Step into Zappos
I came across this story this morning and I’m truly impressed. I’ve never purchased from Zappos (the online shoe store that lets you buy shoes and return them to get the right size with no extra charge), but after reading this I might just have to try them out. Here’s a short version (edited by me, please do read the full story):
…in May we had ordered several pairs of shoes from Zappos
for my mom. She’d lost a lot of weight, and her old shoes were all too
big….Out of seven
pairs, only two fit…
The rest were here waiting to be returned. Because of various
circumstances – lost label, my mom being hospitalized and me being
away, the shoes were never sent back. There’s a time limit on the
return of 15 days….When you do a return to them, they
pay the shipping, but you have to get the shoes to UPS yourself…When I came home this last time, I had an email from Zappos asking
about the shoes, since they hadn’t received them….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…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…So…IF YOU BUY SHOES ONLINE, GET THEM FROM ZAPPOS.
With hearts like theirs, you know they’re good to do business with.
Talk about a company truly going out of their way for a customer. They helped her out by having the shoes picked up, they waived the normal 15-day return window. And then they sent flowers?? How fantastic is that? A shoe retailer made a customer feel like a million bucks at a time when she was really down. That’s not a line I hear too often.
And what does Zappos get from this? Technically nothing. Unless you take into account the 100+ comments and countless links that this woman’s blog has received from this story. Conservatively speaking, this story has wandered in front of…1000 potential customers? I bet at least a few of them will check Zappos next time they’re shoe hunting.
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One shoe store in Kansas City has gotten it right recently too.
[...] zappos gets it I literally almost lost it when I heard about this story. I can’t do it justice, but I did have a great chat with Beyond Madison Avenue’s Danny Nathan the other day about this. Danny, thanks for the lead. [...]