Building A Customer-Focused Culture at Zappos.com

As promised, I wanted to give you some insight into the customer-centric culture at Zappos.com. Zappos is one of the fastest growing retailers in the US and on the Internet, with sales of their shoes and accessories set to hit $1 billion this year. It is run by Tony Hsieh, who gracefully accepted the invitation to write the foreword to the second edition of A Complaint Is a Gift, the book version co-authored with Janelle Barlow, of the customer service concept I pioneered back in the early 1990s.

Tony has instilled a culture at Zappos based around 10 core values, which not only guide their everyday dealings with internal customers as well as external ones, but they are also a part of the hiring process so you need to exhibit these traits if you dream of getting a job with Zappos. The 10 values are:

1. Deliver "WOW" through service
2. Embrace and drive change
3. Create fun and a little weirdness
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

In addition to these 10 core values, Tony also has some incredibly good tips on how other companies can learn from Zappos and truly focus on their customers to achieve success. And what a success Zappos has become. 75% of all sales come from repeat customers and basket sizes increase from the first to the second transaction. This is all down to ensuring that the customers really do feel welcome and looked after by Zappos.

What impressed me most about Tony is his genuine interest in his customers. I read a story about how two sisters felt that they had been racially profiled by a Zappos outlet store in Las Vegas and how Tony personally dealt with the complaint along with other members of senior management. Read this inspirational tale of true customer service.

Try doing a Google search on Zappos and their customer service as well and you will find many fascinating insights into the company both from employees and from customers. The idea of doing an annual culture book is also something I like a lot, although I would like to see this being made available for free (perhaps as a PDF?)

Tony is very active on the speaking circuit and is not afraid to share the secrets of his success with people in all industries. The principles he has used to build the foundation for Zappos.com are evergreens in the field of customer service and customer relationship management and can be applied by ANY COMPANY in ANY FIELD. On Tony's blog he is more than happy to share his wisdom with you and you can watch several of his keynotes.

If you have time to watch only one, I would recommend that you watch Tony's keynote presentation below to be inspired to do something to improve your customer focus. I can guarantee you that just a tiny improvement in ONE of these areas can increase your customer loyalty and customer lifetime value (LTV) dramatically.

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Thanks, Tony!

I just wanted to thank Tony Hsieh of Zappos.com publicly. Tony has, very kindly, written the foreword to the second edition of A Complaint Is a Gift, and is somebody who really "gets" that business is about the customers - rather than systems and policies making it easy to shift products. Tony passionately believes in what he is doing and Zappos is definitely one of the true shining beacons of customer service anywhere in the world today.

For those of you who haven't heard of Zappos yet, they're one of the fastest growing shoe retailers and last year generated revenues of more than $800 million. However, they're a very atypical company because their mission is not to become the world's largest shoe retailer, but rather "providing the best online experience possible".

Over the next couple of weeks I will tell you a bit more about Tony and his company and give you some insights into what makes them tick and what makes them exceptional in my opinion. For now, I don't want to dilute the message of the big thank you I would like to send to one of MY customer service heroes for writing the foreword to our book.

The second edition of A Complaint Is a Gift will be published by Berrett-Koehler on August 1st, 2008.

Find out more about Zappos.com

Using technology to stay on the front foot in the customer service race

Earlier today I came across this interesting article over at ComputerWorld about how companies are starting to develop "Customer Service 2.0". There are some interesting examples of how Comcast, often slated for their customer service, now monitors Twitter (a mini blog service) and very quickly responds to negative comments in order to alleviate any grievances and ensure that customers feel their problems are being dealt with.

The sometimes abusive comments being posted by bloggers and Internet users are worth listening to as these could be from the customers who are so hacked off that they've given up on complaining, but at the same time now have the free tools available to tell the world how they feel about your company in a minute or less. Following on from the concept of "A Complaint is a Gift", by monitoring the Internet for unhappy customers can give you a competitive advantage and can put you in a position to not only keep your customers, but increase their loyalty dramatically. Knowing what we do now about how few of unsatisfied customers actually complain, this is one of the best opportunities that technology has afforded us to actively identify our unhappy customers and make sure we bring the relationship back on track.

Head on over to ComputerWorld to read the full article with several examples of how companies are now monitoring the web and kick-starting "Customer Service 2.0".

Pre-order "A Complaint is a Gift" (2nd Ed.) now!