How far is the Chinese electric dealer from Zappos?

2011 is China's electric business year. Where guests, when, Jing Dong, suning easy to buy, handle, regiment treasure, 58 with the city, net, donkey Mother, and so on. However, China's electric business enterprise is like sitting on a roller coaster, the first half of the group purchase network crazy expansion, where all are dazzling all kinds of electronic business advertising, and to the second half, but suddenly in the high-speed road brake: First investors and the industry have thrown out "electric business for the winter", a large number of group buying sites have rear-end collapse, And then the handle online city halfway, now where the guests are also facing the various challenges. Looking around, the whole electric business enterprise is bleak, the Chinese electric business still have future? How should Chinese electric dealers spend the winter? How far is the Chinese electric trader from the world class excellent electric dealer? And how to learn from the world's best brands?

2011 is like a rollercoaster ride for Chinese e-commerce companies, the first half of the group purchase network crazy expansion, where all are dazzling all kinds of electronic business advertising, and in the second half, but suddenly on the highway to slam the brakes: first investors and the industry have thrown "electric business Winter Theory", A large number of group buying sites have rear-ended collapse, and then handle the Internet market halfway, now every guest also face the parties questioned. Looking around, the entire electric business enterprise is bleak, whether you believe it or not, the development of electric business indeed into the cold winter.

In fact, a careful analysis of China's business model of electric business, you will find that the so-called "winter", not because of the electricity market demand out of the problem, but most of the electric business enterprise model itself out of the problem: because they are gong sword!

Since the electronic commerce, the electricity business enterprise relies on the capital excessively, basically is follows the first financing again expands, refinancing then does the scale, then takes the new capital by the scale, then the horse race enclosure does the scale, finally relies on the scale and the valuation to seek the listing mode. This model may be useful to the early electric business, but in the face of today's lively and extraordinary you sing my debut of the electric business mixed city, this mode of Gong sword is obviously unsustainable, because the future capital market VC, PE are not fools.

Electric business enterprise should "cat winter" cultivate internal strength

Winter is not terrible. It's scary not to know what to do before spring comes.

If winter can cool the electric dealer's "burning Money" impulse, return to the essence of e-commerce, do products, sell products, do a good user experience, establish a brand, build user reputation, let the development of E-commerce in China to return to the rational road, it is not a good thing.

Electrical business Enterprises to obtain users of the general high cost, and cultivate user loyalty, promote customer repeat consumption is particularly critical, especially for the entry time is short, in the brand sedimentation and user accumulation of weak, low user trust of small and medium-sized electric business, customer experience is not good is the enterprise Life-and-death event.

Ministry of Commerce data show that in 2010, China's e-commerce transactions amounted to more than 4 trillion yuan, of which the total network of retail sales of nearly 500 billion yuan, accounting for the total retail sales of consumer goods 3%. At present, the United States network sales occupy the total retail consumption of consumer goods in the proportion of 6%-7%, It can be concluded that China's network sales will have a huge development space.

and from the consumer market, after nearly 10 years of training, the consumer's online shopping habits have gradually developed. In the face of the current economic climate, 75% of the audience in the first tier of cities are willing to choose online shopping and other ways to find bargains, according to a recent Nielsen survey. The change of consumption behavior has laid a good foundation for the sustainable development of the electric Business enterprise.

For the small and medium electric business, if can be careful in the winter operation, enhance operational efficiency, patience to establish a brand, carefully pondering how to improve customer service experience, I believe that spring will not be too far.

Problems existing in China's electric business enterprises

Ms. Lin in a Taobao shop to buy a pair of sellers said to be a brand of genuine shoes, price only authentic shoes one-eighth, wearing a few days after she felt a fake, so to the brand counters to inspect, found to be fakes. She went to Taobao to complain, but because there is no professional body to the identification of fakes, the seller does not cooperate, Taobao can not accept, the final complaint can only be dismissed;

Mr. Wang bought 3 sets of high air conditioner in Jingdong, divided into 3 orders, 2 days in 3 shipments. Received the goods, signed, found that the indoor and outdoor machine models are all inconsistent. Call Jing Dong, zhi Gao, 2 days later, Jing Dong said wrong goods, return it. Back and forth, the return of half a month, even if the final rebate, 3 of times and toss for several days, in total, from the next single to the last refund success, spent 1 months;

"Online shopping is convenient, but also has trouble." Said Miss Yang, an advertising company in Shanghai, before the physical store some of the problems are now online, for example, the quality of the purchase of goods, customer service staff said each time, please wait, to help you verify the kind of words, temper is very good, but is not to solve problems; some with express company shifting, Drag and drop for one months after you do not want to complain, of course, will not go to the shop.

