. But the same concerns can be raised about the merits of the legendary Nordstrom example. Is it really good service to accept returns on products that you obviously don’t carry? In the end, the content of these types of stories may be less important than the lesson drawn from them, namely, that businesses should place people before profit.
While epic wow service stories capture a great deal of attention, the bulk of what wows or emotionally connects with people tends to involve smaller acts of kindness. In the world of social media, these are the seeds of service lessons carried in tweets that are frequently retweeted on Twitter, and posts that are highly “liked” or readily posted on Facebook walls. These stories are often simple and strike an emotional chord. Typically, they involve comments about a handwritten thank-you note that a customer received from a Zappos staff member after the person placed an order or a Zappos CLT member who helped a cell phone caller with directions when the caller was lost trying to get to a restaurant. As CLT member Shawna Macias puts it, “Our customers know they can call us for anything. They know we are here for them. Not the other way around. Sometimes it’s like we are a telephone Google service.”
For Zappos, the Internet is abuzz with small Zapponian wows that weave the fabric of the brand’s legend. One Zappos service story that has been extensively posted, forwarded, “favorited,” and retweeted involves customer Zaz Lamarr. Zaz apparently ordered several pairs of shoes from Zappos for her mother who was dying of cancer. Since her mom had lost considerable weight, Zaz got an assortment of sizes; two fit her mother. Zaz made arrangements to return the other seven pairs of shoes but was unable to follow through on the return in a timely manner. When Zappos contacted Zaz about not receiving her merchandise, she shared her extenuating circumstances: her mother had died, and she would be sending the shoes back as soon as she could. Rather than requiring that Zaz comply with the official return policy, Zaz notes:
They e-mailed 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. Later I received 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.
While stories like Zaz’s gather a sizable following, other posts simply blend into the rich chatter of social communication. For example, Jon Ferrara, founder of Nimble Software, tweeted, “My son wrote Zappos a letter, & they sent him back a book on Company Culture personally signed by the entire management team.” In follow-up contact with Jon, he unpacked the details: “This customer experience almost brought tears to my eyes. My son, Ian, had an English class assignment to write a feedback letter to a company. He chose to write Zappos, since he loved the company.” Jon continues, “Zappos then blew me away by sending Ian the Zappos Culture Book. They then went a step further by having the entire management team personally sign the book, each writing a short personal message to my son. When he showed me, I was stunned. I could not put it down. I have rarely had an experience like this in all my years of business.”
According to Jon, on one of the book’s front pages was a modified quote from Maya Angelou “shared by the CEO, Tony Hsieh: ‘People may not remember exactly what you did or what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel.’ I will always remember how this experience made me feel. I am a Zappos customer for life!” Now that’s a phrase that most business owners can’t hear enough of: “I am your customer for life.”
AND THE DESTINATION IS?
Educator Lawrence J. Peter once said, “If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.” A large part of a Zapponian’s ability to achieve strong and personal connections with customers is the clarity with which the entire organization understands and moves in the direction of a shared service destination.
If you were to wander around Zappos locations in either Nevada or Kentucky and randomly stop Zapponians to ask them, “How should people feel when they have contact with Zappos?” you would get a narrow range of responses. Employees would typically answer “wowed,” “happy,” or “emotionally connected on a personal level.” This collection of responses reflects an almost cultlike alignment, particularly when you appreciate that the three answers really refer to the same outcome. According to Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, “Most of the phone calls we receive don’t result in sales. People might call because it’s their first time returning an item, for example. They just want help stepping through a process. But that’s our chance to build that personal emotional connection that wows them and leaves them happy.”
Although it may not have been their formal intention, the leaders at Zappos have functionally crafted what I refer to as a “Way We Serve Statement™” that defines and communicates a well-differentiated, branded customer experience. The Zappos Way We Serve Statement goes beyond what staff members need to do to serve well, since that information can usually be found on operational checklists; instead, it addresses what it should feel like to be served at Zappos. Customers should experience personal emotional connections (also referred to as PECs) that are consistent with a Way We Serve Statement declaring that Zapponians “deliver wowful happiness.”
Enable Me and Stay Out of My Way
Given that the service destination at Zappos is clearly defined, the company’s leaders carefully draft the necessary policies to facilitate staff members’ ability to “deliver wowful happiness.” In addition, they demonstrate restraint when it comes to policies that might interfere with happiness delivery.
It is easy for supervisors to become so focused on service consistency that they inadvertently restrict their teams’ ability to forge personal connections with customers. When a company has procedures in place to handle every situation identically, that company’s service will be uniform. In addition, by controlling the customer experience and what employees are allowed to do, a business can reduce the complexity of its offerings. If your people are allowed to offer only “vanilla” service to everyone, your operation is far less complicated than if employees have the discretion to select a vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry option, depending on their assessment of each customer’s wants, needs, or desires. Of course, the more the leaders empower staff members to make decisions based on the personal needs of customers, the less consistently service might be delivered and the greater the service complexity.
