E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Zappos.com
When a customer-service rep goes above and beyond to try to solve your problem, that's welcome. When they spend 10-and-a-half hours on the phone giving you advice about relocating to Las Vegas, that's Zappos.com.
Unlike many other online retailers (including parent company Amazon.com), Zappos plasters its site with its toll-free customer service number, which is staffed 24/7. When a Midwestern college student called the site's Nevada headquarters two weeks ago to buy a pair of Uggs boots, the transaction turned into a chat marathon about the city, where the student was considering moving. The rep was able to take some breaks during the call; the customer agreed to hold the line.
Zappos spokesman Jeff Lewis said providing good customer service is a top priority. "We feel that allowing our team members the ability to stay on the phone with a customer for as long as they need is a crucial means of fulfilling this value," he said via email.
By assuring management that it wouldn’t interfere with Zappos’ free-spirited corporate culture when it acquired the shoe retailer in 2009, Amazon benefits from the customer-service elements that make Zappos customers so loyal.
“Amazon has purposely allowed that culture to continue to proliferate,” said Bryan Pearson, president of LoyaltyOne, a loyalty marketing and strategy company. “I’m sure they’re bringing some of the key lessons from the Zappos experience into Amazon."
Jordy Leiser, CEO of Stella Service, a customer service measurement and ratings business, said this is the case. In a study conducted a few months ago, Zappos tied with L.L. Bean for the best customer service on Twitter. Leiser said that when Amazon saw how much customers liked being able to solve customer service issues over the microblogging site, it started offering customer support via tweet, too. Zappos had been using Twitter to field customer queries since 2008.
"They are starting to integrate and rub off on each other," he said.
Amazon didn't have poor customer service beforehand, according to Stella's research; it just wasn't the focus of the shopper experience. "In online, it's about fulfillment and a smooth shopping experience," Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst with Forrester Research, said via email.
In this regard, Amazon delivers, Leiser said. "They please customers with their shipping and logistics experience," Leiser said. Earlier this year, Amazon took over some of Zappos' back-end inventory-management processes, letting Zappos benefit from one of its strong spots.
And both Amazon and Zappos ranked highly in Stella's survey of phone service responsiveness, with mystery shoppers able to reach live agents in about a minute, on average.
"Each of them has the things that are most important to their customer base. For Zappos, it’s all about the phone customer service," Leiser said. Apparently that service even includes a lengthy discussion about moving advice.
More money news:
- Last-minute shoppers nab deals
- Meteorologists keep UPS, FedEx running
- How to shave a few bucks off your holiday budget
- Video: Get a big money gift? Don’t put it all toward debt
- Sign up for our TODAY newsletter
Follow TODAY Money on Twitter and Facebook
Leave a Comment:
That college broad has got to get a life
That's why it took so long to get a service rep. :-(
No wonder the lines are always busy..they spend 10.5 hours for only one customer.
If you like I can read to you right now on the phone... the entire book of WAR & PEACE
The article didn't say that the customer was a woman.The 800#'s are on automatic call distribution so you probably won't ever get a busy signal.I've ordered from Zappos and called them.They are a wonderful company with the best customer service.
It usually takes 10 hours to get through all the computer generated options just to reach a live person with most companies.
Way to care about customer service Zappos! Now if only the other 99% would take a cue from you.
Well, it may be taken as going overboard, spending 10 and 1/2 hrs on a phone customer service call just talking about a city. But the old days of satisfaction guaranteed at Walmart's is gone for sure. As an "opposite side of the road" example, I placed an order for an in store pickup, since one of the items wasn't deliverable by mail. I often use stores that provide on line purchasing and home delivery to accommodate my limitations necessary due to my disability. The items were purchased thru my debit card from my local bank, a national branch. As the days grew closer for picking the items up, I realized I would not be able to pick the items up even though they were paid for. I called to cancel my order, to only be told I could not cancel an online purchase for in store pick up (they merely pull items off a shelf and pack them together for the order) unless I travel to the store in person (in my next town over BTW) and show proof of picture ID, and sign by hand the cancel order, in order to provide adequate online security. That or merely let 15 days expire and they would "promptly" return my funds to account, marking the order on my history as a "failed to pick up items".
No matter the amount of phone calls I made, no matter how much I looked online, and even talking to a third party resolution center, I could not cancel my order.
