Wow your customers the Zappos way!
“You name it. I make it happen,” said Roz Searcy when I asked her what she did at Zappos. Roz, who is shuttle driver, receptionist and go-to girl, picked me up from my hotel in Las Vegas for the fifteen minute drive to Henderson, Nevada, where I toured the crazy, fun and wacky world of Zappos.com. Zappos, an online shoe and clothing retailer recently purchased by Amazon for more than one billion dollars, has made a name for itself as one of the best places to work in the country. It’s easy to see why. Everyone—from the CEO to the receptionist—lives the brands’ values. I’ve interviewed co-founder and CEO, Tony Hsieh, for BusinessWeek. The tour, however, was my first experience at the company’s headquarters. They encouraged me to take video of the organization and I posted the clips in this article. Here are five principles that have made Zappos the gold standard for customer service.
Treat everyone like family. The tour started with a Zappos shuttle bus showing up right on time outside my hotel. I was the only one on the bus. When I asked Roz why she drove all the way out to pick me up, she said, “We treat our customers as family. If you had a family member in town, wouldn’t you pick them from their hotel or the airport? That’s what we do for customers or anyone who wants to learn more about our culture!”
Hire for cultural fit. Everyone I met had an outgoing personality. Our tour guide, Jonathan Wolske, exuded passion and enthusiasm. He was having fun telling the Zappos story. Call-center folks would take a break and say hello, blow whistles and enthusiastically greet us as we walked by their cubicles (I say ‘cubicles’ but they are more like pods of creativity as each employee is allowed to express their individuality in their work space). Hsieh told me that the company hires for cultural fit. For example, one of the Zappos’ 10 core values is to “create fun and a little weirdness.” So they ask recruits a question—on a scale of 1 to 10, how weird are you? If you’re a 1 you’re probably too straight laced for Zappos and, if you’re a 10, you might be a little too nutty. It’s not the number that’s important but how people react to it. Zappos looks for people who have fun with others. They gave me a “culture book” at the end of the trip that contained unedited observations from hundreds of employees. The word “love” is probably the most common term used to describe the work experience.
Trust your team. Zappos call-center employees are not required to follow a script and do not have to abide by time limits on their calls. Their only mission is to “wow” the customer and create an emotional connection with them. Every employee has postcards sitting next to the phone. They are encouraged to build a relationship with the customer and drop them a handwritten note. For example, one employee asked a customer why she was buying flip-flops. The customer said she was leaving for Fiji. The Zappos employee sent her a note that read “enjoy your trip!” These are simple gestures that guarantee a customer for life. In another example, Hsieh once told me that an employee had spent four hours on the phone with a customer. He never asked the employee, “Why did you spend so much time?” Instead, he asked, “Was the customer wowed?” Get it? Customer service isn’t brain surgery. It is simply courtesy, common sense, and the desire to treat everyone—customers, partners and employees—like family.
Share everything. All information is shared daily with employees – average call times, sales, profits, etc. In fact, Zappos is so open with their performance information that they post it on a board for all to see. They even encouraged me to take video of the board and to share it with the world (as I have done below). PR Professionals take note: there was no PR person monitoring me during my tour. I was completely free to take photographs, video, and to talk to employees. Zappos has nothing to hide. They reached more than one billion in sales last year (in a tough retail environment) because they trust their employees to do the right thing for the customer.
Have fun! During our tour, an employee interrupted our tour guide to tape some segments for the company blog. Everyone was cheering and high-fiving each other. I have never seen a group of people who had so much fun with each other. I thought about a column that Bill Conaty, a former HR Vice President for GE, wrote for BusinessWeek. Conaty said, “Employees shouldn’t feel that it’s wrong to appear to be having fun at the risk of their superiors thinking they’re not serious enough.” This has never been an issue at Zappos where fun is only becomes a problem when employees are not having it.
When I asked Hsieh what he was selling at Zappos, he said “Happiness.” You see, although Zappos is in the business of selling shoes online, that’s not what the company stands for. Ask yourself, “What am I really selling?” and commit yourself to living those values and communicating those values across the entire organization. Creating a culture that “wows” the customer is not that hard as long as you make the commitment, inspire your team, and live your values. Remember, 2010 is the year of customer service. It’s your only sustainable advantage. Wow your customers the Zappos way!