The 24 hour news cycle has already begun whirring. Headlines talk about “Zappos being zapped by hackers” and commentators are asking why a company known for customer service has closed down it’s customer loyalty team phone lines to process customer questions through email. Even Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh, has been quoted as seeing this hacking incident as a setback for a brand that has invested so much in garnering customer trust.
Before you take a “sky is falling” perspective on Zappos, I would suggest it will weather this storm well and so will it’s customers. Here are a few of my reasons:
1) Zappos has truly obsessed about customer experience and trust for its 12 year existence. Those types of investments pay dividends when unforeseen and malicious attacks occur.
2) Zappos is a value based culture accustomed to making business decisions in accord with its foundational values. At times like these, open communication, humility and other core Zappos values will guide wise, customer-centered responses
3) Zappos leaders care about people. When things go wrong in business customers will forgive you if you apologize, fix the problem and protect (where possible) the problem from happening again.
In the end the act of a criminal hacker won’t undo the goodwill of a culture of service professionals. Zappos is fine and their customers will be made whole. What do you think?