How can someone make a purchase online for an in store pickup, but not cancel that order online without breaching security protocols.
Soon to be, we will have to talk to East Indian or Pakistani customer support groups in order to seek any resolutions from Walmart's.
10 hours on the phone isn't good service, it's somebody wasting someone else's time. When I first became computerized I made the mistake of getting a DELL and once spent 27 hours on the phone with tech support in India, one of many long calls there. I'll never deal with that company again.
Ed McT, I had exactly the same problem with Dell. I spent almost an hour and a half with someone in India and most of the time I couldn't understand a word she was saying. I finally hung up on her, took the computer in and had it fixed. The fix lasted about a week and that's when I scrapped out the thing and took my business elsewhere. I'll never buy another Dell product again.
Jim D - the standard advice about phone support is that if you can't understand what the person is saying, or think that she isn't grasping what you're telling her, don't waste any time struggling, or asking for a supervisor. Just hang up and call again. It's a free call, and you'll get a different person. If the second person is worse than the first, then it's time to start complaining to the corporate headquarters.
never call corporate head quarters you might disturb some one on the golf course...
EA...It has been some time, but I have done the same thing, once I called back four times before I reached someone who's particular brand of English I could understand. I also take issue with menu 'options' that just don't have the option I am calling about. Just the other day, I phoned AT&T about an offer they sent me, even gave me the # to dial, but the person I talked with transferrede me, the next person also could not help and transferred me yet again, THAT person wouldn't allow me to explain to her, and was going to transfer me also, when I told her to "Shut your mouth, quit talking, and let me finish what I am telling you before you send me to someone else." Finally, I was delivered to the correct department. I lothe calling for customer service and am not sure if I hate computerized voices worse than humans or not.....
well you know what they say bout vegas...bunch of blabber mouths...moving in ...hope what moves to vegas keeps it in vegas...
While 10 hours is a bit excessive, I applaud any company where they allow their customer representatives time enough to handle a call. I used to work on a tech support help desk, where we were allowed to actually spend the necessary time to work with a customer and tried our best to listen to them and resolve their problems.
There are too many companies that give their CSRs a script, train them for several weeks, then expect them to pick up and handle an incoming phone call in under 3.30 minutes. I know this firsthand, as I used to work for a rental car company. If you got someone indecisive or wanted to talk, you had to hurry up and wind up the call, not giving them the attention they really wanted or needed. I knew of CSRs who knew they were going into a long phone call with a chatty customer and just hung up on them. The poor customer would then call back to complain to the next CSR about getting hung up on, thinking they were being "disconnected" and then you'd have to spend time smoothing things over and still try to handle the call and make a reservation in under 3.30 minutes.
Since my phone calls averaged 10-15 seconds longer than average, 'cause I didn't feel right shortchanging the customer and wanted them to feel good about their experience, I was let go. Because of an extra 10-15 seconds, I lost my job. Think about that next time you're on a call with a CSR.
I'm sure this isn't the only company who "times" their CSR calls, and cares only about the sales numbers, not the customers. So, I applaud Zappo's for caring, not only about their customers, but their employees, as well.
Ed McT - in this case, 10 hours on the phone is good service. It's not wasting someone's time if both parties want to be there. The student obviously wanted to be on the call; s/he was getting some free advice and could have hung up at any time. The customer service rep could have made some excuse to hang up after completing the order but stayed on the line to provide the advice the customer obviously wanted. Plus the rep was paid for his/her time, and Zappos has other reps to take care of other calls. So rep is okay, customer is happy, company is happy with some free PR - where's the waste?
And you spent 27 hrs on phone with Dell? Really? 27 straight hours, like the 10.5 straight hours in this story? Not cumulative hours? Dell really does suck and I hate calling service centers in India since the language barrier is so difficult. . . But 27 straight hours, no long breaks, no sleep, is a little hard to believe, and I work in high tech where long calls are not unusual when solving a critical problem.
@djdrew201
Don't usually defend Walmart, but please consider:
When you placed your order, they started a chain of events which incurred costs only recoverable if you upheld your side of the transaction;
They have in place procedures that enable the transaction to be cancelled before completion, i.e., show up in person with proper i.d. and cancel the order at the pick-up location, or do not pick up the merchandise and have their process complete and your transaction to be cancelled;
(Without going into details, their procedure is in place to reduce fraud);
You might be concerned that they have your money for several days, but also please realize they lost money on this transaction because of your actions. That cost is passed on to other customers;
Your fighting their not-unreasonable policy further adds to their costs which are also passed on to others.
