Volume 7, #7 November 2009
The Great Product Shape-Up
Three Keys to Satisfying Customers and Encouraging Repeat Business
By Sheila Mello
Walking through Boston's Faneuil Hall Marketplace recently, I was intrigued by a mobile van touting Sketchers Shape-ups shoes. This new footgear, which looks a little like a regular fitness shoe with a large rounded wedge under the instep, apparently simulates the experience of walking on a soft surface to improve fitness while you're just walking around town. I liked the idea that I could get a workout while doing something I do a lot of anyway. So, when I arrived home, I headed for my computer to place my order with another innovative company: Zappos.com.
As I searched for the color and size I wanted, added the shoes to my shopping cart, and checked out, I felt none of the anticipatory buyer's remorse that sometimes accompanies online purchases. Right there on the Web site was the Zappos.com dual promise: "Free Shipping Both Ways! 365-Day Return Policy." I felt completely comfortable pressing the button to complete my purchase.
I have an admission: this was the first time I have ever ordered from Zappos, which means I'm a little behind the millions of other customers who have done so since the company began selling shoes (and now apparel, accessories, and related gear) in 2000. I may have come a little late to the party, but when I had the "Zappos experience" myself I realized what has attracted these millions. Plain and simple: I felt good about ordering, and I had a good experience doing so.
If it's that plain and simple, I wondered, why can't more companies -- especially B-to-B companies -- relate to their customers in a way that encourages sales and repeat business? What's the difference between Zappos and the rest of us?
Aside from being started by a passionately dedicated (and relatively young) CEO, Zappos does three things differently from most companies:
- Weaves value into its culture. The idea that feeling comfortable about returning a product could contribute to the product's successful sales is part of the Zappos culture. Every policy at Zappos focuses on making sure not only that the customer receives value, but also feels like he or she has received value. (Zappos has a list of core values: #1 is: Deliver WOW Through Service.) This culture makes possible the record-breaking 5-hour, 25-minute customer service call reported in a recent New Yorker article about the company. Of course, the conversation covered much more than shoes -- and that was the whole point.
- Defines its product as more than a product. Zappos sells shoes… or do they? Zappos has taken a core customer requirement -- "Minimize the hassle of buying shoes online" -- and dispersed it through every aspect of the business, from ordering and customer service to shipping and online information. This "augmented" or "Big P" Product is supported by everything Zappos says and does, creating a completely integrated experience for the customer.
- Invites everyone to the table. From front office to warehouse, everyone at Zappos shares a common goal. This is the antithesis of department-driven organizations, where individual departments have their own goals and metrics (for example, manufacturing is responsible for minimizing product defects and customer support is evaluated on the number of problems resolved). These "goal silos" leave little or no opportunity for the kind of innovative thinking that leads to true Product (with a big "P") breakthroughs.
What would this approach look like in a B-to-B company? Typically, a company such as a medical device manufacturer might solve the problem of minimizing down time for a critical diagnostic system by improving service and turnaround or implementing a 24/7 customer support operation. A "Big P" approach might be to improve product quality by eliminating manufacturing bugs or establishing a Design for Six Sigma program, or creating a piece of technology to monitor component longevity that automatically ships a new component to the customer before the existing one fails.
This doesn't happen in the typical company because you don't often find the order administration department getting invited to a product brainstorming meeting for a company's next big product offering. Yet this is exactly how you can bring to light innovative ways of addressing customer needs.
Zappos was able to start fresh and build this kind of single-mindedness into its corporate structure and expectations. Even the way it hires and evaluates employees is in line with expectations about how the company will serve customers. Zappos built a company around everybody having a single goal.
But you don't have to be a startup to expand your idea of a "product." Instead of thinking of the product as a "thing" or "item" that appears on your price list, think about it as everything related to how you deal with the customer: the product and service and everything wrapped around it. Even at PDC, with a name -- Product Development Consulting -- that invites a narrow definition of the product, our vision extends beyond physical products and even beyond services to solutions that might encompass everything from the distribution channel to the way reps talk with customers on the phone. (Richard Tait's new "Winning Customer Experiences" blog explains what this means.) If we can do it, so can you!
My Sketchers Shape-Ups arrived a day after I ordered them. I had been "surprise upgraded" to next-day shipping. I put them on right away. They felt a little strange at first, but after my first walk in them, I could feel I had exercised muscles that I don't usually use when simply walking.
If you're willing to take a chance on expanding your idea of what a "product" is and inviting every part of your company to join in the brainstorming process, I bet you'll uncover opportunities that weren't visible before. And if the results aren't what you expected… send 'em back. Shipping's on me.
###
