A couple of years ago, my niece was over at my house. She mentioned that she liked the shoes I was wearing and asked for the brand and style. I pulled the shoe off and told her, and as I was describing all of its benefits in detail, she was typing away on the computer. I assumed that she was checking her work emails and was surprised that in the middle of my discussion of the non skid soles she turned around and said, "I just ordered a pair. They'll be here in a few days." Zappos.com. Cool
I was familiar with Zappos, but had not yet purchased anything from them. That experience registered with me. A few weeks later I set up a twitter account (late 2007). Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos, was one of the first people that I followed.
Forward to prom time, 2009. My daughter found orange tipped grey pumps to wear with her dress. The problem was that we were just a few business days away from the prom and I didn't want to pay for one day delivery service. The shoes were inexpensive, so I told her I'd order them from Zappos, but she might need to have a backup because I didn't think they'd make it here on time. A day later, Zappos sent me an email saying that my order had been rushed at no extra cost and would be delivered in two or three days. They made it here in time for the prom and they were the perfect finish to a beautiful look.
Today Tony tweeted a memo he'd written to his employees about the completion of the Amazon.com deal. Since I was a customer, and Tony seemed like such a nice guy, I decided to send him a DM (Direct Message) on twitter and congratulate him. Somehow, in 140 characters I let him know that his success was well earned, wished him good luck on the upcoming publication of his new book, Delivering Happiness and mentioned that I wished CEOs were so great in the 1980s, when I was just starting out my career. He replied within a few minutes and thanked me with a smile :-) . He delivered. I was happy.
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