Zappos:
Creating a Unique
Corporate Culture
Zappos: Creating a Unique
Corporate Culture
Wait... what? How is it possible to package up happiness and ship it across the United
States?
Zappos, the online shoe giant, is showing us that happiness can indeed be delivered in a
package, phone call, and email all the while grossing over a billion in sales.
Of this billion dollars in sales, 70% of it comes from repeat customers. They attribute this
customer loyalty to their staff and how happy they are. So, how does Zappos keep over
1200 employees happy and excited to help customers?
Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos has been interviewed too many times to count with regard to
how he keeps his employees so engaged. The most prominent response he gives is, “the
best predictors of employee engagement are the number of friends that they have at
work.” So, that’s what he focuses on; creating a workplace that develops friendships among
its staff.
?
Impromptu conga lines, year-round themed
office decorations, silly hats, in-cubicle boxing
matches and, of course, a donut eating
competition. These just some examples of the
kind of events that occur daily in the offices of
Zappos. This is a far stretch from the once a year
‘ugly Christmas sweater day’ that most offices
consider the limit for in office shenanigans (but
they still do ugly sweater day at Zappos). If you
can create a genuine fun atmosphere around the
office, you breed friendships among staff.
Loosen up
a little...or
a lot.
Hire for the
culture, not
the skill set.
Getting the right staff with the proper skill sets on board is one of the most
challenging, yet important tasks that an executive or HR department faces. Hiring
technically brilliant people who don’t mesh well with the culture of your
organization may result in more harm than good.
At Zappos, they take this to the extreme. They have separate interviews for
cultural fit, with everyone going through the same 4 weeks of on board training,
from call center workers to the VP. After a few weeks of training, each new hire is
offered a $2000 cheque to leave if they don’t feel that they are a good fit with the
Zappos culture. When they turn that down (98% of the time) they get ushered
into the eccentric Zappos offices - where the CEO’s cubicle is in the middle of a
call center decorated like a tropical rain forest. Zappos knows that it takes a
special kind of person to thrive in a culture that aims at keeping as few rules as
possible (the only fully established and enforced rule is to be on time). That is the
culture they have decided they want, and know they have to hire accordingly.
!
Hiring technical brilliant people who
don’t mesh well with the culture of
your organization may result in more
harm than good.
Give your
employees
room to make
customers
happy.
Call centers and retail stores are notorious for obsessing over Key Performance
Indicators (KPIs), but the Zappos’ business model is a bit different. The drive for
shorter call times, higher sales and lower returns may seem like the right way to
approach the twofold goal of increasing sales and efficiency, but it often does so as
a detriment to the consumer experience.
Zappos certainly tracks all of the same KPIs
as other call centers and retail stores, but
Zappos tracks all of the
they also encourage their staff to disregard
same key performance
any scripts or protocol in the interest of
better serving the customer. Zappos
indicators as other call
employees are empowered to do whatever it
centers and retail stores,
takes, from staying on the line for almost 8
but they also encourage
hours to ensure that a customer is
their staff to disregard
completely satisfied, to having the authority
any scripts or protocol in
to instantly approve returns or shipping
upgrades without managerial approval.
the interest of better
serving the customer.
There is even a story of two New Yorkers
looking for a pizza place that would still be
open at 4 a.m. They called Zappos and explained their predicament. After the initial
confusion, the Zappos employee quickly got to work and found four pizza places
near the New Yorkers’ location and had phone numbers and hours of operation
ready to give to them.
Once you take your focus off the empirical KPI data, you empower your employees
to do their best to give the customer the greatest possible experience. Not only
does this help create a loyal customer, it also makes the employee feel trusted and
capable of making a difference.
EXPRESSING
CORPORATE CULTURE
About TransparentC
TransparentC is an internal communications company. We work
with our clients to hep them improve internal communication,
build their corporate culture and develop better recruitment
strategies.
Contact Us
Email: info@transparentc.ca
Website: http://www.transparentc.ca
780.424.0024