In 2016 a Zappos customer service representative spent 10 hours and 43 minutes on a single call — and the company celebrated it. The record says less about phone calls than about a decision most businesses never make: treating service as a way to build relationships rather than a cost to be minimised.
Zappos, the online shoe and clothing retailer owned by Amazon, has long been known for its approach to customer service. One story in particular shows how far that approach goes.
What happened
According to Business Insider, on 11 June 2016 a Zappos representative named Steven Weinstein, based at the company’s Las Vegas headquarters, took a call from a customer with questions about an order. Once her issue was resolved, she stayed on the line, and the two kept talking.
The call lasted 10 hours and 43 minutes. A colleague brought Weinstein food and water during the call. It broke the company’s previous internal record of 9 hours and 37 minutes, set in 2012.
The policy behind it
Business Insider reported that Zappos call-centre employees are trained to treat interactions with customers as a way to build relationships, not to make a sale, and are encouraged to stay on the line for as long as necessary. If a call runs long during a busy period, it is the supervisor’s job to bring in more staff — not to push the representative to hang up.
Why it matters
Most companies measure the wrong thing
Many customer service teams are judged on how quickly they end calls. That quietly teaches staff to rush people, which is the opposite of what makes customers loyal. Zappos chose a different measure, and the long call is simply the extreme end of that choice.
Service becomes the story
Nobody shares a story about a company that handled their question adequately. People do share stories about being treated unusually well. Service that stands out turns customers into the ones doing your marketing.
Staff behave according to what is rewarded
A representative will only stay on a long call if they know they will not be penalised for it. The record was possible because the rules supported it. Culture is not what a company says it values; it is what it measures and rewards.
What a local business can take from this
You already have this advantage
A national company has to build systems to make service feel personal. A local business often starts there. The owner answers the phone, remembers the customer, knows the job. The opportunity is to protect that as the business grows, rather than trading it away for speed.
Decide what “good service” means, and write it down
Pick a small number of standards your team can actually keep: return calls the same day, explain the price before starting work, follow up after the job. Make them explicit so they survive busy weeks and new hires.
Don’t reward rushing
If the only thing you track is how many jobs or calls get done, people will cut corners on the conversations that build trust. Pay attention to how customers felt, not just how fast they were handled.
Make it easy for happy customers to say so
Good service creates goodwill; reviews make that goodwill visible to people who have never met you. After a job that went well, ask for a review with a direct link. It turns individual experiences into evidence for the next customer.
A reality check
A ten-hour call is not a model to copy, and it is not efficient. It is a memorable illustration of a policy, and the policy is the point. Zappos is also a large, well-funded company that can absorb the cost of generous service in ways a small business cannot always afford. The transferable idea is proportionate: give your team permission to put the customer relationship ahead of the clock, within limits that make sense for your business.
This article is part of our Media & Insights case study series on marketing lessons from around the world.
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