The ultimate approach to ensuring service consistency is the use of customer service scripts. These scripting strategies can be found in many service sectors, including healthcare, banking, and call-center environments. Some scripts are so restrictive that they give employees no latitude for variation in word use and zero ability to deliver service solutions other than those that are scripted. Many of us have had the traumatic experience of interacting with a call-center staff person who is chained to a service script. The cadence of the service provider’s speech sounds eerily robotic, and you know that if a solution to your need isn’t written down as part of the call center’s “marching orders,” you are doomed. Of course, there are risks associated with giving employees “carte blanche” latitude, not least of which is the inability to provide service quality, maintain scalability, or ensure business viability.
Few businesses have sufficient profit margins or pricing opportunities to provide limitless and nonscalable levels of customer personalization. Even when leaders at The Ritz-Carlton suggest that they “will move heaven and earth for a guest as long as it is legal and ethical,” they understand when that level of earth moving occurs, additional service charges can be assessed. Overall, most leaders must wrestle with the tension between rigid policies for service consistency and empowered service guidelines that allow for manageable personalized solutions.
This is where Zappos strikes a strategic balance. Its leaders seek to create the policies that are required if the company is to guarantee that all customer needs can be met efficiently and consistently, while at the same time retaining the flexibility to forge personal emotional connections with each individual customer served. Dylan Morris, CLT lead, acknowledges, “We have our share of policies and procedures here at Zappos, but we try not to create guidelines that get in the way of our people. I see us setting up processes or procedures that allow Zappos to run the business smoothly for the good of all and also to create customer experiences at the individual level. Otherwise, we as leaders need to let our people handle situations and make connections with customers through genuine human interaction. For example, in a lot of companies, first-level employees would be required to go through their supervisors or managers to find ways to wow that small percentage of customers who might not be happy. But here at Zappos, every single person is empowered to do what is needed.”
An example of a Zappos policy that is designed to drive smooth business operation is a guideline about working with customers who want to speak to a particular CLT representative. Let’s say you had a fabulous call with CLT rep Bob on Monday, and you call on Tuesday and ask for Bob. In order for the Zappos call center to perform its function and for you not to become dependent upon one person to meet your needs, Zappos has guidelines that state that CLT members should not seek to transfer a caller to a representative who is asked for by name. This policy exists to avoid the impact such transfers would have on call-center efficiency. In addition, since CLT members can access all prior transactions on their computer screens, and since each team member is capable of producing a personal connection, the customer’s stated preference does not rise to the level of a true service need. Every business leader must identify areas where the wishes of a customer can’t be accommodated because the impact of that accommodation would reduce quality for all other customers.
Customer service–enriching policy guidelines at Zappos include such things as setting expectations that CLT staff members will follow through on all promises made to a customer and creating expectations that representatives will provide a full order recap before a call is completed. Most noteworthy in the arena of customer experience enrichment policies are those guidelines that do not exist. In many important areas, the leadership at Zappos has stayed out of the way of the staff members’ ability to build emotional connections with customers. Mary Teitsma, CLT senior representative, notes, “Coming from a world of retail since I was 15, I am used to being told to put the customers first, but, in truth, that was mostly just words. I really don’t think I knew what that meant until I came to Zappos. Unlike a normal call center, where policies would limit my customer calls to a minute or 90 seconds each, I am allowed to take the time to connect with customers. I am also given the resources and authority to use my judgment to wow customers. For example, we have blank cards in the CLT area that we use when we want to acknowledge a special event that we learned about during a call. Because people have developed such a sense of trust in our team’s desire to genuinely care for them, we have people call us when they don’t have Internet access and want to know what movies are playing in their area. So we access the Internet and help them out however we can. Or in the rare cases where we don’t have an item they are looking for in our inventory, I’ll locate the item at a competitor’s site and send the customer to the competition.”
Undeniably, putting the customers’ needs at the center of your business (up to and including sending them to the competition) is better for the customers. But could it be strangely profitable for your business as well? Steve Downton, Hilbrand Rustema, and Jan Van Veen, writing in their book Service Economics, suggest that companies that truly allow staff members to take care of the best interests of customers enjoy, on average, more than 20 percent greater profits than those that operate from a less customer-centric perspective. Treating customers as more than “wallets with legs” ultimately profits those who serve as well as those who are being served.
Personal at Every Turn, with a Generous Mix of Kindness and Gratitude
Even in settings where nothing is for sale, staff members at Zappos understand that they are not in the shoe or merchandise business but rather in the happiness, wow, and PEC business. Zack Davis, Kan-Du enthusiast, who drives a shuttle bus for Zappos, notes, “Just like everyone else in the company, I have a very important job. I am in the relationship and kindness business. My relationships may last only for the time it takes for me to pick someone up at the airport and bring them to our Headquarters for a tour, but if I extend kindness and listen to people, their relationship with Zappos could last a lifetime.” When your shuttle bus drivers see themselves as more than transporters and when they are passionate about building brand loyalty through kindness, you are a service organization.
