𝘼𝙣 𝙄𝙣𝙫𝙖𝙡𝙪𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙇𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙤𝙣 𝘼 𝙈𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙞𝙧𝙚 𝙏𝙖𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙈𝙚 𝘽𝙚𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙃𝙚 𝙋𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝘼𝙬𝙖𝙮.
My heart sunk, my stomach turned.
Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos passed away. Age 46.
I’m absolutely devastated. His book: 𝗗𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗛𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀, remains the guiding philosophy behind my business.
In fact, my very first e-commerce venture Glow ✨ is based on the idea of:
Putting the Customers First.
If you’re buying things online, you might have experienced these problems before...
- Broken Products
- Long Shipping Time
- Rude Customer Service
What I learned from Tony, is that you should always, 𝗮𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 do your best to keep your customers 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝘆. 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸.
𝘉𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘥𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴.
𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮.
So what happens when a customer is not satisfied with a product they received?
We’ll send another parcel to them. FOC and they can keep the first one. If they’re still not satisfied, we’ll give them a full refund.
More than once when we were sold out upon launching our product, we personally WhatsApp-ed each and every one of our customers.
With an average 1-3 day delivery, I still remember apologising to my customers as I informed them there will be a delay in delivery.
We even packed a handwritten note for every customer while throwing in a little free gift for them.
What is the result of this?
Customers talk about us. To their friends. To their family. We get positive messages in our inbox. Repeated purchases from our customers.
This concept of keeping the customers happy makes me, as the Business Owner feel at peace.
Yes, from a financial perspective, it wouldn’t make sense to bear the cost of delivering a replacement parcel just because our customers were not satisfied with their purchase.
But, customers are not metrics that we can step on, and exploit to improve our bottom line.
They are individuals with hopes, dreams and fears. One thing every business can do differently is to help them 𝙖𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙚𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 𝙝𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙙𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢𝙨 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙡𝙚 𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 𝙛𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙨.
If we can achieve this, we are not just delivering parcels. We are 𝙙𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨.
Rest in peace, Tony. Thank you for your timeless philosophy.