RE Walmart online orders--you may not be able to "cancel" the order once it is on its way. But, you can pick up the order and return it, just like any other purchase. Plan ahead--if you can't get to the store to pick it up within their guidelines, don't place the order! They do have rather reasonable pick up limitations.
Customer Service is one thing, 10 1/2 hours on the phone chatting about life decisions is called a life planner. This is ridiculous. Answer the questions about the shoes, take the credit card number, place the order, and move the eff along.
Who cares, jerks? The person needed to talk that long and the company and employee didn't have a problem with it. For all you know, that person was about to jump off a bridge and having someone be nice to them turned their day around.
But, but I had to wait 5 EXTRA MINUTES to ask about SHOES! Oh, the horror.
While I question what the customer was doing during this 10 hour conversation (the CSR was working and taking other calls), I think this is great. A) Its fun to talk to new people in another part of the country/ world) B) If you've ever worked in a call center you would know that anytime you get a nice long call (especially one that lasts your whole shift) that could brighten a week of short bad calls. It breaks the monotony. Call centers are not fun to work in so remember that the next time you call into one...
I love how the people complaining about the CRS spending so much time on this call and potentially tying up the lines are probably people who have never called into Zappos or any other online clothing store. Im not certain but I suspect many of the calls they get are questions on fit and style of the items so to spend a little extra time on the phone is not uncommon.
If you walked into a store would you rather deal with someone who takes the time to show you things, make suggestions and have a general interest in you or some one who says "Heres a brown shoe...will that me MC or Visa?"
BTW, Zappos employees get paid well and its supposedly an amazing place to work. Its been around for years and has always had a laid back 'Silicon Valley startup' vibe so if it hasnt hurt them yet then I think spend as much time as you need with a client is ok.
The CS salary is in the price of the product. If you're in college, you should know better. Get off the line girl and stop raising Zappo's cost of doing business.
My worst was Dish TV. When they told me to get a screwdriver because we're going "in" I had enough. Wanted me to repair their faulty equipment. Told them I had a service plan that I paid monthly for and they backed off. Cancelled and went elsewhere.
wait til your stuff mess'es up and call direct...think you'll get the same guy on the phone...
I have had direct for nearly 7 years now and I have always had great CS with them. Sure some people get the lowly paid subcontractors but here we get the company hired directv service techs.
I have been using Zappo's for years and although all my calls have been short, they have given the best customer support EVER!!!!! I will always buy from them.
I love Zappos too. I used to buy from them years ago but they've since stopped doing business to Canada because they were unable to live up to their service values due to delivery times, customs, and brand licensing agreements. I shed a tear every time I think about the loss :(
nevermind
Although I use Amazon for nearly everything I buy online (electronics is Newegg), I've never bought shoes online. I don't think I ever would, either. A person has to try the shoes on to make sure they fit.
The Chinese, Malaysians or whoever made the shoes don't know American sizes very well and I find that different shoe companies have a difference in sizes. I wear 9 in Adidas and New Balance but 8 in Nike. That is if the shoes were made in the same country as previous pairs. I have no problem with shoes made in Mexico, since they come here often they understand that shoes that say size 8 means that.
We love Newegg for electronics.We've used Zappos and they are number one in customer service.I wear the same size shoe no matter what country it's made in.
If you call ATT for service, just hope they do not divert you to India! I have had great service from Indian reps for other companies, so this is not an ethnic/anti-foreign RANT. However, when the gentlemen in India "representing" ATT (theoretically a supervisor, since the first responder did not know the answer) told me it was not HIS problem and HUNG UP, I was NOT impressed.
AT&T is also on my list, in my previous post I wrote about them. I have issue with the computer CS rep that asks me to 'Explain in a few words," then says, "I',m sorry, could you repeat that?" And when I did, it said,, "Just answer yes or no." "Please wait while I transfer you to....." And then wont shut up about all the things I might try before calling for service......I realize that people can be PITA's and that is one of the many reasons for computer generated CS agents, but after dealing with a computer on a personal level, the human CS person always take the brunt of that person's anger.....
