Zappos is awesome

In the annals of customer service, my experience tonight should be noted. I saw my podiatrist today, and he suggested a particular walking shoe. I've bought shoes from Zappos.com before with very good results, so I went back to their site. I couldn't find the shoe, but they have so much on the site that I thought that I might just be missing it. Noticing that they tout 24/7 telephone customer service, I picked up the phone. The call went like this:

Me: "Hi, I'm looking for the New Balance 926. I can't seem to find them on your site. Can you help me?"

Fabulous Zappos Representative (FZR): "I'd be happy to help. Let me look." (clickity-clack typing sounds; pause) "I'm not coming up with anything. Can I put you on hold for a minute while I look this up?"

Me: "Sure."

After about a minute...

FZR: "Thanks for waiting. Looks like we don't carry that model of New Balance. But I found a place online that has them at a good price. Are you in front of your computer?"

Me (kind of stunned): "Yes."

FZR: "OK, go to www.onlineshoes.com."

Me: "OK, I'm there."

FZR: "Now type in 'New Balance 926' in the Search box at the top, then click the Go button."

Me: "There they are. Thanks!"

So. Zappos didn't carry the shoe I wanted, and their rep not only found them for me at another store, but hung around to walk me through to make sure that I got what I wanted. That's a level of customer service that is so far beyond what I expect that I was nearly speechless. I would have been perfectly happy if she merely confirmed that Zappos didn't carry that particular model.

I was already a happy Zappos customer. Now, I'm a total convert. Note to other companies: this is how it's done.