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Author - Bonnie Gemmell
Category - Zappos, Customer service, Culture
Posted - 03/01/2011
0 Comments | Add Comment Why we want to be just like Zappos! The WOW effect.

A few weeks ago Sarah and I had the good fortune to take a trip to Las Vegas. We scored a bit at the craps tables but more importantly, we scored big at Zappos. No, it wasn’t a shoe sale -- it was a learning experience in how to excel in customer service with you, our customers.

  After reading the book “Delivering Happiness: A path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose” by Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh, we knew we had to visit their headquarters. At the offices in Henderson, NV (20 minutes outside Las Vegas) they offer FREE tours of the facility on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at 4 different times. They also offer a 2-day boot camp called “LIVE” that goes deeper into teaching business people how to create a strong culture in their own company based on the core value system used at Zappos. Considering how much we learned in an hour-and-a-half at Zappos, we can only imagine 2 days would make us super at customer service. I know we’re going to go back.

The Zappos experience zappos-tour-giant-shoes

When you make a reservation for a tour, they ask if they can pick you up at your hotel. Nice. We thought this was a good way to get a feel for the company. We were met by a very charming and informative 20-something guy that told us amazing stories all the way to the office in Henderson. He told us that that day was a big day at Zappos --they had just set a new record for the longest customer service call, a record of 8+ hours! No one seemed to know what the customer rep and customer talked about for that long, but it was clear that the employee was dedicated to his job. When your commitment is complete customer satisfaction, an 8 hour call doesn’t seem so abnormal. At Zappos customers rule!

Delivering Happiness

Zappos-happiness-bus

Upon arriving at headquarters we were greeted by the Delivering Happiness Bus. The bus, with CEO Tony on board, has been driving around the country promoting Zappos and special events. The inside of the bus was tricked out in the true rock star fashion, complete with video games, plenty of Red Bull and a liquor cabinet. We could tell that by keeping themselves happy, Zappos employees were truly able to deliver happiness to others.

The Happiness didn’t stop with the bus though, but continued as we entered the front door. The employees bounce around with sheer happiness, greeting everyone who walks their way with some friendly chatter.

The Tour

The tour was amazing. Many aspects of the Zappos culture stood out to us, such as:

As an employee, Zappos truly wants you to be happy. The environment is extremely collaborative; employees are encouraged to learn, grow, be creative and try new things.

A work-hard-play-hard ethic is evident everywhere within the office. Employees are encouraged to take classes and move up the ladder, but at the same time attend frequent company parties and dress up on “Super Hero Day.”

Tony's jungle-themed department. Our tour guide is the guy holding the monkey.

There’s an enormous team spirit. Tony’s office is in the middle of a room surrounded by other team members, not hidden away in a private room. In fact, the tallest cubicle wall in the whole office was 3 feet tall. Each department had its own special theme (ranging from jungle-themed to graveyard-themed) and its own special greeting for guest (ranging from a bullhorn shout out or flags being waved). These tactics not only increased team spirit within departments, but it added the feeling of WOW to us, the visitors.

There are lots of employee perks: Free food, drinks and candy. No dress code. Full health benefits. 40% shoe discount. Sign us up!

The Core Value system of Zappos

Below are the 10 core values of Zappos, each linked to great sources of information about creating a stellar customer service business. Of course, get the book, Delivering Happiness if you want to read the entire story. And when you go to Vegas the next time, DEFINITELY take time out from the Strip and experience the life of Zappos!

1.   Deliver WOW Through Service
2.   Embrace and Drive Change
3.   Create Fun and A Little Weirdness     (We are already good at this!)
4.   Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
5.   Pursue Growth and Learning
6.   Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication
7.   Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
8.   Do More With Less
9.   Be Passionate and Determined
10. Be Humble

 

We love what happens at Zappos, and plan to incorporate the value system into our business as we see fit. Much of the core values are things we already believe in, but now we will strive for 150% customer satisfaction like Zappos.

After that, the only difference between Addwater and Zappos is that we don’t have a big bus or a ball this big of people that have visited our office!

Kidding, of course!

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