A Legend Was Born

Speaking about Service, there'll always be legendary stories. We both know that effortless service is a great way to serve a customer. It's a great way to create customer loyalty. That alone will allow us to sell at a higher price and the customers will still flock!!

I remember a story about a fish seller from a mailing list. She supplied live fishes to restaurants and alike. Her business is unique! She sold at a higher price, yet she still had the most customers. She explained bluntly that she practiced two tips.

1. She made sure that every fish delivered is alive. So if the customer orders 100 fishes, then 100 will be delivered, alive and breathing!

2. She made sure that none of her employees will ask for any tips when delivering fishes or anything else.

These two alone gets her to succeed!

However, there are amazing stories that moves our hearts. Stories that gets forwarded, liked, 1+'ed, shared, retweeted. Those are heart touching stories. Heart warming stories that shed tears from the readers eyes and touched their hearts. These are the kind of stories that WOW, amazed and shocked us! These are the kind of stories that gets our company the LEGENDARY reputation!

Such as the myth about the snow tire at Nordstrom. It was believed that a customer went to Nordstorm to return a snow tire. The employee granted that ridiculous wish, even though Nordstrom obviously sells high end clothing. They don't even sell automotive parts. They did it because that's what the customer wanted. It didn't make sense!

There's also Lauren at Zappos who had a 7,5 hour conversation with a client, Alice. The conversation even got interrupted by Alice's headset running out of battery, but it went on and on. Lauren recounted the story. It began when Alice looked at an old ad that a doctor's practice. The ad was so old that Zappos didn't even carry the stuff anymore. Then a rapport was built. Lauren explained that Alice was just like her grandma who always needed someone to listen to her. In the end Alice didn't buy one single thing! It didn't make sense!

There's also a young boy, Ian, who got an assignment from his school to write a feedback letter to a company. He chosed Zappos, because he loved it! Then a Zappos staff read his letter, and decided to give him a little more. He gathered the management team, kindly asked them all to sign Zappos Culture Book and wrote short stories for Ian. They wrapped it and have it sent to Ian, which he showed to his dad. Tears flowed from his dad, who said, "I'm Zappos customer for life!"

Sometimes the difference between terrible and great service is paper thin. It's the existence of personal affection!

These are stories that didn't make sense in terms of business. They cared more about the interaction than the transaction. They cultivate a culture of love and strong relationship! That's how we create a GREAT company . That's how the Legend was born!

Salam Dahsyat!