Crazy Customer Service and Marketing Idea

Zappos.com continues to amaze me – in a great way. They pay employees to leave if they aren’t happy. They create a culture of WOW both inside and outside of their organization. Every employee contributes an essay to a book/anthology that Zappos.com has published about their culture. They are truly operating at the Cult of Amazement!

Now they have done something really cool – and crazy. They are selling a t-shirt for a whopping $50,000 (Not a typo). The T-shirt says: Cease and Desist!

The $50,000 cost goes toward Zappos.com honoring the Cease and Desist message on the t-shirt, ensuring that the customer’s spouse or significant other will be banned from buying anything from Zappos.com ever again. A press release distributed by the company said there was a “tsunami of calls received in 2008 by the Zappos.com Customer Loyalty Team from spouses of loyal customers lamenting that the website was causing relationship and financial strains.”

Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? Crazy, but serious! And fun! This is exactly the creative thinking that has made Zappos.com a rock star in the customer service and experience world.

What’s the lesson? Get crazy. Come up with wild ideas that focus on your customers. You might find one that works – or gets you great publicity.

Announcing a new book! The Cult of the Customer – How to Create an Amazing Customer Experience That Turns Satisfied Customers into Customer Evangelists by Shep Hyken will be released in April 2009. (Published by Wiley, hardback and 256 pages.) What happens on the inside of your company is what your customer will experience. Is your company in “alignment?” Does every employee understand the vision? Do employees love their jobs? This book is filled with lessons, strategies and case studies that will show you how to build a customer service culture that will make your customers (and employees) say, “Wow!”

Shep Hyken is a customer service/CX expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling author. Learn more about Shep’s customer service and customer experience keynote speeches and his customer service training workshops at www.Hyken.com. Connect with Shep on LinkedIn.

(Copyright ©MMXII, Shep Hyken)