Corporate America, Take Note! – 1/16/2008

January 16, 2009 in Interviews, Social Issues, Technology, Videos, YouTube, business
Tags: boots, china, clothing, corporate america, Corporate Culture, customer service, dental, employee morale, goodshop, healthcare, india, Made in USA, outsourcing, shoes, USA, Website, Zappos

I just purchased my winter boots online for the first time on Zappos.com. I thought, holy crow I am paying full price for these boots, but then I saw this video about their company culture and now I know where the money is going:

Here’s what I like about it.  The company may appear somewhat lackadaisical, but the customer service cannot be beat, the website for me was easy to navigate, getting a new account did not require me to jump through hoops or go through multiple pages and steps to make my purchase. I can buy shoes in 2 sizes, pick the one that fits best and send one back since there is free shipping both ways.

The company pays 100% in medical and dental benefits.  You are encouraged to improve yourself.  Free lunch if you want it. They do not outsource their customer service staff to India. I would gladly pay a premium for my goods just to help keep jobs in the US.  Not to mention they are part of Goodshop.com, which for every purchase through the portal a portion of the sale goes to a participating non-profit of customer’s choice.  I just earned about $6 for my kids school! 

My boots were made in Canada, but at least it is not Chinese made.  

Suggestion to Zappos: Perhaps you can include in your item description as to where a product was manufactured. Some people do actually look for USA-made goods.

They say about 75% of Zappos sales come form repeat customers.  Stuffy old-school corporate boys take note!

Keep up the good work, Zappos!