COMMENTS
This is what any company *should* have done in this situation and a great example of good customer service. If the mistake was poorly handled (refusing orders), the PR damage could have outweighed their losses.
That guy Tony Hsieh, cannot do any thing wrong in my book.
Many companies could learn a great deal from this tremendous example of honesty and leadership.
Small business, could also learn a thing or two from this example.
When things go wrong, admit they've gone wrong and offer to put it right quickly. People will appreciate your honesty and your company will be seen as a leading light in your industry.
Be bold, own up quick and if you can get some free publicity...
As you say Roshni, stellar customer service,from a stellar company..
Sean
lol, total marketing ploy. there was no 'error'.
In this interconnected social-media savvy world, businesses will thrive or suffer according to how transparent they are. A business needs to earn people's trust, and 6pm.com taking this action is a great way for them to do exactly that.
So it's a loss on the books, but a gain in goodwill... and a pretty spectacular story that people are happy to spread.
Didn't amazon buy zappos for 900 million or so?
Zappos really has a strong foundation and sticks to their core values. I hope the free press they got helped recover some of the loss. Cheers.
1. Amazon did buy zappos.com a few months ago but will continue the brand.
2. 6 PM will get millions of dollars of free publicity
3. If you have the $1.6M to spend,its a great way to build brand.
4. I'm bummed that I wasn't on the site on Sunday AM :-)
What an incredible story! I feel sorry for the person if it was a human error!
A great example of a company understanding the online space and the positive impact that they could generate with the right response to a bad situation.
Exactly, When things go wrong, admit they've gone wrong and offer to put it right quickly.
yikes! a huge loss but I'm sure a great learning experience for them.
I think it's key to continue to honor your pricing even if a mistake was made. It's no surprise why they are one of the largest online retail markets and will continue to be as long as they continue to stick to their values.
Zappos is getting a lot of play via social media on this. And they did a very honorable thing.
2 corrections. The cost to them is not $1.6 million. Even if its their own cost of goods sold, it will offset 1.6 million in profits that will not get taxed now at 35%. Its still impressive to honor the pricing. Secondly I started following Zappos on twitter last summer. Since October the CEO using that account to promote his book way more than anything Zappos related. They do better via word of mouth and PR than Social Media.
One small mitigating factor... Zappos may have been called out legally if they had not honored the posted prices -- it's a little thing called false advertising.
You're all probably too young to remember a story about a TV commercial in the 60's where a car dealer said "come on down and buy a car for 1000 clams!!" A man actually brought his clams to the dealer and offered to buy a car. Dealer refused, consumer sued, and he was awarded damages in the amount of the cost of 1 car.
Peace.
Howie, I think it's important to note that the loss is measured in $1.6 million in lost revenue. Even profits are measured on a pre-tax basis, so the figure is still very relevant and staggering.
Second, the Zappos twitter account is one of my favorite. They were featured yesterday on a NYTimes.com titled 11 companies to follow on twitter, (http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/11-companies-to-follow-on-twitter/) so they're obviously doing something right. Also, the CEO is just a quirky, interesting guy.
Great post Roshni, definitely my favorite Hubspot blog post of the week.
Hats off to Zappos.
Here is my BIG question.
When are they going to do the same/similar mistake again?