Customer Service Heroes: Zappos

Last May, I wrote about Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh and his devotion to coworker and customer happiness. In July, Amazon acquired the online shoe retailer.

Zappos' success seems to be the payoff for a very big gamble on customer service. In the shoe business, customer satisfaction depends on fit - physical and stylistic - so Zappos goes out of its way to ensure customers get exactly what they want. The company's phone representatives actively encourage callers to order products just to try them on, because Zappos offers free return shipping for a FULL YEAR.

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Categories: Corporate Culture | Customer Service | Ethics | Competitive Advantage

8 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 10:49 PM

Customer Service Heroes: Abraham Lincoln

Contrary to our images of pastoral innocence, the America of Lincoln's youth was a brutish place, and business was governed by the maxim caveat emptor - let the buyer beware. This is why country folk considered Lincoln's honesty exceptional. Lincoln saw that the foundation of good business practices is a devotion to fairness. And the responsibility for fairness rests on the shoulders of the business, not the customer. As Lincoln's honesty became the stuff of legend, it set the standard for ethical business behavior.

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Categories: Corporate Culture | Customer Service | Ethics | Competitive Advantage

1 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 6:35 PM

Customer Service Heroes: AlienBees

Photographer Erik Pierce of Paparazzi Tonight thought the person on the phone did not understand him. Pierce had dropped one of his electronic flash units, breaking off a piece of the reflector. He called AlienBees, the manufacturer, to find out how much it would cost to fix or replace. They said they would send a free replacement.

"But I dropped it."

"No problem," said the AlienBees representative, "It should have been stronger."

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Categories: Marketing | Corporate Culture | Customer Service | Ethics | Competitive Advantage

3 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 6:15 AM

Everyday Criminals

Here is a fascinating story about groups from extreme poles of the political spectrum finding common ground in opposition to the federal government's sweeping, yet vague, criminal justice machinery:

Right and Left Join Forces on Criminal Justice

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Categories: Entrepreneurialism | Leadership | Ethics

0 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 11:46 PM

Ethical Quandaries Build Ethical People

We take it for granted that schoolroom assignments, quizzes and tests improve a child's education by forcing him or her to practice skills. Why, then, do we go out of our way to prevent children from experiencing the sort of daily conflicts and challenges that test and improve their judgment and ethical development?

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Categories: Education | Ethics | Family

9 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 8:24 PM

The Healthcare Questions We're NOT Asking

From the White House to the Wall Street Journal to the table next to you at Starbuck's, everyone seems to be talking about healthcare. Except that they're not. What people are debating right now is how to pay for healthcare. That's a tough enough question, but society might be better served by asking some tougher questions first.

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Categories: Education | Nutrition | Finance | Leadership | Economics | Ethics | Environment

7 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 9:44 PM

Don't Overlook Democracy as a Management Model

An organization called WorldBlu was formed in 1997 to champion the growth of democratic organizations. Founder Traci Fenton identifies ten principles of organizational democracy, including transparency, accountability, decentralization, fairness, dignity, and choice.

Principle six on WorldBlu's list, Individual + Collective, was more or less enshrined in the Kinko's Philosophy, which stated, "...we encourage independent thinking and teamwork."  This presents one of the great challenges of a democratic workplace, and one of the greatest benefits. The advantage of balancing independent thinking and teamwork comes from the unleashing of individual creativity. The challenge is the balance itself - keeping that creativity directed toward advancement of the organization's goals.

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Categories: Corporate Culture | Customer Service | Management Skills | Leadership | Ethics | Competitive Advantage

4 comments - Posted by Paul Orfalea at 7:24 AM