Exceeding expectations – Zappos.com
// February 7th, 2009 // web thoughts
Sometimes you hear about a concept that sounds to good to be true and I thought that was the case with the Zappos.com Culture Book. Fortunately after a little bit of Googling I found a blog post from a guy that had managed to get hold of a copy. He sang fantastic praise about the book and left a simple instruction on getting a copy if your outside the US – why not e-mail the CEO (Tony Hsieh)? So I that’s what did, in all honesty I was expecting to get an auto-reply or not hear anything at all, after all how many CEO’s have the time or inclination to reply to a request like this? Then within a couple of hours a response came back requesting my postal address and additionally offering a tour around their HQ if I’m ever in Vegas. Now this to me exceeded my expectations by a mile and has become a story I tell to a lot of people.
The 2008 edition is around the 500 page mark and gives an insight into how the business ethos was created and then has page-upon-page of testimonials. Now the difference with these testimonials from traditional customer ones are that they all come from the staff that work there! Whilst it sounds crazy, each one is a response to a question put to them by their CEO – What does the Zappos culture mean to you?
If you haven’t heard of Zappos, take a trip to their site, browse their blog and look at Zappos Twitter stream to begin to get under the skin of a business that in 2008 just passed the $1 billion sales mark. The whole business is built around one mission: to provide the best customer service possible. This is a fantastic goal for any company and particularly in the current economic climate should be at the top of any companies to-do list and from my experience is part of the company culture from the CEO down!
To get a copy of the book, you can now simply order one online and at $15 is amazing value for the difference that reading it could make to your business – Zappos 2008 Culture Book
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading.