Zappos was started in 1999 when Nick Swinmurn
could not find a pair of airwalks at his local mall.
He was able to raise capital to start the company
and the company grew to a worth of more than one billion dollars thanks to the
vision of Tony Hsieh—providing superior customer service.
Although Zappos was eventually bought for $1.2
billion by Amazon in 2009, the spirit of great service continues to exist. This
is not to say that Amazon does not provide good service, there is just
something very special and unique about Zappos and the good nature the company
exudes.
A big part of the company’s superior customer
service is through the use of Web analytics—collecting Web activity data and
customer information to enhance the experience and deliver relevant, engaging
messaging online and in email. One of the company’s core family values is to
build open and honest relationships with communication (Zappos, 2013). The rich
experience comes with making a purchase. This results in two emails from Zappos.
Customers can expect to receive a shipping confirmation within minutes of the
purchase. After approximately three weeks, customers will receive an email
requesting feedback on the purchase.
Shipping Confirmation Email
When you
make a purchase on the Zappos website you provide shipping address information
and your first and last name. The products you purchase are immediately
associated with your personal information to deliver effective email
communications. The shipping confirmation email includes a photo and product
description of each item along with pricing and tracking information. This is
step one in exceeding expectations. Rather than providing customers with an
estimated delivery timeframe, a tracking number is assigned so that customers
can get near real-time tracking info anytime they want it. Zappos could take it
a step further. The company has the location of my mailing address. If the
company integrated messaging into the email related to Florida and similar to
other product purchases, then maybe they could have encouraged me to make
additional purchases.
Survey Email
The
survey email messaging is really creative. Subject = Help Others! Write A
Zappos.com Review! We all want to help others and understand the value of
reviews—it is what many of us use to base our purchases. Zappos includes a
photo of your most recent purchase helping you to recall your thoughts and
feelings towards the experience. Amazon clearly understands the value of
product rating and reviews and incorporates ways to increase user-generated
content using email. The email is
personalized, but what could the company do to get a better response? Based on
Web analytics data, Zappos could have referenced the days since my last
purchase and again referenced the area where I live. Although the experience
and communication from Zappos is unique and effective, why not include other
data to make the experience a bit more personal and unlike any other communication
from other online retailers.
Web
analytics can come in the form of data relating to email activity, including
email opens, clicks, forwards, replies, and opt-outs. Even better, with email
clicks, Zappos can track clickstream data to the website to create new email
segments based on personal information and consumer behavior. Web analytic
tools have matured to the point that some are offering overlay features where
you can view your email campaign and consumer behavior in a single interface. WebTrends integrated with ExactTarget. WebTrends' browser
overlay functionality allows the user to see the Web metrics on top of her email
campaign performance. The user can literally drill into site click behavior to
create segments. Coremetrics has seven ESPs partners, including Responsys,
Digital Impact, Yesmail, and CheetahMail. They've built connectors to the
application so the data flow easily between the applications (Daniels, 2005).
With proper campaign tagging, such as
Google Analytics tagging using specific parameters, companies like Zappos can
benefit from deeper insights from email campaigns and refine as needed to
increase sales. What parameters you ask? Let us use the following URL used in
an email campaign and add to is using campaign tagging that works with Google
Analytics.
Email Text: View All Sale Items Now
URL:
Zappos.com/?utm_medium=Email&utm_source=ShippingConfirmationEmail&utm_campaign=ViewSaleItems&utm_content=RightNavLink
Campaign tagging like what I have
shown you above would allow Zappos to immediately identify traffic from email
and drill down to the type of email, campaign information that drove the click,
and location of the link. That sure looks like helpful information to help
optimize future email campaigns and ultimately, increase conversion rates and
sales.
What about the Zappos website experience?
When I login to Zappos.com, I am
immediately presented with recommended products that are similar to my last
purchase. The company now also has the ability to store click activity to gain
a better understanding of my interests. Zappos offers tremendous empowerment to
Web visitors allowing us to filter the information we want to see and provide
reviews. All of this information could be neatly stored in my user profile for
segmentation and personalization.
In addition to recommended products
similar to my last purchase, the company could offer up a few different options
also based on my location, gender, and price of last purchase.
Analytics is powerful and provides
more insight to businesses than any other form of business activity, including
economic and category trends. Analytics is tied to your brand and allows
company’s to have a granular view of consumer behavior based on the content
published and the entire online experience. Analytics is pertinent to providing
superior customer service. Hopefully, we will continue to see Zappos grow and
exceed expectations. I like a smart company and especially one that cares more
about customer service than selling shoes.
Zappos
(2013). Zappos Family Core Value #2. Retrieved on March 4, 2013, from http://about.zappos.com/our-unique-culture/zappos-core-values/embrace-and-drive-change
Daniels,
D. (2005, April 25). ClickZ. Integrating E-mail marketing and Web analytics. Retrieved
on March 4, 2013, from, http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/1713351/integrating-email-marketing-web-analytics
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