I recently was given the opportunity to interview Sameera Banduk, the marketing director at Well.ca, a Canadian-based ecommerce company that sells health and beauty products, regarding their use of social media.
The company emulates much of Zappos' strategy when it comes to using social media for customer service. For that reason, I begin by looking at Zappos approach, then discuss what Well.ca is doing relative to that. Both provide excellent examples of how social media can be used for customer service and building brand identity.
A WORD ABOUT ZAPPOS
For ecommerce brands, Zappos has created a class unto itself. Indeed, the company has set a high bar for social media engagement by brands. That is because their focus is not merely on selling products, but on conveying the company culture, one that is very amenable to social media engagement as a model of transparency and accessibility.
For example, Zappos has a company Twitter page which updates feeds from the over 500 employees who tweet. Not only that, Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh, is heralded in social media circles as a model of 21st century CEOs.
Hsieh has a get started guide for employees to get up and running in their use of Twitter. Because the organization's culture embodies the brand, there are no heavy-handed specific guidelines on what employees can tweet.
In an interview for my book The Digital Handshake, Hsieh had this to say about his employee’s use of Twitter:
“After using it with just my close friends for about a year, I realized how much Twitter had allowed me to form more personal connections with everyone, so we decided to introduce it to Zappos as a way of growing our company culture. We've found that it's been great for building more personal connections with both employees and customers.
“New employees are introduced to Twitter during orientation, and we also offer Twitter classes to all employees. Employees aren't forced to use it, but when there are so many Zappos employees using it, many employees just gravitate naturally to it.
“At Zappos, our goal is to build the brand to be about the very best customer service and the very best customer experience. However, our #1 priority is actually not customer service. Our #1 priority is company culture. Our belief is that if you get the culture right, then most of the other stuff, like great customer service and building a great brand, will happen naturally on its own.
“Twitter allows us to build and expose our company culture both internally to employees as well as to customers. Part of the Zappos brand is about forming personal connections, and for us that happens through the telephone as well as through Twitter.”
WELL.CA
While it may seem Zappos’ unique model of social media engagement is one relegated exclusively by their brand, other ecommerce merchants are beginning to emulate their success. One such company is Well.ca, a Canadian ecommerce merchant that sells health and beauty products.
Well.ca’s use of social media frames itself around their Facebook fan page and Twitter channel. However, what makes Well's approach different is that they very proactive in terms of interacting with their fans/followers, and they use content such as photos and videos to give a "behind the scenes" look at the company, the end result being that fans get to know the people who make it up. (Ex. shipping team making funny shapes out of boxes)
Well.ca emulates Zappos in another way as well - they are committed to company culture and values characterized by exceptional customer service, friendliness and personal outreach.
They use social media to build brand awareness, display their culture and interact with customers (customers interact with each other as well). In fact, the company gets very personal in terms of the level of interaction and builds strong bonds with customers as a result.
Both Zappos and Well.ca provide evidence of what makes social media an effective marketing tool – the adoption of a mindset characterized by authenticity and transparency, a commitment to core values and personal attention. Both understand that it is important to get to know the people who represent the brand, and not just the brand itself.
You do that and you've got a handle on social media that most companies don't or ever will!
For a long time, I've been saying you have to "adopt the mindset before embracing the toolset." Companies that characterize this mindset seem to be the ones who do the best job of maximizing the value of their outreach within social media circles. These two companies are great examples.
