Zappos: 5 Lessons In WOW-ing Customers - Smart Insights Digital Marketing Advice

Have you heard of Zappos? They’re a US online retailer mega brand largely unknown in the UK – more often referred to as a social media pioneer in marketing circles (for Twitter usage particularly). Yet, dig a little deeper and it becomes clear that a significant strategy is under-pinning their success, and it’s not all about social networks. It does however start to become obvious as to why social media know-how is natural to them and necessary to help drive marketing.

Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos says simply “€œWe pay more attention to our customers”€.

It”€™s this simple, profound mentality that has led to Amazon purchasing Zappos for a staggering $1.2bn in Nov 2009.

Tony goes on, “€œPeople may not remember exactly what you did or what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel”€. This is the essence of how Zappos have achieved their phenomenal success.

Apparently, it wasn”t always this way and the Zappos Brand evolution has seen it go from simply having a strong customer focus to now being passionate about how they make their customers feel:

1999 Selection
2003 Customer Service
2005 Culture and Core Values as our platform
2007 Personal Emotional Connection
2009 Delivering Happiness

5 things we can take from Zappos’ success

1. Customers come back, order more and more often

On any given day, about 75% of purchases from Zappos are from returning customers
Repeat customers order >2.5x more from in the following 12 months
Repeat customers spend more

2. Make it easy for customers to build your brand

Superior experience drives word of mouth, so do the unexpected
Remove the risk of purchase and make it easy to return product for free
Fast, accurate fulfilment is worth talking about
Deliver an “above and beyond” customer service
Drive people to the phone, be contactable and be open

3. Talk to people!…

“The telephone is one of the best branding devices available”
Take time to talk to people properly
At Zappos there are no call times and no sales-based performance goals for sales reps
Zappos will also pay you $2000 to quit, so only the best people who enjoy the job stay
The Culture Book makes it clear how Zappos do business and even underpins performance management

4. Build a culture that envelops customers and internal staff”€¦

Zappos have “committable core values” that are clear, exciting and simple
It doesn’t matter what your core values are as long as you commit to them and get internal alignment
Commit to a culture of transparency “An Ask Anything Culture”
Zapposinsights.com focusses on lifting the lid for customers and future employees

5. Have a vision…

“Whatever you’re thinking, think bigger“, comments Tony
Does your company vision have real meaning? Without is there little chance of achieving any of the above.
“What would you be passionate about doing for 10 years even if you never made a dime?“

Tony concludes: If research tells Zappos that having vision, meaning and a higher purpose (as well as financial goals, we assume) leads to happiness internally and happy customers externally”€¦ then what is your company”€™s higher purpose? What is your higher purpose?

$1.2bn later, a social media power brand and publishers clamouring to tell his story, it”€™s hard to argue with him really. See his presentation here.