The culture of Zappos is simple, it's all about "...delivering happiness to the world," (p.95). The company wants to "WOW" their customers and they accomplish that goal on multiple levels. Before hitting it big and growing their customer base to over one million, Zappos engaged in 6,000 phone calls every day to customers. They believe that person-to-person or phone calls are the most important way to communicate with customers. What better way to deliver happiness around the world than to make people feel important?
After Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, grew the company, social media was added in the mix. Now, there are a few things I'd like to discuss when it comes to the social media efforts of the company.
First, Zappos is across all boards of social including:
- Blogs
- YouTube
- Flikr
- Website
- Friendfeed
- Myspace
- Plurk
- Pownce
- Tokbox
- Bing
- Socialthing!
- StumbleUpon
- Brightkite
Out of breath after reading those? Me too. Anyways, I've always been taught that a company does not need to be on ALL social media sites, just the ones that make the most sense and appeal to the target audience. So I want to know why Zappos has at least 16 different social media accounts on different platforms. Guess what..I've never even heard of some on the list!
One reason I've gathered could be caused by their view on social media (specifically Twitter.) This shocked me, but on the bottom of page 89 of Branded a quote by Aaron Magness stated, "We don't measure it (Twitter). Social media is used to share our culture, not sell our product."
Um, has he ever taken a class with Dr. Agozzino? Apparently not because we're taught to measure everything. Maybe Twitter isn't where the majority of your target audience is located. But you'll never know because guess what...you haven't measured anything! This concept is actually mind blowing.
Next, Zappos doesn't have a social media strategy. It's OK, I had to pick my jaw off the table when I read that, too. No strategy? Why? Magness' response is this:
"We don't have a social-media strategy or a goal specific to social media....In person or by phone is the best way to WOW the customer, but we can't always verbally speak to every customer, and therefore we look for other ways. Twitter is just a tool. Facebook is another tool. Internally we don't use the phrase 'social media.' We have a friendly, family environment at work, so it is just a good way to communicate," (p. 93)
Cool, you think other forms of communication rather than social media is better. That's OK, but that still doesn't mean you shouldn't have a strategy or measure what social media has done for your company. Am I wrong in thinking that? For three years the idea of measuring and planning has been engrained in my mind. I can't help but think what they're doing can be improved.
These two pieces of information are initially mind blowing to begin with, but pair them up to a company that excels at social media and you have me utterly confused.
Apart from what I've already said, Zappos has created a website and other channels to directly reflect their culture. Their website clearly states "free shipping and returns," and customer service and live chat tabs.
Even though they don't "measure" Twitter, their hashtag seems very popular.
The hashtag #Zappos receives daily mentions from fans and customers saying thank you for the service, their packages arrived and other content.
This tweet caught my eye. A thank you card written from Zappos? If that's not great customer service, I don't know what is great!
So overall Zappos has done a phenomenal job at social media and customer service, even though their strategies have not been...can I say..traditional? Regardless, this goes to show that in the world of public relations and communications, what you learn in a textbook and class is not always black and white. What is certain is this: stay true to your company's culture and morals, that will take you far.
Until next time, stay classy my fellow bloggers.
Candace
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