Zappos is Connecting with Customers

Earlier this week, Rob Flemming and I had the opportunity to cross a long awaited item off our To Do list: The tour of Zappos HQ in Henderson, Nevada. Zappos has been an inspiration for us at Trustworthy for years. We’ve read Tony’s book and heard him speak many times. We’ve studied the Zappos Culture Book. We’ve watched the Zappos Insights videos on YouTube. But we still wanted to experience it firsthand.

First off, everything we’d heard about the Zappos culture, attitude and employees is true.

Our plane landed in Vegas as the tour was starting, so we arrived pretty late. Nevertheless, we were whisked inside by friendly people to catch up with the tour in-progress, just in time to say “Hi” to CEO, Tony Hsieh, working away at his storied cubicle in the middle of “Monkey Row.” Zappos Culture Guides, Jon Wolske and Andi Lyn were quick to make us feel welcome with warm greetings and small talk. Everything about Zappos is genuine. With daily, free tours, it would be easy for the delivery to feel rehearsed and stale. Instead, it felt more like a first-day-on-the-job orientation with your future co-workers.

Afterwards, Rob and I were pressed for time to get to a client meeting on the Strip, about twelve miles away. We were told a cab would take too long, and that they’d be happy to give us a free ride on the Zappos Shuttle. Minutes later a Zappos-wrapped Suburban whisked us to our meeting with time to spare.

The “secret sauce” of Zappos’s success is really no secret at all. They genuinely care about their customers, and they’ve developed a unique system of catering to and connecting with their customers that flies in the face of corporate best practices. It simply comes down to empowering employees to be human in their interactions with customers, which in turn, humanizes the company.

Just watch Andi explain how they handle customer service and you’ll get what I mean.

Oh yeah. They *made* me wear a funny hat and take this picture too.