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ANA Conference: Zappos.com Shares Its Success Story-Promo Magazine

Live from ANA: Zappos.com Cultivates Customer Service

Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh said the successful formula for his online shoe store is a matter of making sure customers come back and spread positive words about the site’s service. “We really think of the Zappos brand as a brand with the absolute best customer service,” Hsieh told his audience at the Association of National Advertisers Brand Innovation Conference in New York City yesterday. 

By: Richard Tedesco

Its business is largely based on repeat business and word-of-mouth, and Hsieh claims that one in 38 U.S. consumers have bought shoes or other accessories from Zappos.com.Zappos.com keeps its customer happy with free shipping on initial orders and returns, a 365-day return policy and a promise of next-day delivery. That last feature “creates a ‘Wow’ moment for our customers,” Hsieh said.... If Zappos.com doesn’t have a shoe in stock, they are trained to scan three competitors’ sites to help the customer find that shoe in the right size. Performance reviews are based 50% on employees’ fitting in to its customer-conscious milieu. “If our brand is about customer service, the company culture should be about customer service,” Hsieh said.

...Hsieh boils the building brands that matter down to four principles, starting with having a vision.Transparency through sharing sales data openly with its 1,500 vendors has helped Zappos manage its business, according to Hsieh, who said that feedback far outweighs any potential disadvantage from competitors accessing the same information about markdowns.