August 29 Online Class

Hello friends,

Nice job with our first online class of the semester, reflecting on the Zappos case in our text. Your responses to the questions were generally on-point, as your replies were relevant. Let me highlight a few concepts that will be helpful as we move into the semester.

Customer Benefit Package & the Role of Service

The Zappos story is a good example of how the total CBP can be used to address customer needs. The question 1 crew did a nice job identifying peripheral and variant services, particularly those related to the call center and Zappos' unique customer 

service policies. Karson highlighted an important aspect of Zappos' customer service in her question 2 post: while the call center is important, the vast majority of Zappos' interactions with the customer - their moments of truth - are online. The functionality, look and feel of the website is as important as the call center experience. Linking their enterprise resource planing system to the customer interface ensures customers and employees have access to the same inventory data. 

We will refer back to the CBP often during the semester. Likewise, the service encounters and service management will be a recurring theme. The Zappos case illustrates the central importance of the CBP to our operation strategy, and the role of services in that package. Simply offering a great primary product or service is not enough to develop a sustainable business. Our primary product or service will be part of a bundle of goods and services, our CBP, that comprise our entire customer offerings. We'll be successful to the extent that our CBP doers a better job solving customer problems than our competitors. 

Sustainability

Though our case questions did not directly address sustainability, do pay attention to the definition offered by Collier & Evans (2013), as this too will be a recurring theme for us this semester. The definition builds on early conceptions of sustainable development research conducted by the United Nations, effectively adapting those concepts to the commercial environment. Meeting the current needs of the business while avoiding negative impact on future generations is central to this definition. Also make note of the three measurement categories (environmental, social & economic) which will come up again during our more in-depth sustainability discussions in the coming weeks. 

Thanks for your contributions this week. Enjoy the long weekend. See you in the classroom next Wednesday!