Delivering Happiness: a Zappos Story
Striving for your customers’ & your own happiness
My own personal “delivering happiness” journey began when I was sixteen years old, when I started working for Baskin-Robbins — with happiness in form of sundaes, 31 ice cream flavors, and milkshakes! While I was trained in how to make each of the desserts and products we offered, I wasn’t taught how to deliver great customer service. Just like the rest of the staff, I had to simply “wing it”. Eventually, I incorporated my people skills and coupled it with one simple, but important rule: make sure that the customer always walks away happy.
As I’ve begun researching more about customer service and happiness, I naturally became attracted to Tony Hsieh’s book, “Delivering Happiness”, which chronicles his life from childhood to building billion-dollar footwear giant, Zappos. I had heard of Zappos in the past, and how it has become iconic today in terms of customer service, but I had never actually realized to the extent that they took it (ex. surprise overnight shipping upgrade, big celebratory bashes for their vendors, etc.) I couldn’t help but think while reading it, as Tony described his/Zappos’ desire to focus on customers and people: “Wow, Zappos got it right!” (and they’re totally killing it, making it onto Fortune’s “Best Companies to Work For” list once again).
As someone who has been in this field for a decade now, I believe that customer service should always be the top priority for any company. Customers make the company — they’re your #1 fans, who essentially bring in the profits, and who will ensure the longevity of the brand.
I wanted to share three important lessons that I took away from “Delivering Happiness”, and what I believe many companies today can incorporate into their value system and culture (as well as what budding/seasoned customer service professionals can learn too!)
- Culture is the core of the company
Zappos has clearly worked hard to instill a strong company culture and a loyal customer-base centered around happiness and mutual respect — even if it means losing profits (or people) in the process. Not many companies are willing to risk seeing a highly-experienced and/or -educated individual walk away to a competitor, simply because they aren’t a “culture fit”. I believe very strongly in creating a strong company culture and guarding and protecting it by any means. In the book, Tony spoke of leaving companies which he felt detached from because the culture was poor. I, too, have experienced a toxic company culture, sometimes where people were leaving so often, that it usually wasn’t a shock when employees put in their two weeks notice, and the supervisors had already found their replacement (or had one in mind). It made employees feel as if they were disposable and that their role was not important to the company. When you have an unbreakably strong culture, it creates a bond between colleagues (as well as employee and the company/cause), which ultimately shines through to the customers and is long-lasting. As an owner/CEO, when you have a vision and believe in it, it’s natural to want to find others who have the same passion, goals and enthusiasm, and therefore, willing to align their beliefs with your company’s values and culture. - Customer service shouldn’t just be a department, it should be the whole company.
As a customer-centric company, I was very pleased to read that not only were the individuals hired to be customer service reps answering the phones and emails, but every person hired. This included their engineers, managers, buyers, and so on. I thought this was a brilliant strategy since it would help each employee understand exactly what it was that the company was working towards: the best customer service possible. They would also be able to bring different ideas to each of their respective departments to aid in accomplishing this mission. In a few of my previous jobs, I felt detached from the rest of the company, and usually had no idea what other departments were doing, their goals, projects or successes/failures. Most companies operate in this manner because, for example, why would the finance department have any concern with what the HR department is doing on a daily basis? However, when values are instituted, and an overall mission is established, it’s imperative to become innovative and get the entire company behind the main goal. By deciding to take on this form of walking (or working, in this case) in someone else’s shoes and cross-departmental collaboration, employees can gauge a sense of what the company is working towards, and can truly epitomize the phrase, “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. - Make sure to ‘WOW’ customers any and every chance you can.
At the core of it all, we are all human. We all share the same basic human needs and feelings, and chances are, we have all been a customer before where we’ve had good, exceptional, bad, and exceptionally bad experiences. Tony explains that “to WOW, you must differentiate yourself, which means do something a little unconventional and innovative. You must do something that’s above and beyond what’s expected.” I’ve had a few instances of when I was WOW’d by a company, and it has left lasting impressions on me. In order to WOW customers, companies and customer service professionals should consider how to amaze their customers to keep them coming back (think: word-of-mouth marketing — the best marketing, in my opinion!) Simply by asking the customer how their day is going, giving them a smile, exhibiting empathy when they’re angry shows them, “I’m on your side and want to help!” Tony talks about this interaction with customers: “We want our reps to let their true personalities shine during each phone call so that they can develop a personal emotional connection with the customer.” This emotional connection brings me back to my point that we are all human with feelings, opinions and thought processes. We all want to be appreciated. Bringing a smile to customers’ faces, letting them know that they matter to you and the company — these are small WOW actions that are in fact paramount in creating and sustaining a successful customer service and support team!
Overall, I really enjoyed reading “Delivering Happiness” and took a lot away from it. Tony Hsieh and his revolutionary thinking centered on happiness, the customer and company culture is surely paving the road for many startups and large companies today. Gone are the days of bureaucratic corporations; company culture and customers are two aspects reigning supreme in today’s business world, especially with the widespread usage of social media. I will certainly be holding many of these values and lessons closely and incorporating them into my customer service career. I’ll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from the book; one that we should always keep in mind when interacting with customers, coworkers, and even strangers!
“…remember that at the end of the day, it’s not what you say or what you do, but how you make people feel that matters the most.” — Tony Hsieh
