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Zappos as a Verb
Posted by bud_caddell on May 20, 2008
Once upon a time, that little shoe-related eCommerce portal wanted everyone to refer to it like they do that massive search engine company. Recall wasn’t enough, they wanted more.
What does it take to transform the meaning of your brand and the use of the English language? For Google, the answer was a disruptively good solution to a common and growing problem. Zappos is hoping their answer lies in disruptively good customer service.
In my little corner of the world they seem to be succeeding. I see more Zappos boxes every week, and their customer service/marketing (its really the same thing) is mentioned in more and more meetings. I also see that their sales have jumped from around $70 million fives years back to an expected $1 billion this year. Not bad.
How’d they do it?
For one thing, they have a decent proposition. Zappos is not a price leader or your fastest solution if you need some rubber to coat your feet in — you can definitely find cheaper shoes somewhere in the real world, but you won’t find millions of pairs to choose from and you won’t find an easier return policy anywhere on the net. Customer service. They list their 1-800 number everywhere (pretty rare for most e-commerce models) and their call centers are told to do just about anything to make the customer happy. Hence, you see a lot of positive sentiment online. (http://labs.summize.com/sentiment — search ‘zappos’ — awesome new tool by the way)
They’ve kept the culture intact. I just read an article over at the Harvard Business Review by Bill Taylor about how they offer all new employees $1,000 to quit. I’ve heard a lot of companies talk about the importance of having good people, but that is a radical step towards ensuring that the people (companies are people, brands are just people) that customers have to interact with are the kind of people that are committed to the vision of the company (which is customer service), and not just their paychecks.
The CEO is public facing, he even twitters . In fact, I’m astounded by how well the CEO of Zappos, Tony Hsieh, has used twitter. He updates often, replies directly to others, and even offers up free product. I decided to test him out, and asked for his opinion in Western footwear. He hooked me up with Rebecca Kemble, their Western buyer, to help me with my need for some ‘pointy cowboy boots.’ She replied to me with at least ten different pairs, one of which will soon be mine.
Tony is now famously quoted for this nugget, “we’re a service company that just happens to sell shoes.”
I’ll definitely be keeping my eye on how well they retain their customer service level as they grow, but for now, they are an excellent example of the intersection of marketing and customer service.
Tagged with: customer service, twitter, zappos
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Erin said on May 22, 2008, 02:28 AM
I am a fan based solely on the policy, but it's nice to hear more details about how they run internally.
Also, I just love shoes and they make it so easy to keep my love alive.