Zappos’ Insights Blog
On Zappos’ Insights Blog, the culture of the company is made very clear. Rather than presenting images of corporate leaders, managers, and high-tech commercial operations, Zappos shifts the focus onto a more grounded, personal level. We are presented with a view of the staff members that keep Zappos running on a day-to-day basis, and they look appealingly like the customer base that Zappos is courting. The workers at Zappos appear friendly, enthusiastic, working-class and surrounded by fun products that they enjoy delivering as much as they enjoy using. Zappos’ approach to customer service, then, is to collapse the distinction between worker and customer. The message is that, as a customer of Zappos, you are contributing to the warm, enjoyable atmosphere of a fun corporation – that your purchases sponsor the smiles on these workers’ faces, and that these workers deliver products to put a smile on yours.
It feels less like a capitalistic exchange of goods and services and more of a sharing of interests between people. Such a philosophy is put into explicit terms in their article titled “Connecting with Customers Using PEC.” It’s a bait-and-switch article; you think the article’s headline article of a tablet means you’re in for a presentation of customer service software and workflow, but it turns out to be their easy acronym for Personal Emotional Connection. Cheesy though it is, it works.
I think it works effectively; when looking at this page, you can’t help but see things in human terms rather than simply think about Zappos in the abstract – a “profitable company” and nothing more. It presents a genuine, and – nicely – diverse workforce with the intention of courting an equally fun-loving and diverse customer base. I really think that Zappos also knocks it out of the park with this blog. Interestingly, they put a lot of effort into showing that they go out of their way to show appreciation to their workforce via articles about company events, nap rooms, and team-building exercises. This blog basically kills two birds with one stone: it generates goodwill from Zappos’ customers while also appealing to possible workforce recruits.
Does this blog make you think Zappos is a legitimately ethical company with its workers’ best interests in mind, or is this just a marketing ploy?