"Promotions also have conspiracies and traps," said Miss Miao, a design company, this year, "11.11 Singles Day" Taobao has a lot of merchandise said to play 50 percent, is actually a bundle of sales, restrictions and requirements of many, individual goods than the original no discount price is expensive, this and the real store to increase the price after the sale of the method what is the difference?

Also is the member of Ctrip, even if is a diamond member, the flight before Take-off to send air tickets, the same day can express delivery; flight after Take-off and send air tickets, only through China post 7-15 days service, is only the need for cost control?

The same travel power business enterprises, an up-and-comer of the donkey mother can be prepaid, two-dimensional code, such as the implementation of no waiting for personalized domestic and foreign tourism services, and as the travel power of the old brand of Ctrip has been the upstream airlines and hotels and downstream consumers of the criticism? And why?

......

Online shopping seems to be a lot of problems, in fact, summed up mainly in the following points:

1, False marketing, gimmick marketing. Advertising is doing a mammoth, in fact, there are a few, a limited number of products really discounted, a few minutes later, this not only can not enable consumers to get real benefits, but will let consumers feel that they have been "fooled" by the business and not happy, so that the consumers will not want to experience such shopping experience;

2, return (change) the goods slowly. Delivery speed can also, but encountered back (change) the goods are slow to make people anxious, and even delay can not be returned to the customer service (change) goods reply, so that consumers in the long waiting for the shop lost patience and confidence;

3, the freight is unreasonable. Most of the electricity dealers can not give a commitment to free shipping: Where customers are shopping full 99 yuan Free shipping, 1th is full 100 yuan free shipping, and some sites by weight, such as 2 kilograms within 5 yuan, more than 2 kilograms 10 yuan, But if the goods only 2.1 kg, the merchant also collects 10 Yuan freight, this lets the consumer feel loses, this kind of unpleasant shopping experience lets the consumer reduce the shopping times unceasingly;

4, customer service is too "program", so that consumers do not know their own problems to go how long "program" can be resolved.

Sometimes very small things, because the customer service staff seemingly polite, in fact, no heat of the "cliché", so that the incident worsened, causing disputes should not occur, resulting in the loss of consumers.

In fact, as a user, goods shipped in the delivery of some small problems are inevitable, but why customer service in most cases, not only can not solve the problem, but to fuel it? And why?

In fact, the core is very simple, that is, all the problems do not stand in the consumer and consumer dynamic changes in the demand to solve.

So, let's see how Zappos is doing? How far is it from China's electric business enterprises from these excellent world electric goods?

Learn from Zappos to improve customer service experience

Zappos is an American shoe-selling website that has grown to be the biggest web site to sell shoes since 1999. Why is it that this first-not-favoured business will develop at such a high speed? The answer may be as Zappos's CEO, Hsieh, says: Zappos's positioning is a service company that just happens to sell shoes.

In the 9 years of Zappos's founding and rapid growth, Hsieh has been rigorously implementing his initial belief that "spending money on improving the customer's shopping experience, not the overwhelming advertising campaign". The weakness of the E-commerce business model is particularly evident in footwear retailing: How can we hsieh the problems of customers trying to wear, slow and messy logistics, shortages, etc.?

First, he worked on logistics. Shipping, return all free shipping, try to wear is not satisfied with free return. Start is 60 days free return, later extended to 365 days. Customers can buy several pairs of different styles of shoes, try to wear after the appropriate, will not be appropriate to return. Zappos's approach has unleashed a significant release of consumer decision-making pressures, coupled with a subsequent deferred payment policy, which makes it very easy for consumers to make decisions.

