During the pandemic, Zappos once again shot to the top of the customer experience (CX) leaderboard. Instead of pulling back on its historic support amid dropping sales, the company doubled down on its customer commitment. Zappos representatives were encouraged to chat with buyers as if they were buddies — and the scheme worked. Zappos hung on to its top position and received lots of media kudos in the process.
The point isn’t just that Zappos zigged while its competitors zagged. It’s that Zappos realized that cutting off customer lifelines is a bad idea, especially during times of economic turmoil. Customer trust is tough enough to engender. Why