From Impressed to Obsessed: 12 Principles for Turning Customers and Employees into Lifelong Fans

CHAPTER 9

Make It Effortless

On September 28, 1999, US Patent Number 5,960,411 was issued, and the bar for what constituted a great customer experience was forever raised.

The patent cryptically describes its protected intellectual property as “a method and system for placing an order to purchase an item via the Internet.”¹ Most of us will recognize the innovation by its commonly known moniker: the “1-Click” purchase button, courtesy of Amazon.com.

In the 1990s, Amazon and its e-commerce brethren struggled with what came to be known as “cart abandonment.” Shoppers loaded up their virtual carts with all kinds of goodies, only to leave them unpurchased, strewn about the internet’s virtual aisles. This remains an issue for the e-commerce industry ...