As bloggers are wont to do, sharing good and bad customer service experiences has become a standard of the blogging landscape.
Some CEOs either don't turn on their computers, don't keep on top of current communication trends, or are so arrogant that they just must think the world of social media doesn't apply to them or their company. Did The W try to get in touch with me after I wrote a less than endorsing post about their policiesthat 56 people opted to comment on? How did Southwest Airlines Treat the Mini Skirt Traveler?
It's time to turn up that volume corporate America because while you are working on strategies to improve that bottom line, the rest of us are out here talking about you.
It's not all bad. Take the story first told by Zaz Lamarr,a Zappos customer. who wrote a post in July called I Heart Zappos. She told the story of how she had purchased some shoes for her mother.
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.
I stumbled upon ZAPPOS one day and decided to check to see if ZAPPOS carried VISION STREET WEAR. And of course they do! I bought a pair at 5pm one evening and the next evening, I was wearing my Dia de los Muertos slip-on Visions.This company has continued to impress me. My coworker and I were discussing how impressive it is that ZAPPOS remains a MOM-N-POP shop even though the company seems very successful. They care about their customer and I know that we will take care of them…I am UBER impressed with ZAPPOS!!! Way togo!!! I am definitely spreading the word about ZAPPOS.COM!
I think we have reached a dangerous point in the online retail world. The distance between bad and good retailers seems to be widening at an accelerated rated. I have already talked about how zappos is an innovative company and now it seems they are also king of customer service. Seth Godin’s Blog recounts a very interesting customer experience, the short form of the story is that the Zappo’s customer service team walked a few steps beyond their responsibility and as a result created 1 fan who went and converted another 105
Not only did uber blogger Seth Godin write about it, Michele Miller wrote a post called Now I Heart Zappos, Too, Marco.org featured the story as well, as did Kim at Shoeaholics Anonymous and The Consumerist
While I have bought shoes online - my favorite cowboy boots are from Sundance-- I had never heard of Zappos. Since I am in the market for some nice black boots I decided to check them out. I wanted to buy my boots from them. It was important to me to buy my boots from them. It would have been the closing line of the post if I could have bought my boots from them. Unfortunately, I am sized out of all of the black flat boots I was interested in. Why do shoe manufacturers think that women's feet stop growing after a size 10? Despite my huge disappointment I will return to Zappos. I want to heart Zappos too.
Then there's Spirit Airlines. Who seems to be reading from Southwest Airline's Game Book From Jennifer Laycock's Here
Mack Collier covers both ends of the spectrum today in a post about how companies deal with their online reputations. Mack points to a couple of posts by people who have had bad experiences flying Spirit Airlines. One of those unhappy customers and his wife ended up missing a concert due to numerous flight delays. When he took the time to email Spirit Airlines CEO Ben Baldanza about his frustrations, Baldanza made the massive blunder of not only responding with all the arrogance of a typical big-shot CEO, but also of accidentally including the customer in his reply. His response? "Please respond, Pasquale, but we owe him nothing as far as I'm concerned. Let him tell the world how bad we are. He's never flown us before anyway and will be back when we save him a penny."
