Interpreting the success of Zappos.com, Four Seasons, and Nordstrom: Customer centricity is but one‐third of the job

Can organizations that are noted for outstanding customer service rely solely on their remarkable customer-centricity to achieve success? An analysis incorporating Internet-based surveys, traditional measures of customer satisfaction and financial performance, and an examination of the practices at three exceptionally successful customer-focused companies—Zappos.com, Four Seasons, and Nordstrom—shows that an emphasis on employee satisfaction and productivity also play key roles in organizational excellence. Management practices at these firms illustrate the validity of the Cube One framework, which posits that a combination of customer-, employee-, and productivity-directed practices drives organizational performance. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.