Zappos: Happiness in a
Box
Presented by: Chris Heath
Company History
Zappos is an online company that sells shoes and other
apparel
The company was founded in 1999 by Nick Swinmurn
and is currently run by CEO Tony Hsieh
From the start Zappos has focused on great customer
service and developing a culture at work that is unique
Employee Hiring and Training
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6WHAfWqX3s
Zappos only hires happy people
One of their questions during the interview process is on
scale of 1-10 how lucky are you
Found that people that consider themselves lucky
performed better
Passed on many well qualified and smart candidates
because they were not a cultural fit
Every employee must go through Customer Loyalty
Team (CLT) training so they can learn how to WOW
customers
Happy Employees Equals Great
Customer Service
Employees are able to determine when they receive
raises by taking classes and mastering skills
Not paid based on the amount of calls they handle a day
One call lasted 7 hours and 28 minutes
MSN Money ranked Zappos.com in the top 10 for
customer service
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwE1zb9fiVs
Repeat Customers
75% of sales on any given day are from repeat
customers
During period Q407 first time customers spent $123.86
while repeat customers spent $156.27
Mostly word of mouth marketing
Stories Of Success
Personal Concierge
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A flight attendant from Qantas was in San Francisco
and needed to exchange a pair of shoes
She had no access to a computer and did not know
where a UPS store was
A Zappos CLT member found the closest UPS store
and asked them to print the label for her
Stories of Success
Caring For The Sick
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A Grandmother ordered some Lelli Kelly shoes for her
four year old daughter that was going to have heart
surgery
The CLT member had special shoes, flowers, and a
homemade card signed by team members sent to her
Stories of Success
From Confusion to Mobility
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The women's dad had a stroke and was trying to
learn to walk again
The CLT member had all the shoes overnighted even
though she was only going to keep one pair
The shoes ended up being molded into his cast
Stories of Success
Offering Praise and Gratitude
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A women went on the Breast Cancer 3 Day in Denver
and left an auto-reply on her email
A CLT member got the auto-reply email and decided
to sent the woman a card to let her know what an
admirable thing she was doing
Twitter
Tony originally created the account as a personal search
engine, but soon realized the power Twitter could have in
growing the brand
He now has over 1.7 million followers
“You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf” –
Jon Kabat-Zinn
“At Vegas airport. While in bathroom, I had an AMAZING
revelation: Toiled seat covers are shaped exactly the
same as life vests!”
499 employees are now using Twitter with the only rule
being, “Use your best judgment”
Blogs and YouTube
Every employee is able to blog on the website
Zappos feels its better to see what every employee is
thinking even if it is not positive
They want to see the good, the bad, and the ugly
They have two different channels on YouTube: ZTV and
Inside Zappos
ZTV shows the virtues of Zappos and has 187 videos
with over 2 million views
Inside Zappos shows the fun employees have at work
Inside Zappos has 870 videos with almost 600,000 views
Amazon
Zappos merged with Amazon in a stock exchange in
2009
The deal was valued at 1.2 billion dollars
Though they became a part of Amazon they were kept
as a separate entity and were able to maintain their
culture
Q1 2010 net sales were up almost 50 percent compared
to Q1 2009
Summary
Zappos has been able to grow their business through
amazing customer service
This amazing customer service is made possible by
creating a culture at work that allows team members to
have fun
Team members constantly go above and beyond
Zappos has also been able to grow its’ brand through
new social media outlets such as Twitter and YouTube
Questions
1.
Who founded Zappos.com?
a. Alfred Lin
b. Tony Hsieh
c. Nick Swinmurn
d. Matt Zappos
2. Which is not a core value?
a. Be professional at all times
b. Do more with less
c. Be humble
d. Pursue growth and learning
3. Repeat customers accounted for what percentage of sales?
a. 20
b. 45
c. 75
d. 90