Second, efforts to shorten the delivery time, although Zappos publicly promised to the consumer delivery time is 3-4 days, but the company stressed that the best to be able to deliver the goods overnight. The reason is not committed to delivery the next day, one is likely to have special reasons can not be done, the important reason is that if the customer received the package the next day, will be surprised, "to let customers feel surprised" is also Zappos on the customer service concept.

Finally, Zappos also introduced the way to delay payment after the sale, so that customers enjoy the purchase of Zappos goods within 90 days of non-payment and other flexible payment methods, so that customers online to buy shoes, bags and other accessories more safe and convenient.

How to establish competitive barriers

One problem with online sales is how to build barriers to competition and prevent competitors from selling goods in the same way.

"By looking at other companies, we find that companies that provide quality services can increase customer viscosity and speed consumer behavior, and ultimately we decide to provide better services." Zappos co-founder Lin Jun (Alfred Lin) said.

So, in addition to the diversity of Zappos products and free delivery, return costs and late payment after the sale, what are the unique uniqueness of Zappos worth learning?

1, optimize the search and compare products.

Set up their own warehousing and logistics centers, employing 800 24-hour customer service staff to improve the display speed of the web, so that consumers can quickly find the target product.

Rather than spend money on exaggerated advertising, it is better to constantly improve their own team, and let consumers in their own web browsing smooth, more than 1 minutes to add many times the order generation hope.

2, personalized custom service.

Customized personalized service for customers, so that Zappos and customers have an emotional connection.

You should spend more time responding to each phone call, every message and every email.

3, customer service as a strategic fulcrum.

Do not think that customer service is a small department of the company, should be customer services as the core of the entire company.

For example, every employee of the Zappos company, whether vice president or Finance Department staff, they must receive customer service training, they will be on the company's customer service courses, and then spend two weeks to pick up the weave, and then in the Warehouse Logistics center to do sorting and distribution work, eventually to embark on the initial job.

4. Consider any problem as a marketing opportunity.

Zappos can turn problems into opportunities. When customers are angry about quality or other problems, Zappos's customer service will try to turn things around. Thanks to this idea, Zappos has won 87% positive responses in its customer referral survey.

5, the details of marketing to the extreme.

Zappos that everything will have a big impact. For example, put a greeting card in the packaging of a product for a consumer who is ready to marry or celebrate a birthday. have been zappos to do such a trifle to improve consumer satisfaction.

5, continuous improvement of internal and external problem-solving ability.

Zappos people use this standard to ask themselves: progress 1% a day, then a year later, they will be a staggering 37 times times higher than at first.

When faced with a choice, be confident to complete all options. The problem of Zappos thinking is not doing or not doing, but how to do it better.

Moving only to find quality customer service

In order to recruit excellent customer service personnel, Zappos in 2004 moved the company from San Francisco to Las Vegas. Because in the San Francisco Bay Area, there are not many people willing to engage in customer service. On the one hand, cultural reasons, customer service work and the spirit of Silicon Valley is not compatible, on the other hand, because of the high cost of living there. As a result, corporate call centres are mostly temporary workers who sometimes fail to provide quality service to their customers.

And Las Vegas is a night city, and people are used to working at any time, which helps the company find people who are willing to work night shifts in call centers. Moreover, the Las Vegas economy main body is the tourism hospitality industry, people have the good customer service consciousness, the custom treats the customer as the guest.

In fact, Zappo has considered outsourcing call centers to India or the Philippines, but these local customer service personnel not only have foreign accent, more importantly, they do not understand the daily culture of the United States, it is difficult to provide customers with quality services. "Never outsource the core competencies of the company," especially if the company wants to create excellent customer service, even more can not outsource call center.

Zappos was founded in 1999 and the company's sales reached 70 million U.S. dollars by 2003. Since 2004, when the company moved to Las Vegas, the company's sales soared, to 2008 years, the company's total sales reached 1 billion U.S. dollars.

"Surprise customers with services"

Zappos Company's success lies in the pursuit of customer satisfaction at all costs, its well-known customer service center has been widely praised, often to bring customers "WOW" surprises. For customer satisfaction, customer service can personally fly the goods to the customer sent to the past.

July 2007, a customer through e-mail and customer service center to communicate the return, said she felt very guilty, she was meant to buy shoes to the sick mother, the shoes to the mother but died, she did not return the pair of shoes in time. As a result, customer service staff came to the customer's home, sent the shoes again, and sent a condolence card to the customer. Needless to say, customers are deeply moved and posted on blogs.

