We have just released this interview on the ecommerce podcast with Aaron Magness, the Business Development Manager from Zappos.
Aaron talks about the approach Zappos takes to customer service and it particularly resonated with me. One of the ways that Zappos ensures that every employee is focused on customer service is by insisting that everyone spends two weeks in the call center on the phones with customers as part of their training. This is a fantastic investment – making sure that everyone at Zappos understands their customers – how they interact with the company, what they like and what they don’t.
Aaron talks about the huge growth that Zappos have had. This has mainly happened by word of mouth, fuelled by their outstanding customer service. He mentioned that one of the drivers for expanding their product range beyond shoes was that they noticed people searching for other product categories in their site search. This is another very good reason for paying close attention to what people are searching for on your site. Not only can you use it to improve the conversion rate of people who are searching and for keyword research for search marketing, but it also gives you continuous feedback about other products customers expect to find on your site.
There is plenty of other useful information in the podcast. Particularly interesting is the way Zappos have embraced Twitter – both to communicate within the company but also with their customers.