Zapppos has free shipping and free returns so if the shoe doesnt fit you send it back and get another. In most cases they tell you if the shoe fits small than average or larger so you get an idea as to what youre ordering. It really has more to do with the designer of the shoe than where the shoe is made. The manufactures only follow that patterns that are given to them.
The call center I worked at had 2 minute goals. If you couldn't solve a customer's problem in two minutes, average, you were shown the door. Exceptions were for employees whose customers gave them 4 top scores in the post-phone poll--they got a reprieve.
I was going to say something along these lines. 10 1/2 hours is absurd! They were not helping the customer with Zappos for that amount of time. They were talking about personal things. I have worked at many call centers and I can guarantee you that every one of them would have fired anyone who did this!
The trick around that rule is to transfer your caller to another agent before your two minuts are up. Management never looked beyond the time of the call to see about resolution or not. A friend of mine worked in one of those places for two years, and got promoted to supervisor by never resolving any issues! He couldn't believe it. He hated the job, so he purposefully avoided doing it and still got promoted!!!
Maybe Comcast isn't so bad after all. They bitch at you for under a minute and then hang up.
That really save a lot of time.
ha-ha-ha, Verizon just claims an inability to help you, then quotes you a website URL that is completely irrelated to your question.
Maybe a bit excessive. But, from experience in the past, I was expecting a 10.5 hour delay in getting assistance.
Talk about missing the point guys. Zappos humanizes... it's anti-MBA/efficiency at the expense of efficacy mentality.
You know what we've lost that's at the root of a hell of lot of our "problems"?
...patience with caring.
I gotta be somewhere, I gotta pee, I gotta go.
I like the fact that Zappos would allow a human to talk to a human about human stuff.
Sometimes you've got to say screw it to the Global.
Absolutely right, culheath! Caring about the customer is essential to good business.
Yeah, out of frustration I told one drone that I was taking my business else where, and he laughed, then said, "So what, there's millions of you out there." Sometimes I wonder about being recorded for my own protection
I worked in a medical insurance call center for over 3 years; the level of customer service you get has everything to do with the manager. When I first started under a WONDERFUL manager, the focus was on quality and resolving the issue, call times weren't stressed. When a replacement manager came in after the previous manager left for a director position... that ALL changed! This creep ONLY cared about numbers. We didn't exactly hit it off as I was constantly being told to get my call times down (think they were averaging under 4 minutes).. my defense was that if we didn't handle the calls to full resolution, including providing advice for getting that type of claim processed properly from first submission, it would only generate MORE calls. His only response was that if I wanted to educate callers to go into provider education. Guess where I spent the last 8 1/2 years?
For a company to NOT provide REAL service to their customers, you may as well not bother having a call center. Allow CS reps to do their jobs correctly... and it helps if callers can actually understand what the rep is saying.
Tax the hell out of the companies who took these jobs overseas.... no tax breaks until they bring the jobs back here. And for those of you who are of course going to say nobody here wants those jobs... are you kidding me? Those can easily be work at home jobs with workers located anywhere in the country! And how many areas are screaming for jobs? There is tons of technology that can be used to ensure that reps are doing the job.
This isn't a matter of how far someone will go for customer service, this is just a matter of 2 dolts meeting at the wrong place and the wrong time on the phone.
And I'm sure you are quite experienced in this regard!
what happened to going to work to , um....work ?..Blabbing on the phone for 10 hours is not work and what could you possibly have to talk to a total stranger about for 10 hours ?
Those people would never get a job in the real world where deadlines have to be met and productivity is measured...
Typical of this generation I guess
This has been said about EVERY generation, by the generations before them.
One 'total stranger' I met and talked with for hours eventually became my wife, and we were together for nearly 30 years....The cancer got her last year, I can't wait to talk with her again
Why would it even take 10.5 hours to tell someone about moving to Vegas. I mean, really? 10.5 hours.
Refresh my memory calmike, a customer service rep's job is what? Oh, never mind, it's to talk to customers on the phone!
Call a psychic!They would appreciate a 10 hour call!
To talk to the customer about the product they have or plan on purchasing.
Not prattle on for 10+ hours about residency in a different state.
How many other people had to wait longer for service because of this? How many other people didn't this reps help?
