This morning we all headed down to the second ad:tech breakfast briefing with Zappos.com - The Inside Scoop From One Of The World’s Leading Online Retailers. It was an interview with Aaron Magness, Business Development & Marketing Director. The event was both well attended and organised – looking forward to the next one.
Below, I’ve collected the thoughts from the staff who attended.
Alex Asigno:
It was interesting to hear that Zappos had made staff reductions, I hadn’t actually heard about this. This is great positive evidence as to why a company should be transparent, I’m sure this would have had far bigger headlines if Tony, their CEO, hadn’t wrote about it on his blog.
The question I still come away with and wish I had asked Aaron is: If Zappos are so customer service centric, why have they heavily over optimised their website that it provides such a bad user experience?
Scot Ennis:
- The importance of a clear point of differentiation. Stand for something. Zappos = Service.
- Zappos Call center has no activity metrics (around number of calls, length of call). Rather than activity metrics, they have just one goal / outcome (Keep customers happy and retain them.)
Andy Jamieson:
Good to hear.
Wondered if it was marketing spin vs actually reality. The reality of business was clearly seen in the successful times, however, what happens when the customer service focus gets eroded or falls over as can happen due to a function of scale.
Not measuring ROI. I struggle to believe that entirely. However, liked that they knew the game they were playing eg customer service and not price and pushed hard in that direction. Insightful and good to see what focus can bring.
Overall, my notes were:
What they are focused on
- The ways that culture drives business
- Customer Service is a strategic part of the business
- “If we can’t produce a ‘wow’ customer experience, it’s not a business we should be in.”
- If they set out to be “best online shoe store” would have limited Zappos.com in their potential
On growth and discovery
- Creating 10 core values was done by reaching out to the 1400 employees and asking them what they valued personally
- Widdled down from 100′s of suggestions to 50, to 34 and to eventually 10 – don’t just put them on a plaque somewhere, but make them a committed part of the business and your employees
- Bought ‘clothes.com’ for $4.9 million
- Created in 1998: lots of new innovations back then which now are considered standard
- No site-wide sales as it’s a short term win – and none of the customers would expect to pay full price again
The role of social media
- Let people know they are and what they do
- Use social media to create loyalty amongst customers
- breaking the corporate mentality
- Buying from ‘your friend’
- Great for HR – attracts the right people
- They explicitly don’t look for an ROI – but rather use it to drive culture
