Zappos!

by Two Chums on March 7, 2013

As most of you know, more love, more joy and therefore more abundant living is what we at Two Chums are all about. We feel compelled to share with you what we have learned about another company that feels exactly the same way and that…….. is Zappos!

If you have never used this website, all we can say is, “try it”! It is an amazing company that feels that its one mission in life is to give the best customer service possible. They call it the WOW philosophy and they do, from the top down and from the bottom up, everything possible to accomplish this.

Zappos was started in 1999 by a young man called Nick Swinmurn. Shortly thereafter, he enlisted Tony Hsieh and Tony eventually became the CEO. Tony is an amazingly bright person and, at the time that he joined Zappos, he had just sold his company, LinkExchange (which he had started 2-1/2 years previously) for $265 million to Microsoft. So, clearly, Tony did not join Zappos because he was in need of money – he joined Zappos to prove that life is about “Delivering Happiness” to use the title of Tony’s latest book. The Company went from no sales in 1999 to $1 billion gross merchandise sales in 2008.

The culture of Zappos is a most important factor and from this culture, only happiness is delivered. They want you to be who you are and be happy………share this happiness with everyone around you. Talk on the telephone with customers for as long as the customer wants to talk (that could be hours, I am told), and do not stay at the Company if you do not feel it is the right place for you. The employees of Zappos are encouraged to read books from the Company library to help them grow, both personally and professionally.

Believing that word of mouth is the best advertising, Zappos spends very little on what one thinks of as “conventional” advertising. At Zappos, they spend a lot of time (and therefore money) on making sure their customers are happy. This is how they create their branding…..in fact, really it is their customers who create their branding.

Each day, when arriving at work, everyone at Zappos walks in through the same door and instead of just putting their name and password into their computer when they sit down at their desks, they play what they call the “Face Game”. The face of a employee comes up on the screen and then there is a multiple choice answer as to who this person is. Once you have nailed who this person is, a bio comes up on him/her so as to make all of their employees better acquainted.

Your Two Chums love using Zappos and have certainly experienced the amazing service that they talk about. Shipping is free, absolutely free, both ways (and it is often sent “Overnight”) so the next time you want to buy a pair of shoes, try Zappos. Order 4 pairs so you have choices and send back what you do not want. This is all part of Zappos’ wonderful customer service and adds to the joy, love and abundance we see in our lives.