There have been many articles written about Zappos branding strategy and brand promise. The company has a reputation of repeat business and customer loyalty due to word of mouth about its fantastic customer service. Just take a look at this 2010 article, “Branding Through Customer Service, From Delivering Happiness: A Path to Passion, Profits and Purpose,” by Tony Hsieh.
In this piece, Hsieh, Zappos CEO, explains Zappos’ philosophy as well as how that philosophy has shaped its policies around shipping costs, marketing and buzz building, and measuring the lifetime value of customers. For instance, Zappos’ policy of offering free shipping both ways to customers in the U.S. is rooted in the belief that customers’ experience should be easy and risk-free. In fact, they want it to be as easy and risk-free as possible.
It is one thing to read an article about claims a company makes about customer service and it is another to experience the service firsthand. I have recently had one of those exceptional Zappos experiences. Since this experience truly demonstrates how Zappos employees live its brand and are empowered to do what is right for the brand, I feel compelled to share it.
A couple of weeks ago my sister and I were going through my mother’s belongings. It has been an emotional process because she passed away from complications from a brain tumor in April. During our last day of going through her closet, we came across a pair of beautiful Born Beryl boots that we had ordered from Zappos. I had purchased the boots for my Mom in December on her credit card, but she had never even taken them out of their box.
Unaware of Zappos generous 365-day return policy, I called to see if I could send back the boots and have her money refunded. I also was uncertain how the refund would work as we had closed her credit card. The people with Zappos were fantastic. They explained the process and encouraged me to make the return, but they did not just stop there.
Zappos customer service reps took the situation one-step further. A couple of days later, I received an email from my father. He had arrived home to a beautiful bouquet of flowers with a note from Tamika T & The Zappos.com Family.
I can tell you that we (my father, sister and I) very much appreciated this gesture. It absolutely created a positive emotional association with the brand, and our likelihood of ordering from the company will go up. Not only that, but we have told many people about this experience as well as tweeted and blogged about it.
More companies would be smart to follow Zappos lead when it comes to branding – and I would add buzz building – via customer service.