How does the the billion dollar shoe company Zappos have anything in common with BOA Logistics? I’ll try and tell you with another story…
Earlier this year I joined a local crossfit gym here in Los Angeles called Dogtown crossfit. They advised me that the shoes that I needed to purchase needed to be “barefoot running” so that I could have a better training experience. I went online and did my research on Zappos.com and selected the Nike Free running shoes for men. I ordered them over the phone and had a “wow” experience with their customer service rep named Allison. She was attentive, nice, and patient. She also upgraded me to free overnight shipping…which she probably does with everyone but I didn’t mind. The “wow” experience came a couple of days later when my shoes arrived. Somehow she remembered talking about running with my dog Kona and how Kona comes to the office every day. She took the time to do a pretty accurate drawing of Kona and personalize it. Here is a picture of Kona: 
Here is the card Allison/ Zappos sent See here:
(Not a bad depiction since Allison never met Kona and I didn’t tell her what color she was)
After receiving this type of service I was sold for life
Two months later… My car got broken into and they ransacked it for all of my goodies, including my new Nike Free. I called the police at 8 am that Saturday and went in to work via my bike. I got a call 3 hours later from my fiancé asking me to come home right away because there were 2 police officers there. It turns out that that those 2 police officers picked up a suspicious individual a few miles up that morning carrying a bag full of goodies. Back at the station they had no real evidence that he had committed a crime but one of the police officers had a gut feeling about this guy so he took a second look at the bag of goodies and found a portable Garmin GPS. Before letting go of this suspect he went back into his patrol car plugged in the GPS and pressed home. He followed the route all the way back to exactly my house, right to my car with the broken glass. It turns out that there were more than one vehicle hit on that street. This was the evidence he needed to put this thief away, and funny enough it was my GPS that this moron stole that was used as evidence. All of my property was returned to me…all except my new favorite Nike Free’s. I bet if we could go back in time, the shoes that this thief was wearing were my shoes and that’s why they were never recovered.
So I had to go back to zappo’s and order a replacement pair. I told them the story and Michelle/ Zappos was so engaged that we talked for ten minutes about poetic justice and karma. I received my shoes super fast and in it was another detailed, customized card. See her card here:
So how does this have any relationship to BOA Logisitics? I highly recommend picking up this book Delivering Happiness: a Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose, written by Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos. In it he tells his life’s story. From the time he was a child, to college, and his first venture as an adult, Tony talks about building a corporate culture that is unlike any company. They call it his social experiment, where they put customers first. The secret for his success is that he creates an environment, a “corporate culture” where employees LOVE their job and the people they work with. People always talk the talk, but Zappos seem to walk the walk.
Check out Tony’s Philosophy here:
With the close of 2011 quickly approaching, Walter and I are already planning to position ourselves to stand out in this Arena of Old-Boys club, where everyone is doing the same thing they have done for decades. If you haven’t seen our mission statement yet you can check it out here www.boalogistics.com . We plan to build a corporate culture where customer service is paramount, where all employee’s love their job and who they work with…because that’s the secret to good customer service. If you can get your team to LOVE what they do and Love all actions regarding their customers then we can deliver happiness as Tony’s book is titled.
As BOA Logistics grows, I hope that you will see evidence in this culture and how it affects you.
p.s. I have both those cards from Zappos sitting above my desk so it reminds us that customer service is the first rule of business.