When I first came to Durban I had to start at he bottom of the barrel so I worked in the MTN call centre. I don't regret that one bit, becos MTN (unlike these days) itself was an organisation anal about customer service. As a result I learnt tons about CRM.

So now I only allow myself to be treated sh*tty ONCE. You do not get a second chance, especially not if you are one of many that sell a product or render a service. I was looking at Kalahari's stock and was impressed, but after I had to call them to find out i they received my payment and when my book was arriving.. I think a second purchase is most unlikely..

In fact.. I'm assuming that there are more people like me who prefer reading books with paper and ink, so I'm researching courier and freight companies to see if I can start a book purchase pool or co-op of sorts.. to get books like 2 days after they launch and not 2 months..

What zappos teaches us is that customer service is a culture a belief.

What frustrates me is that online businesses – those who should understand the internet and its power – just don't.

Maybe some of these are “legacy” web 0.1 businesses – who don't actually understand social media.

Problem with local stores (and yes we ourselves sometimes are guilty of it) is shifting the blame. Nobody wants to step up and spend a few minutes extra to resolve an issue. Always a case of passing it onto another department.

Zappos have motivated, energetic and go-getter type staff/team. Locally, most call centers/online support have some minimum wage clockwatcher who cant wait to get his/her salary and bust it partying.

What they dont understand. YES you will stuff up, yes mistakes will happen and Zappos must have their fair share of customer issues. dealmaker is how you deal with the problem.
(heres a recent one from our side of the world:
http://www.carforums.co.za/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=…) and like clockwork, if you address and resolve the issue. Your customers promote your company further!