Suppose you are a call center representative. You sit in your cubicle all day answering the phone.

Then a customer calls up and orders a pizza.

Now, mind you, you don’t work for a pizza place. Your company sells widgets or some other product.

What would you do?

Would you hang up on the customer?

Would you laugh hysterically at the customer?

Or would you just order the pizza?

This is what happened at a company called Zappos. I’ve talked about Zappos before and their amazing customer service.

The CEO of Zappos, Tony Hsieh told an interesting story at a conference I attended. (Ann Krause at World of Usability recounts a similar story on her blog.)

Tony recounts that he and some colleagues were out of town at a conference one night. It was late and they wanted some food. Room service was closed so one of the group suggested they call Zappos since they have great service.

They called up the 24/7 number and said they were hungry and wanted a pizza. The agent put them on hold and came back with a list of pizza places that were still open in their area.

They thanked the Zappos agent for the help and were told “we’re happy to help any way we can.”

Why would Zappos do this? Remember, they sell shoes. Not pizza.

It comes down to their core philosophy and values as a company. They understand if they put the customer first, everything else will naturally follow.

Financial, employee, and company success are all derivatives of customer success.

Zappos first considers themselves a service company. They just happen to sell shoes, handbags, clothes, and a bunch of other stuff to the tune of $1 billion in revenue this year.

That is an amazing number and it is all due to the golden customer experiences that the Zappos employees provide for each and every customer.

Imagine what a stellar, word-of-mouth-generating customer experience would do for your business.

How many times have you seen a company’s motto or slogan completely flop after seeing their employees or product in action?

Unfortunately, this probably happens too often.

Last week my family and I went to Mighty Fine Burgers here in Austin. Besides serving a mighty tasty burger, Mighty Fine employees have also internalized their name and slogan.

When I approached the counter to order, the employee asked me how I was. I said I was fine and then asked “how are you?” The response was a jubilant and resounding “Mighty Fine!”

This made me smile and set a good mood for my experience in their restaurant.

Employees that live their company’s ideals translate them from the abstract marketing to tangible meaningful experiences that customers will remember.

You’ll recall that the good folks at Zappos also live their customer-centric core values through their interactions with customers.

Mottoes and slogans mean nothing if they are not put into action.

When your customers positively feel and experience your company slogan, it will ring true in their ears every time they hear it thereafter.

However, if customers have a bad experience, any future contact with your company name or motto will remind the customer of your hypocrisy and their nasty experience.

Which would you prefer? My guess is you want happy, positive feelings and emotions that linger in your customers.

Imagine the world’s most beautiful website.

Do you have a picture in your mind? It is glorious to behold. It may even give you warm fuzzies.

Do you have the picture in your mind?

Does it look anything like this?

Probably not. The website is Craigslist. At its core, it is an online classifieds site where you can buy or sell stuff, find a place to live, etc.

Craigslist is the 11th most popular website in the United States and is in the top 40 worldwide.

Craigslist is the brainchild of Craig Newmark (thus the name “Craig’s list”). Craig’s title is an interesting one: “Customer Service Rep and Founder.”

Picture the founder of your company, sitting in a call center answering the phone all day. Customer Service Rep and Founder.

Craig lives by some simple principles. In an interview in Founders at Work, he said:

We listen. We do stuff, we follow through, and then we listen more.

So does he really listen? Yes, even if you’re skeptical, the answer is yes. A couple of years ago, I posted a blog entry criticizing a certain company and contrasting that with how great Craigslist and Craig Newmark were.

Sure enough, Craig was listening and he stopped by and left a comment on my site.

So Craig listens. In fact, not only does he and Craigslist listen, but they take action. Craig says:

What we do is almost 100 percent based on what people ask us to do.

So why should you take business advice from Craig? If you’ve ever used Craigslist, you probably never had to pay any commissions for the service. So you think, “Craigslist probably isn’t even making money. Why should I take business advice from a company that doesn’t make any money?”

Well, in fact Craigslist is pulling in some handsome revenues. Reports indicate Craigslist will make over $80 million in 2008.

So how do they make their money? Craigslist charges for select listings in a few markets. For example, not too long ago there were lots of shenanigans in the brokered apartment listings in New York City. Legitimate brokers came to Craigslist and asked to be charged. It would keep out the riff raff and improve the quality of the listings.

So Craigslist listened and acted. They now charge for some job listings in other markets and all of these together add up to some nice revenues that profitably fund the entire company.

Craigslist makes money because they listen to customers and act on that feedback.

Are you listening to customers?

Are you internalizing what they are saying and what it means for you?

And most importantly, are you taking action?

If not, you’ve got your homework!