...the companies that were best at mundane things like answering questions, taking orders, packing and shipping them, and taking returns... The companies that

...the companies that were best at mundane things like answering questions, taking orders, packing and shipping them, and taking returns... The companies that are best at these things are best precisely because they don't consider them to be "mundane". In customer service and fulfillment, it's a fine line between being excellent and being out of business. These can be very difficult things to do, and the thinner your margins, the better you have to be. And very few companies handle customer returns well. They keep getting better and better until they realize the best way to handle customer returns is to avoid them in the first place.