Who knows how many other people had to wait longer for assistance. Even if other people had to wait just 30 seconds longer for help, it's still poor customer service just because someone wanted to chat it up.
Reads like a PR article to me
Zappos! Teach your parent company something! Amazon's customer service is dismal...
This is extreme and mostly ridiculous!! who would waste so much time for such that I believe must have been a veeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyy big problem to solve. I think that student needs to find a job and leave the customer services available for other people who really need it.
While I do not agree with letting a rep talk for 10 hours with one customer on subject matter not related to a purchase, I must say that Zappos by far, has the best customer service in the industry.
I ordered a pair of UGGs for my wife, a week before Christmas, and they were delivered in 2 days to the East coast. They set the standard for customer service and no one I have seen comes close.
Only 10 hours on hold waiting for customer service? Hey that's nothing try Verizon, if you're lucky you'll only get shuttled bank and forth between Bangladesh for 7 to 10 days before they finally tell you to take a hike and there is no repair service with Verizon. I tried 2 years ago, and I have still never gotten a response on a service request except to deny internet access on the telephone line as a punishment for requesting service
YA, try this with FAO Schwarz or Toys R Us. The worst, I mean THE WORST, customer service experience I have ever experienced. I've spent a total of 10 hours calling and emailing these two jokes of a company to resolve a very simple issue, but I get no response. When Toys R Us trys to transfer me to FAO Schwarz business office the line connects and then dis-connects. Now I know why were're 47 and 48 in the US for academia. We have a bunch of idiots running customer service and IT departments. HEY! FAO Schwarz and Toys R Us you can learn a lot from ZAPPOS. I will never buy another item from these two businesses.
Ya, try this with FAO Schwarz or Toys R US. The worst, I mean THE WORST, customer service experience I have ever experienced. I've spent a total of 10 hours calling and emailing these two jokes of a company to resolve a very simple issue, but I get no response. Now I know why we are 47 and 48 in the US for academia. We have a bunch of idiots running customer service and IT departments. Hey! FAO Schwarz and Toys R US learn from ZAPPOS.
I wouldn't be too proud of taking 10 hours to help a guy buy butt-ugly boots, regardless what the problem is. Yay, you failed for 9 hours 59 minutes.
Since we're sharing CS fail stories, here's one about Gateway computers. I paid extra for the insurance that says if there's a problem a tech will come to my house and fix it - unless it's a software problem in which case they're not responsible for that. Fine. Well, my CD drive never worked from day one so I called for the tech to come out, which I paid for. The CS person said they don't cover software to which I replied "how do you know it's a software problem if you don't come find out?" She hung up. Never could use that CD drive. I was a very busy person those days so I just gave up on it and reported it to w.complaints.com and w.baddealings.com and the Better Business Bureau. And I always make sure no one buys Gateway. All they had to do was send a tech...
I have worked in many call centers over the last 30 years most wanted an average handle time of around 3 minutes..And if you could not manage that out you went. These days I do tech support for a much more customer centric company and while our goal is for handle time is 6 to 8 minutes, if for the most part we are sticking to business and making progress we can go longer sometimes much longer but at some point we have to pull the plug and send out a field tech. 10.5 hours is way way way beyond building customer loyalty. I do purchase from Zappos and I have delt with their customer service and it is really good but I do think that that particular employee could use some coaching
People who say great customer service need to wake up and get outside once and awhile. 10.5 hrs is just bizarre and as interesting as some people are that borders on agenda. Someone, or two in this case ae very lonely and must not have much of a life.
Good customer service gets it done and moves on. This is just weird.
not surprised at all by her behavior. You got to be crazy to by Ugg boots!
Customer Service nightmares...
You spend 10.5 hours on the line with a customer and entertain every question on every subject only to have said customer give you a poor service rating afterwards.
As for the article... Two ships passing in the night very very very slowly! LOL
What happens to the next customer who has to wait 10 hours to get their problem solved? Pay people to do a job - not fall in Love on the phone so they don't have to solve the next issue? Let their co-workers pick up the rest of the calls so this 1 person handles less workload? There are plenty of ways to provide good, prompt and timely service in a reasonable amount of time. I'm not wanting to discuss everyone's personal life when trying to get an issue resolved. What if your doctor or mechanic did this?