Perhaps I've been living in a cave for the last few months to not have already seen this retail marketing campaign on any other media outlets.  After just a little bit of investigating, I learned the campaign, developed by Mullen, currently spans TV, print, and online video, and has already garnered quite a bit of attention for its trailblazing focus on the company's customer service department.  The ads center around phone calls made by Mullen employees posing as actual customers making unusual (and rather hilarious) requests.  The puppets fielding the phone calls are modeled off of real-life Zappos employees.  Their responses to the requests are authentic -- the employees didn't know the calls were pranks.  (I can't help but make a comical comparison to the Crank Yankers episodes).
 

The campaign is clearly taking the lead in a recent trend to bring customer service out from the dark cubicles of off-shore office buildings and onto the center stage of integrated marketing plans.  Customer service has for too long been considered a cost center for companies, and hasn't received the attention and promotion it deserves.  As service departments improve, it makes sense that this aspect of a business would naturally become a bragging point to attract new customers.  Ann All supports this idea in her article, Customer Service: a Selling Point for Those That Get It Right.  She says customer service as subject matter for sales and marketing is smart because great customer service is an excellent differentiator from the masses of other companies who've neglected that department.  

As more customer interactions move to the online platform, companies are beginning to realize that their online presence --be it their website, their online chat services or their local internet marketing-- must convey the empathy and personalities of the people behind the technology.  For Zappos, even their tagline 'Powered by Service' aims to draw the attention away from their highly advanced warehousing and shipping technology to the actual people manning their phones, executing orders, and happily on call to serve their customers.   

I know for a fact that our company, Balihoo, is making great strides to reach out to our current and prospective customers to understand their wants and needs in order to continue moving forward as a customer-centric company.  We want to design our local marketing software as an easy to use self-service portal while at the same time providing fantastic customer service to our end users seeking technical support or professional help with their media planning strategy.

 

Kudos to Zappos for being one of the first companies to embrace the new age of customer service and to step out with a memorable and entertaining campaign that rightfully gives tribute to its valued customer service agents.  From the ads' featured customer interactions it's clear that the contagious energy and joyful attitude of the Zappos employees is easily perceived through every phone call and live chat conversation with their customers.  As the bar for customer service continues to rise, I think Zappos is a clear front runner in the game.