How Zappos.com lost 25% turnover overnight

This morning I read an old interview with the late Zappos.com founder, Tony Hsieh.

Tony built Zappos into a billion dollar brand in only a few years.

In the interview, he shared how he deals with the doubt that comes up when making decisions in his business.

You know, that feeling you get when you are about to commit your company to a major change.

It is the feeling of taking risk...and everyone feels it, even CEO's of billion dollar companies.

One of the major early decisions Zappos made was to focus on customer service.

But, after implementing this decision...their turnover dropped 25% almost overnight.

Imagine if you made a decision that resulted in a 25% drop in revenue...would you start questioning your decision? Would you start having doubts about whether you have made the decision?

Tony said the following about this decision:

It was probably about the hardest of any of these decisions that we've had to make in the company's history –hardest being because of that twenty-five percent drop in revenue in the short term.

But it was an easy decision in that we knew that we would never be able to build up our brand to be about customer service if we didn't control the entire customer experience, which includes the fulfillment of it.

It turned out to have been the right decision...

Amazon bought Zappos in 2009 for $1.2 billion...because of their strong customer service brand.

Here's the thing: your business needs to have a reason for existing. You need a reason for customers to buy from you, and not from your competitors.

We call this your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)...and it is the critical first step for any business growth.

With a strong USP, you can get better results from all your marketing efforts.

Without a USP...you customers will end up buying from cheaper competitors, and you will end up having to compete only on price.

But there is also danger with a USP - one of the fastest ways to destroy your business is to promote a USP that you cannot follow-through on.

That is why it is important to follow a proven process for developing your USP.

In today's email newsletter, I shared how we can help you develop your USP, using a proven system that has helped thousands of small and medium sized businesses to grow their sales by 25% to 100% or more, within 60 to 90 days...without spending any more money on marketing.

If you have an established business, and you have to capacity to grow, then sign up for a free daily business growth idea and tip here.