My Birthday at Zappos
State-of-the-art Customer Experience (CX)
It happened to be my birthday the day I took the tour of Zappos HQ, which is now housed in the former city hall of Las Vegas. The date had slipped my mind when I showed my drivers license to the smiling people at the check-in table. But they noticed. “We have a birthday!!!” they exclaimed. The cry echoed throughout the first floor, and from the end of the (eccentrically decorated) hallway there were cheers and cries of excitement. Voila, I witnessed the employees bring to life one of the core values of the company:
“Create Fun and a Little Weirdness”
As the tour participants gathered, the guides were eager to hear about my colleague and me, and genuinely connect with us and the other the arriving visitors. As they did, they set the tone for a great next couple of hours.
“Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit”
The tour commenced: First, we gathered to hear an introduction about Zappos and their policies. This was no ordinary power point presentation but, instead, imbued with great fun and storytelling. Then, our vivacious tour guide could contain his excitement no longer, and cajoled the 20+ people on the tour to sing happy birthday to me! Yes. Complete strangers joined in song, and they even liked it.
“Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open Minded”
As if that wasn’t enough, I was then ceremoniously presented with birthday gifts: a set of copper shot glasses with ”Zappos” engraved on them, and drumroll… a take-out packet of soy sauce. Peals of laughter ensued.
“Do More with Less”
Make no mistake, Zappos isn’t simply a big party, they take the company culture seriously, but it is business, nonetheless, and this business depends on the high energy of the culture. Known for their online shoe retail business founded in 1999, Zappos has since expanded into eyewear, clothing, watches, and other accessories. A wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon since 2009, acquired for $1.2 billion, they insist on keeping their own cultural autonomy. They are known for being best in class customer service, and the tagline drives it home: “Powered by Service.” With 80% loyal, repeat customers, they are succeeding.
“Deliver WOW Through Service”
We left our presentation room, and the tour group was led through the courtyard, which was fully decorated for a celebration to open to the community. Often, they host events like this for fun and charity. The company is dedicated to being a part of the downtown Las Vegas scene, and that’s a great match. A customer service-centric company knows that customer service is a 24 hour business, and Las Vegas is a 24 hour a day city. The Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh is community and Las Vegas-centric. Not only has he built Zappos to thrive in the weirdness that is Las Vegas, but he has supported the city in multiple ways: funding entrepreneurs and local businesses, the Downtown Project, the Oasis Hotel, and the local hipness of the Container Park.
“Be Passionate and Determined”
Being in Las Vegas is not the only decision that Hsieh has made in pairing company needs with location. In 2002 Zappos moved the fulfillment center to Louisville, KY– the same city that is the nationwide UPS hub. Easier and faster shipping, equals happier customers and happier financials.
They believe that great service to the customers builds a great company, and everyone can benefit from this knowledge. The training program for the Customer Loyalty Team (CLT) is 5 weeks long, and every single hire goes through that training. From the accountants to the baristas– as part of the onboarding process–every one of them learns to make a Personal Emotional Connection (PET) to the people they interact with. At the end of this intense training, some new hires decide that Zappos isn’t the place for them. Being present and connecting with people is work that is not suitable for everyone’s disposition. Those that decide it isn’t for them are given a generous check, thanked for their honesty, and wished well in their hunt for the next job.
Lots of change has happened at Zappos over the past year. They have dissolved all hierarchy in the company in favor of an experimental organizational structure known as Holacracy (http://www.holacracy.org/). There are no managers and every employee has full autonomy. That kind of unstructured idealistic work environment isn’t for everyone. Any employee that didn’t feel it was right for them was given the option to take a generous severance package and find a better fit elsewhere. 18% of the company made that exodus.
“Embrace and Drive Change”
Having no manager also means that every single person a customer interacts with has the agency to make special arrangements for the customers. It is their responsibility. Imagine getting on the phone, not receiving the service you want and asking to speak to a supervisor. Then shockingly the representative says to you, “I can help you with that.” And on top of it, they are encouraged to go above and beyond for the customers: delivering happiness, so to speak.
The leaderboard on the CLT floor at Zappos isn’t filled with how many sales or upsells the reps have made. It is filled with the numbers of acts of kindness: bouquets of flowers sent, and people they made happy.
CX at Zappos is pretty special and unique: no calls are timed, no messages are too long. They strive for no transfers and one call resolution, with great success. There is well-known story of a 10 hour and 43 minute, record phone call between a member of the CLT and a customer. But what isn’t known is that the famous call wasn’t a test for breaking world records, but what the Zappos employee said was they felt like they knew that caller for years and enjoyed connecting with them.
“Build Open and Honest Relationships with Communication”
On average, Zappos employees answer 5,000 calls a month, and 1,200 e-mails a week. That’s a healthy amount of interactions, and it you’ve ever dealt with unsatisfied customers, you know it can be pretty stressful. The directive to make that personal emotional connection goes a long way in these instances, and often with digital assistance. The technology in the contact center runs on Amazon-based tools, and besides phone and email, the team manages social media as well. The phone system at Zappos automatically routes callers in certain geographies and interests with employees that have lived in those cities before, or have similar interests. Better personal connections through technology, not despite them.
That outpouring of kindness is internal as well. Our tour guide explained the internal policy of “Wishez,” where employees can grant wishes for each other. When he first arrived in Las Vegas, and started working at Zappos, he had an apartment, but no furniture. One afternoon, there was a knock on the door, and a bed was delivered, courtesy of Zappos and the fellow employees who created a Wish for their co-worker, unbeknownst to him.
“Be Humble”
Often in the top 10 ranking of Fortune magazine’s “Best Companies to Work For,” there is talk of encouragement and support for all the employees in terms of personal and career growth, even if it eventually takes that employee out of the company. A happy company alumnus is also a brand evangelist.
“Pursue Growth and Learning”
Hsieh erases a few clichés of the workplace and inserts his own truisms:
1. Work-Life Balance is replaced with Work-Life Integration- because, “at the end of the day, it’s just life.” -TS
2. Open Door Policy is replaced with a No Door policy. Yes, I did stand in front of Tony’s desk, as well as the other C-Suites’. They are the same size as everyone else’s. Maybe a few extra empty soft drink cans there.
The company culture is so brimming with energy and fun, delivering happiness to customers is just an extension of the general vibe around the office.
What impressed me most about the Zappos experience (besides the birthday festivities) was the inseparability between the employee experience, the customer experience, and the brand. Each part of the company equation made the others stronger, and the numbers don’t lie. Make no mistake: this is a tremendously profitable company, producing $2 billion in sales revenue annually. Capitalism that does good, for and by the people that they interact with — that sounds pretty utopian to me.
