I was fortunate enough to spend some time this weekend at the wonderful South by SouthWest conference (SXSW). It was a whirlwind of good sessions, great networking and evening events galore. Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, delivered a great keynote that got me thinking about e-commerce and customer experience. Zappos.com has built their business model and corporate culture around outstanding customer service and their results have been impressive - $0 to over $1 billion in sales in 10 years with 75% of sales coming from returning customers. The Zappos culture goes as far to recommend other websites when they are out of stock. They encourage customers to call versus hiding telephone numbers. Customer service is the differentiator for Zappos.com or as they call in internally, their WOW philosophy.
I'm an adovocate of the experience economy. Amazon defined their position as breadth of selection. Zappos differentiates on customer service. There are a hundreds of other experiences that fill the e-commerce landscape. I'm curious about what makes a great e-commerce experience that builds customer loyalty. What do you love about your favorite online shopping site?
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