I have the standard small group of shoes when it comes to being a guy….

• 1 pair of sneakers
• 1 retired pair of sneakers for dirty work (digging in dirt, painting, etc.)
• 1 pair of brown dress shoes
• 1 pair of black dress shoes
• 2 pairs of hiking boots (1 winter, 1 summer)
• 2 pair sandals (1 summer, 1 water)

So after this past weekend of forgetting my retired sneakers when I was painting up at Camp, and getting lots of white paint on my almost 2 year old Sambas, I decided it was time to retire those and get a new pair. Besides getting paint all over them, the insides were well worn, and they lost their “bounce” as far as support goes.

I had head about Zappos for awhile now, and had wondered multiple times “how do you buy shoes online, but not try them on”? I tend to need a shoe with a wide foot and narrow heal or else my foot slips out the back when walking, so I usually have to try on multiple pairs of shoes before I find one that fits.

I decided to give the service a try and said “What the heck? I can always either return them or sell them online for the same as I paid for them.” I was pleasantly surprised how easy the site was, how simple the order process was to navigate, and that Zappos had a 365 day original condition return/exchange policy (with free return shipping!) for either Zappos credit, or origional payment refund.

The bigger surprise came when it came to shipping my order out. Not only do they offer free standard shipping on their orders, but the day after the order, I received an e-mail that said the shipping on my order was upgraded to priority shipping. Next thing I knew, I had a UPS tracking number and the package was waiting for me upon my return home from work Thursday night. From order creation, to delivery, the whole process only took 1 day 18 hours. Shoes fit, I was a happy customer, and will now highly recommend the site to all my friends.

Moral of the story…provide good customer service, and you will keep a customer for their lifetime. Better yet, they will spread the good word about your product service for free to others, and you get to spend less money on marketing.  Even if something happens to an order, being in constant communication with your customer, and helping them through an issue will make them feel better about using you service in the future. 

At least one online retailer gets this new world of marketing.

I know I'm a bit late in seeing this keynote from this year's Web 2.0 Expo NY conference, but wow.  What a motivational keynote from Gary Vaynerchuk. 

He explains that people who don't like what they do, need to work their 9-to-5 then come home, enjoy their family for a few hours then 7-to-2 is plenty of time to "kill it".  He concludes his keynote by telling people to "STOP watching fu*king Lost" and they will kill it in whatever space they put themselves to work in. 

Just a friendly reminder to everyone out there…

Register to Vote

If you don’t register to vote, you aren’t eligible to vote in the upcoming election in November; and if you don't vote in November, don't complain about the outcome.  

The deadline to register to vote in the state of Massachusetts is the end of the day today (Other states deadlines have already passed, while others are still upcoming). More info about voting in Massachusetts can be found at the Secretary of State’s Elections Division Website. For people not in Massachusetts, check out http://maps.google.com/vote to find out how to register to vote.

Town clerks offices in MA will be open tonight until 8PM, and there are registration locations at North and South Station for those who take the train to commute to work. You can also register to vote via the mail, but make sure you have the postal worker hand cancel the mailing with today’s date, or it will not be considered eligible.

Four things to end the day on a political note.

1. The Dow ended 348 points down for the day (a drop of 3.2% for the day), despite the senate approval for the Wall Street Bail Out plan last night.  This begs the question, if the markets go down when the plan is voted for (The Senate) and against (The House), when is it going to level off and rebound?  Hopefully the markets don't slide again tomorrow if the second House vote fails. 
2. The first, and only, VP debate for the 2008 election is tonight.  9PM EDT.  Go print out your Sarah Palin and Joe Biden Bingo Cards, grab your drink of choice, and get ready to enjoy the debate!
3. The Obama camp has released an iPhone app which gives you a one stop shop to local events, media, issues, and a place to organize how your friends are voting when making volunteer calls.  Question is, does this app send back any data to the campaign, related to your tally of contacts voting for/against Obama?  The app speaks of a feature which compares your call stats to everyone else nationwide.  No mention of a privacy policy on the webpage though. 
4. The new league of Fantasy Congress starts tomorrow.  Hopefully my team (Credit Crunchers) can beat out the rest of the teams in the league (The Henry Paulson Fan Club).  If you enjoy politics, I'd highly recommend getting a group of your friends to create teams.  It has proved to be a point of conversation starters for months now.