Zappos: Delivering Consumer Satisfaction
In the year 1999 “Zappos” an online sales company was formed. A company formed from exhaustion and frustration, yet has stood the test of time. For almost a decade, the company’s structure, its core values, business ethics, style and goals are cutting-edge.
Ferrell, O., Fraedrich, J., & Ferrell, L. (2013). Explained, “Providing the absolute best customer service online not just in shoes, but also in any category” (p.478).
Zappos believes the company success originates from its business ethics. Much of company’s principal are focused on consumer’s satisfaction. This ethic facilitated in constructing the company’s foundation and core values.
In business, ethics refers to the principles of correct performance. The board of directors often establishes these principles. Members of the corporation are expected to abide by and maintain set principles when dealing with employees, consumers, retailers and the public as a whole.
One of the benefits of upholding high ethical principles increases consumer satisfaction. This will lead to repeat patronage from the consumer, including valuable word-of-mouth testimonials of the company to other possible consumers.
Good business ethics contributes to Consumer satisfaction. Good ethics require that a sales associate should help consumers find the most suitable merchandise for their needs. Not essentially the merchandise that would yield in the highest income or highest gain for the company. By
Ethical business practicese include assuring that the highest legal and moral standards are identified in your relationships with the people in your business community. You know the most important person in your business is your customer. You should always go for long term profit instead of short term profit. A reputation for ethical decisions creates trust in your business among business associates and suppliers. Strong supplier relationships are critical to a successful business. So customer trust is only kept , if they are treated as initially they were promised to be treated.
the mindset of the CEO is that there is no limit to what Zappos can accomplish with the right leadership, which can make or break a company. A company that attempts to move their company into another industry, without doing research or contact customers to get feedback on what new product they want to sale in their stores. Keeping in mind that they have to answer to their stakeholder also executive members (Ferrell & Hartline, 2013).
Zappos has created a very structural attractive company. There is a lot of room for growth with the recent purchase by Amazon.
Zappos is acclaimed for setting the bar with regards to putting its clients first, supported and abetted by a connection with and upbeat workforce. The organization has apparently characterized the causal connection between a glad workforce and a similarly adjusted "reason with benefit" main concern. The organization's slogan and overall ethos is to "Delivery Wow" and since 1999, it possesses a great deal as such, serving a great many clients over the
Zappos is an online shoe retailer that started its business in the year 1999. The company later expanded and increased the variety of the products of its business by adding clothing, beauty products, and housewares. The Zappos Customer Loyalty Team Case Study emphasizes on the customer service department and the initial focus the drop ship method. The company also created a brick and mortar storefront to expand the business from online only and increase sales.
The holacratic model has, already, been adopted by for-profit and non-profit organizations in several countries. For the purpose of an incubation chamber, Zappos.com has been the first organizational reality to deploy it. Zappos is an online shoe and clothing shop founded in 1999 and owned by Amazon since 2009. During the negotiations with Amazon, internal management’s primary concern was to maintain the company culture intact throughout the acquisition process, because a culture that embraces the idiosyncrasies of each individual is what keeps the firm alive and healthy. Such an emphasis on employees manifested itself in drawing up the ten core values of the Zappos family:
A lot is made about the culture of Zappos. The biggest being the customer service the online shoe retailer provides. The hype is well-deserved.
Zappos’s organizational goal is to create a family-style environment that challenges workers to learn and grow every day. It wants employees to own and build the culture, giving employees the feeling that they have a saying in the company. It strives to create and preserve a culture that encourages “fun” and creativity in a family-feel environment that would attract repeat customers and spread word
We've aligned the entire organization around one mission: to provide the best customer service possible”. At Zappos it’s all about customer service and this was and still is their main strength. Zappo is very good at applying the 4P’s with the 4 C’s that Porter talks about in our lecture. They even have an application for smart phone to make sure that their customer can buy even with their phones. With this model I believe that they can sustain their popularity and especially as long as they keep giving to their customer’s great experiences and products that they need for the best price. Last but not least, the company trains and exposes all its recruits to customer service regardless of their position. They also encourage innovation by motivating its employees to come up with passionate ideas which they go ahead and which help the sustainability of its customer service implement (Milligan & Smith, 2011).
Business Ethics and Social Responsibility are important in business organizations. Ethics is the moral judgement about what is right and what is wrong. Working as an ethical business has many benefits, which can be summarised as the ability to attract and keep investors, employees and customers.
Zappos, Inc has been on the Fortune 500 “Best Company to Work for” list several consecutive years in a row. Zappos has also realized sales growth of one million to several billion in a short period (2014).Nick Swinmurn founded Zappos in San Francisco, California in 1999. Mr. Swinmurn had a vision that there could be a more efficient and selective alternative to shopping for shoes and felt that the internet was the solution to in-person shoe shopping restrictions. Just a year later, Tony Hsieh, a Harvard University graduate, who initially served as an investor, joined the organization as Co-CEO in 2000. He immediately began working on developing the core values of the company and shifted his focus on the culture of the organization and making the workplace enjoyable for every employee. In the evaluation of the company’s global culture it was decided to relocate the company to Las Vegas, Nevada in 2004.
Zappos.com, established in 1999, has rapidly become a strong competitor in online apparel and footwear sales. With the original corporate vison of offering the absolute best selection in shoes; the vision has evolved over the past several years to include the goal of being the retailer that “provides the absolute best service online -- not just in shoes, but in any category” (Zappos, 2014). The online retailer stocks millions of reasonably priced footwear products; carrying thousands of hard to find brand named shoes, handbags, apparel and accessories via the company website and 7,000 affiliate partners. In recognizing their rapid success, Zappos credits it to their commitment to the customer, stating,
Zappos is an online shoe and clothing corporation with its headquarters in Las Vegas, Nevada. Zappos, originally called ShoeSite.com, was founded in 1999 by Nick Swinmurm. Swinmurm was frustrated by the lack of shoe varieties at his local mall in San Francisco, California, he then decided to try to shop for quality shoes online. At that time, there were large numbers of online family stores, but none of which specialized in selling shoes. With the idea of creating an online store that specialized in providing customers with quality customer service and a large shoe selection, Swinmurm created Zappos. Current Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, created a vision for the company that is based on providing its customers with the best service, the best selection of shoes, and appeal using an e-business environment. By providing customers with the best online experience, Zappos was able to gain over one billion dollars in annual sales. Another aspect that stands out about the company is their treatment of their employees, “the vision stems from CEO Tony Hsieh, the 42-year-old entrepreneur who has made clear that he puts passion and company culture above profits” (Low, 2016, p. 18). Zappo’s organizational culture is very different from that of a traditional corporation’s organizational culture.
The organization has believe that if the customers’ experience with the organization remains perfect and enjoyable then there is great likelihood that customer is going to visit the website again whenever he/she needs to buy something. Zappos’ also believe that if they can provide better service to customers in one product then there are good chances that customers will place their confidence in other products introduced on its website. The case study indicates that the majority of the revenues comes from the footwear sales and based on this customer loyalty company is confident that if they expanded their product line with similar quality of service it would attract the customer as well. Zappos’ is determined to achieve that customer loyalty by providing best services, for example the employees help the customers in searching the required product and even they suggest other websites to the customers if the required product is not available in Zappos’ store. Further, the websites’ return policy is very lenient, that it gives 365 days for returning the
This paper includes a study about Zappos Online Retailer Company. The purpose of this study is to do a detailed analysis of the current situation of this company and the service issues that they are facing in order to find solution to reach their goals.