Smart Effective Marketing - Zappos.com
So I’m ordering some new shoes on Zappos and wanted to get them a little earlier than I originally planned to. I phone Zappos’s support line half expecting this process to be a long, drawn-out painful experience. To my surprise, she waived all shipping fees and upgraded my shipping to overnight all within five minutes. She then ends the call with a calm, “Is there anything else we can do for you today?”.
A couple hours later, I realized how powerful that small transaction was in the scheme of Zappos’s business. Instead of spending that $30 on advertising, they spent it on a single transaction knowing that I would tell my friends about the positive experience. They got a genuine personal recommendation to my group of friends instead of a generalized banner ad or commercial. While it seems like they lost $30 in the transaction, they really just shifted the money around and secured themselves a couple new customers in the future. Brilliant, effective marketing that turned me into a loyal customer.
Has to make you wonder, what other businesses can benefit from this type of marketing?
October 30th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Funny, i JUST had the same thing happen with them. I order my vans from Zappos like religiously. Their site design is sketchy, but it doesn’t really get in the way…in fact, its almost like you want their design to be a bit boring, or maybe just ‘classic web’ style. Anyway, yeah, thats an awesome way to put it in perspective…$30 on ad-sense, or $30 dollars on over night shipping for a customer…that might blog about it? Tell their friends, etc.
And good question, what other business could benefit? Car dealerships somehow? (which I hate)… Hmm.
November 6th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
They always upgrade shipping. I think its their way of making you feel you are getting something special.
Every time i have ordered from them I get an email an hour or so later saying my order was upgraded to priority shipping.
Last time I ordered at 10pm, and got the shoes the next day. All for free. Then on top of that what I love about them is you can ship it back for free for up to 300 days later. They really have the whole ordering online thing right.
November 12th, 2008 at 11:10 am
Seems to be the season of good will among companies. I just had an experience yesterday that tops that by about $2,770.
As those of you that know me know, my Apple Powerbook G4 17″ breaks down and needs something repaired about every 3 months. Apple Care was the best thing I ever bought. Well, the two year warranty extension of Apple Care ran out on Nov. 1st. About two days later the screen I had repaired a year ago started loosing pixels in vertical lines again.
I took it to a shop here in Berlin and they said it would cost 800 Euros for a new screen and my best bet was to call Apple and see if they’d grant me a week extension on my Apple Care. So, I called Apple in the US and they said since I was in Europe they’d have to pass my case to someone in Europe.
I then called Apple Europe and got passed up the ladder a bit to a technology expert. He was surprised at how many repairs my computer has had and said he’d call me back in 30 min. An hour later he called back, explaining it took so long because he had to go through my really long repair history.
“I’ve never seen a machine need so many repairs,” he said. “You deserved a better computer so we’re going to send you one.”
WHAT? I thought this stuff only happened in dreams!
He then proceeded to read me off the specs of the brand new Macbook Pro 17″ he’d be shipping me in exchange for my busted laptop. Talk about good will! I take back any bad thing I ever said about Apple!
November 12th, 2008 at 11:43 am
Wow. I almost feel jipped. You got a brand new laptop and all I got was Red Chucks a day faster. jk.
November 13th, 2008 at 10:41 am
yeah, now who wants to buy it? seriously, anyone in the market for a discount 17″ MacBook Pro. I need to reduce the size of my laptop as I travel too much.