Bestselling author Seth Godin has provided keen insights on kindness, passion, and happiness by noting, “Happiness’s best friend is kindness. And passion’s best friend is generosity. Going forward, I think it’s very hard to be passionate unless you’re willing to be generous with people and you’re willing to give them the emotional gift of connection and leading them in ways that matter. And I think if you want to be happy, we have to figure out ways to be kind.”
Kindness is a key word at Zappos, and it may play an increasingly important role in corporate life worldwide. The international consumer trend organization Trendwatching.com has identified “kindness” and “generosity” as necessary megatrends in the future of business. The organization predicts that people will increasingly seek interactions with companies where they experience generosity and not greed. A Crucial Consumer Trends report included, “There’s no better way for a brand … to put its money where its mouth (or heart) is than engaging in Random Acts of Kindness. … Consumers’ cravings for realness, for the human touch, ensure that everything from brands randomly picking up the tab to sending a surprise gift will be one of the most effective ways to connect with (potential) customers. … A serious (and sincere) Random Acts of Kindness strategy may mean no longer being seen as inflexible and unwieldy but as more compassionate and charismatic instead. Something that is, of course, priceless and actually fun.”
By encouraging staff members to practice random acts of kindness and well-considered acts of generosity toward customers, Zappos has created priceless experiences for staff members and customers as well. Ashley Perry, CLT member, notes, “Our Zappos family understands there is a lot more to business than money. One of my trainers, Michael, is a classic example. He received a boot order for a soldier serving in Iraq. A couple of weeks after the order was placed, we were notified that the shipment had not been received. So he tracked it and expedited a replacement order. This happened several more times, and each time new boots were sent at no additional charge. Fortunately, the soldier’s boots finally were located—not just one pair of the boots, but all four pairs that had been sent. At many other businesses, three of those pairs would have had to be sent back, but at Zappos, Michael had the authority to say, ‘You know what, you’re out there serving our country. It took four months for you to get these; just keep all the boots and pass any extra pairs on to some of your fellow soldiers.’ For me, that’s what makes work and life worthwhile—helping those people, especially those who are helping others.”
Derek Carder, CLT supervisor, finds joy in the freedom to deliver memorable service, like that he provided to a caller by the name of Georgina: “She had her heart set on a pair of pumps for her upcoming wedding. Unfortunately, those shoes were out of stock and essentially discontinued.” Derek remembers doing everything he could to try to find a different pair that Georgina might like. He looked on the Zappos website and competitors’ websites, but Georgina wanted those specific shoes. According to Derek, “I made it my personal mission to find those pumps. When I had breaks in call volume, I’d contact small shoe stores near where Georgina lived.” On the fourth day of searching, Derek expanded the area of his quest and located a pair of the pumps in Georgina’s size but at a location that was 120 miles from her. Derek notes, “I didn’t want her to lose the chance at those shoes, so I gave them my personal credit card to hold the pumps for her. We needed those shoes! So I called her, and she was ecstatic; she was literally screaming for joy. I apologized for the distance she had to travel to pick them up. She said it was no problem at all. The thank-you note I received included an invitation to her wedding. To think, a guy like me working at Zappos in Nevada was invited to her wedding in New York. I love what I get to do here.” It’s hard to imagine that Georgina would ever consider buying shoes from any other company. Where else would she find call-center employees that not only care for her but care that deeply about her? Brands become irreplaceable when people make genuine connections. Empowered and engaged staff members build relationships, memories, and loyalty.
More with Less
Leaders at Zappos trust their selection process, training, and culture. As a result, they allow staff members to use their own best judgment to “deliver wow through service,” and also to “do more with less.” In turn, staff members at Zappos understand the importance of being fiscally prudent. Faby Guido-Romero, CLT lead, notes, “Most of the time a customer wow comes at no cost. I actually think it’s best when I don’t focus on what I can ‘give’ customers to wow them but instead on how I must ‘be’ to wow them. For me, the greatest happiness comes for customers when I fully put myself in their place. It happens when I say and mean, ‘I’m here to help you. I’m going to do whatever it takes so that when we hang up, you will feel good,’ and when I let them sincerely know that I am grateful for their time and business.”
Faby’s comments are consistent with those of staff members throughout Zappos. Whether it is a staff member in the Fulfillment Centers who talks about “making sure a shoe box looks perfect when the customer opens up the delivery,” a Zappos livechat member who expresses the importance of “using the written word to make a lasting connection,” or website content creators who enjoy thinking of customers smiling when they read a sentence that the creators wrote for the website, like “shoes: now conveniently sold in pairs,” employees at Zappos all talk about emotionally connecting with people—not with consumers, web-site users, or shoppers. Staff members at Zappos talk about the people they serve and the gratitude they have for being able to make emotional connections.
In the end, legendary service companies don’t happen by accident. They are the result of leaders who have a passion for getting the transaction right and delivering a desired emotional state to the customer. That passion is then shared by empowered staff members who generously and kindly put themselves in the circumstances of those they serve. When high-quality transactions are executed and emotional connections are forged, customer experience stories flow. It is through that confluence of forces that legends thrive!
Increasingly, business leaders need to think about service experiences that forge lifelong customer relationships.