The more effort customers must
put forth in a service interaction,
the less likely they are to be loyal.
—JEFFREY HENNING
In the discussion of Principle 1, “Serve a Perfect Fit,” you saw how Zappos selects and orients for a service culture. The leadership at Zappos views culture strength as the foundation for employee engagement and, ultimately, for customer loyalty. Zappos leaders understand that a cohesive culture and a highly involved workforce contribute to a wide range of robust business outcomes. In fact, research consistently demonstrates the connection between employee engagement and productivity, employee retention, improved safety, and overall business profitability. By building a tight employee community, Zappos has developed a platform for outstanding service. But correlations between workforce engagement and customer loyalty are nothing more than, well, correlations. What else must be added to the mix to ensure high-quality service delivery?
The next two chapters, which make up Principle 2, look at how Zappos masters the fundamentals of customer service. Chapter 4, “Less Effort, More Customers,” focuses on how Zappos makes all aspects of the customer experience as effortless as possible. You will get a glimpse of the Zappos obsession with customer ease, smooth-running customer/user experiences, and process accuracy. Chapter 5, “The Ticket to the Big Service Dance: Velocity, Knowledge, Recovery, and Surprise,” offers insights into how Zappos instills a sense of urgency into service delivery. It will also take you through Zappos leading-edge approaches to driving product expertise and forward-thinking service recovery.
What are we waiting for? It’s time to “make it effortlessly swift.”