To provide a better shopping experience, Zappos is also committed to more. For example, if you are discussing a customer's running experience, a customer service center staff member is encouraged to participate in such a discussion and receive such a call. If the customer is looking for a product that the company does not have, the staff will need to provide them with at least three other URLs and try to find what the customer wants. Even if the company does not appear to have benefited from the order, it will continue to patronize customers. "We call on the staff of the Customer Service center to focus on customers," Hsieh said. We don't care if they buy this product or anything else, and for us, every deal is a chance to show our brand. ”

Even more surprising is that if the customer needs the goods in the Zappos site show out of stock, customer service staff will guide customers to the competitor's shopping site. This selfless approach, which takes customer demand as a priority, will probably give customers the first thought of Zappos the next time they need it. Statistics show that 75% of Zappos customers are repeat guests, and some are introduced by family or friends, indicating that Zappos Impressive service has created a powerful Word-of-mouth marketing effect among customers.

How to perfect the customer service system in China's electric business enterprises

No doubt, Zappos's customer service experience is the ultimate, so that customers happy and pleasantly surprised. So, how should China's electric business enterprises improve their customer service system? How to really make customers like you in love with you recommend you?

First of all, in the process of establishing a brand, to avoid impetuous mentality, can not expect through an event marketing or a plan overnight fame; after doing good products and services, only through the media and Third-party power, transfer the enterprise information, in the industry and target customers for continuous and repetitive dissemination, perseverance and continuously optimize the content;

Second, do not miss the opportunity to communicate with each customer. Should spend a little more time on every phone call, every message and every email to reply, and establish an emotional relationship with the customer. If the condition is ripe, must establish the consumer database, implements the real sense member marketing.

Finally, and most importantly, the user experience as the core competitiveness.

In fact at this point, some Chinese electric business enterprises have awakened, such as every guest, has long abandoned the Taobao and some other electric business enterprises in order to save costs and take the simple rough packaging, where the exquisite packaging and super fast logistics people feel that the quality of goods is guaranteed, imagine, the same goods the same price, you will choose which shopping? It is understood that it is an alarming figure because the number of people who repeat purchases is more than 45% per cent of the total repeat purchase rate. The pleasure is strong because it is in a new and sturdy box that sees the object of his own right. In addition, where most of the customer's goods can be goods to pay or goods to swipe, so many are not accustomed to online payment of consumers feel convenient and safe, which is also a customer experience to provide another service. If, every guest can cancel "full 99 yuan Free shipping" the rigid stipulation, I believe, every guest's customer experience leaves the Zappos the Acme service to be near a big step.

"All of our products are based on the needs of tourists," said the founder of Hong Qinghua, an Up-and-comer of the electric trader, who first put the needs of tourists at the top. For tourists, especially those who travel by themselves, enjoy the same ticket privileges as the tour visitors, that is, a ticket, but also a discount; then, according to the needs of self-service tourists, and constantly produce to meet the tourist's eating, living and entertainment products; even if the tourists in the course of the trip because of some of the attractions of some problems, causing tourists dissatisfied, The mother donkey will return the cost to the consumer first, let the consumer experience donkey Mother's heart for the sake of customer service, back to deal with the problem of scenic spots, this does not prevarication, not stylized, directly for customers to solve the problem of personalized service is also the mother donkey compared with other tourism sites the most core competitive services.

It is said that a tourist from the start to the destination to play the process and return, on average, there are 300 requirements, how to meet this surprising number, I think, the Donkey Mother Travel Network to do things should not only expand customer service scale, increase the services awareness, in a way to learn Zappos " Customer relationship "personalized service, and the user experience as the company's core competitiveness, a good user experience can bring unexpected word-of-mouth effect, and bad user Word-of-mouth may let the enterprise's marketing investment in vain, from the small start, in detail to let the customer experience pleasure, and timely" to bring customers surprises. "

So, the first experience of the 2012 spring Zappos must be from the recent enterprise, of course, do not rule out every guest, donkey mother in the future one day more than Zappos, leading the Chinese electric business enterprises to open "to serve as the core competitiveness" of the fast lane.