Extending the customer experience – the Zappos story
10th April 2009, 08:04 am by Matt RhodesZappos is a well-known social media case study. The Las Vegas shoe retailer was founded in 1999 selling shoes online. In ten years it has expanded to include other products like handbags and sunglasses, and it has grown to be a $1 billion per year business. Very impressive statistics, a good business model and a really good example of using social media.
For Zappos customer service has always been a critical part of the brand, indeed early on they made the deliberate decision to divert their marketing budget to customer service. They allowed customers to do things like try and return products for up to a year, only list stock that’s in their warehouse, encourage customers to call them about nearly everything, and they invest in ‘surprise’ free overnight shipping for most customers. Customer service comes first, with the aim to acquire customers through word of mouth and retain existing customers through good service. And for them this approach seems to have worked. It is also one that fits well with a strong social media strategy.
So Required Reading for Easter at FreshNetworks is this presentation by Brian Kalma at Zappos, showing how they have used social media and the benefits they have received. It’s great to see how these micro-interactions and the emphasis on customer service have had real word of mouth benefits for the brand. And then how this has translated into customers and loyalty. For me it is also great to see how they have worked internally to engage staff and involve them in making this process work – getting 440 staff to be customer facing and engaging with customers on a daily basis.
A great presentation and a great chance to learn from what Zappos have done.
Some more reading
- Zappos CEO Talks Culture Fit and the Importance of Creating a ‘Wow’ Experience (readwriteweb.com)
- Social Media Three For One (marketing.blogtanker.com)
- Some takeaways about organizational culture from Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO (beth.typepad.com)
- Guide: A Brand Strategy Checklist (thecauseisthehabit.com)
- Steve Rosenbaum: Circuit City Goes Bust: Zappos Flies High – Why? (huffingtonpost.com)
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Ein Unternehmen, dass für seine Kunden da ist « fourcroix - the beauty of breaking with the past:
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10 April 2009, 9:59 amRob Enslin:
Thanks for posting Matt.
The Zappos story never seizes to amaze me. How does a shoe retailer so totally exploit an online space for gain? Truly remarkable. I get the feeling, sometimes, its online fame will supercede their retail service??
I love the point “INVEST in hiring and firing and pay people to leave” Brian makes on slide 43. Wow! …radical but so right.
– rob
10 April 2009, 10:28 amFootprints (12.04.09) | Chris Deary:
[...] Extending the customer experience – the Zappos story [...]
13 April 2009, 12:09 amLouis:
Brilliant read this!
Thanks (again) for the case study guys…. click, click, bookmarked and will be used in future customer meetings for sure
L.
15 April 2009, 11:53 amFull Circle Associates » Communities and Networks Connection Hotlists:
[...] Extending the customer experience – the Zappos story- FreshNetworks, April 10, 2009 [...]
15 April 2009, 1:10 pmDamien Basile:
Thanks for listing my article Guide: A Brand Strategy Checklist (thecauseisthehabit.com) as more reading. I am a HUGE brand evangelist of Zappos! even though I have never personally used their service to buy shoes for myself. I agree wholeheartedly with their way of viewing customer service as an integrated part of their business.
YOUR CUSTOMER IS YOUR BUSINESS. Segmenting relations into a department is not the best course of action. Something that should be intrinsic to your business has been made to feel alien and segregated.
Putting the customer first is putting your bottom line first. You’re in business because you have customers and you should ALWAYS remember that, otherwise you just have a non-money making hobby instead.
16 April 2009, 11:06 amMatt Rhodes:
@Rob @Damien – I think the thing we can all learn most from this and from the entire Zappos story is that investing in your consumer and spending money and time on making them happy pays real dividends. Especially now when keeping your customers happy and spending money with your brand is critical to success.
Matt
26 April 2009, 10:29 amCustomer service is the new marketing | FreshNetworks Blog:
[...] wrote last month about the Zappos story, about how they have used customer service to extend and enhance the customer experience and how [...]
26 May 2009, 11:25 pmCustomer service is the new marketing « Fredzimny’s CCCCC Blog:
[...] wrote last month about the Zappos story, about how they have used customer service to extend and enhance the customer experience and how [...]
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7 November 2009, 2:47 pmJak v tom bude vypadat? | DigitalFreak:
[...] míry etice (zkuste u nějakého českého e-shopu úspěšně vyřídit reklamaci do dvou dnů), v zahraničí sází e-shopy mimo engagement vlastních zaměstnanců a zákazníků, především na [...]
21 December 2009, 5:03 pm