General Electric’s SixSigma has been pounded into the minds of business students for countless decades. SixSigma is all about the endless quest for perfection. “The central idea behind Six Sigma is that if you can measure how many ‘defects’ you have in a process, you can systematically figure out how to eliminate them and get as close to ‘zero defects’ as possible.”

One of the major principles of SixSigma is timing. You’ve all heard, “there is a time and a place” … well, that couldn’t be truer if you follow SixSigma. It makes sense, too. Think about it, if you have a manufacturing company that relies on parts supplied by multiple vendors, it is incredibly important that parts are delivered exactly when they are expected. If they are delivered too soon, then there might not be enough storage to house them, and if they are delivered too late, then the entire process is behind schedule and everyone is losing money - assembly starts later, people are sitting idle and eventually, customers receive their goods later than expected.

So, if timing is so important, why is Zappos breaking this major rule and still enjoy amazing success? Specifically, they tell their customers that shoes will be delivered in three or four days, but more often than not, they are delivered over night. Apparently, over delivering in this case has a positive effect on customer perceptions and experience.

I wonder if customers that are on the road and can’t be home for three to four days and plan the delivery of their Zappos shoes accordingly would continue to have the warm-and-fuzzies about the company if they are not home to accept the delivery.

I also wonder if Zappos would benefit from more or less customer good will if they delivered when they said they would.

Finally, I wonder what Zappos’ reaction would be if they received 800,000 pairs of shoes three days ahead of schedule. Would they be pleasantly surprised, as their customers with early delivery?

Sometimes, over delivering pays dividends and sometimes it doesn’t. In fact, over delivery can cause serious problems.

Know your customers and understand their pressures. Finding opportunities for over delivery that create happy customers is always gold. Zappo has done just that and to prove it, their sales are up from $70 million to $1 billion in just five years.

Keep your customers happy and the rest will follow. Go figure!

Labels: Business Differentiation, Business Strategy, process, SixSigma