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What companies have revolutionized the customer service experience?
Zappos changed online shopping by offering free returns. This overcame one of the biggest hurdles to purchasing clothing online. What other companies have done this?
Please give detailed examples.
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3 Answers
Hi Brian,
Revolutions happen when someone alters the playing field by introducing a new concept, or making dramatic improvements in an existing salient factor.
A company that "revolutionizes" anything is one that effectively changes customer expectations within their industry. You're right - Zappo's changed customer expectations for on-line merchants by offering free returns.
LL Bean is a company that revolutionized the customer service experience in retail many decades ago, by doing the same thing. Today, they also offer free shipping on EVERY order. This causes customers to expect similar service from other merchants.
Southwest Airlines and Jet Blue have revolutionized customer service within the airline industry. Southwest did this first, by offering lower fares and injecting human fun into customer service, in an industry that postured itself as being all about safety and timeliness (while failing miserably with the latter). Jet Blue followed by offering free TV and satellite radio on every flight, a "Customer Bill of Rights" and yes, fun, quirky flight attendants.
Those are a few examples, and there are dozens of others.
Great question, Brian - keep them coming!
Jim Watson
Without question, Amazon belongs at the top of this list (although as I recently blogged, they have been slipping a bit lately). Zappos, which of course is owned by Amazon, as well.
There are examples, great and small, of amazing customer service. Of anticipating, of being easy to do business with in all dimensions of the experience, of recovering magnificently from the inevitable small problem, of enlisting customers with good humor in the "we're all in this together" when external disaster strikes.
Zappos, Southwest, Vosges Chocolates, Infiniti, Nordstrom, LL Bean, and on and on.
It is important to distinguish customer mollification from customer service. Disney, for example, ios genius at mollification, not so much in some other dimensions. Marriott, Ritz-Carlton, et al, at robust multi-dimensional service, appropriate to each price point in the family of brands.
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