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My Zappos Tour, WOW
CLICK THE PLAY BUTTON ABOVE TO LISTEN!
There is no other company in the world that has demonstrated such an outstanding level of commitment to customer service and appreciation than Zappos. What has since been dubbed a pillar of excellence for customer service; the story of how this mentality literally became Zappos business took place in January of 2000.
According to the company's website, a customer sent an email to share feedback on her recent experience when attempting to order two different pairs of shoes - neither of which were available – but surprisingly, not to voice a complaint. Instead, this customer felt she had to reach out and share how much she valued the "fast and courteous response of the Zappos Customer Loyalty Team, and for having received both a gift certificate and a t-shirt for the inconvenience." She was, as they put it, "WOW'd". This feedback touched management at their very core, and lead them to consider, "what if the company focused not solely on what it sold, but how it sold it." The question became, how could they shift the focus to WOWing their customers? As Hsieh put it, "We asked ourselves what we wanted this company to stand for? We didn't just want to sell shoes. I wasn't even into shoes – but I was passionate about customer service."
A few months back we did a Morning Shot on Tony Hsieh's famous book Delivering Happiness. To express our gratitude for what I learned from reading the book I shared it via direct message to his LinkedIn account. The man truly lives out his passion, and his team was quick to respond. During our brief exchange, they encouraged me to take a tour of their headquarters next time I visited Las Vegas to experience it for myself.
Recently, I did just that.
On a business trip to Las Vegas, I reached back out to Zappos and scheduled a 1 ½ hour walk-through of the culture (headquarters) for a nominal fee. It was one of the best investments I'd ever made, as with anything else, there's nothing quite like seeing things with your own eyes. I wondered what it took to WOW customers. As it turns out, the path to WOWing customers starts with WOWing employees. Out of the company's 1,400 employees 600 are service reps. There is no middle management, no offices and no stripes across the organization. Team members are encouraged to dress their workspaces in any way they choose to make themselves feel comfortable. Food provided through the campus bistro, 17 kitchenettes and vending machines are free. Some off-the-wall perks available to employees include dry-cleaning, car detailing, free individual health insurance, pet insurance and a library.
They say you have to spend money to make money, so how has this investment translated into workplace productivity? Employees are incentivized not to sell customers, but to understand each individual's needs. Wait time on customer service calls averages only 15 seconds. 75% of purchases come from returning customers. Repeat customers order 2.5x every 12 months. 43% of new customers come from word-of-mouth. In 2009 Zappos was acquired by Amazon for $1.2 billion and produces in excess of $2 billion annually. Even more startling than that, when we were first getting to the campus we saw Tony Hsieh himself walking into the office – literally, he lives in a 250 sq. ft. airstream down the streat and walks to work. Humility without stripes.
I learned a great deal from this experience. Obviously the dollar value of his investment made in his employees from the standpoint of perks far exceeds the budgets for most of our offices. However, it is the fundamentals of what he practices that makes his organization so successful. Basketball courts, free food and car detailing were not initial offerings to Zappos's first employees; but rather the byproduct of the success and profitability they enjoyed by practicing these fundamentals from day one.
Now I ask myself, am I WOWing my customers and employees? How can I do a better job of sharing the excitement I have for my business with my team? How can I make The Pulse Team at Finance of American synonymous with WOW every time I'm referred to a new client? WOW, that's a lot to think about!
Want to join us?
Thank you all for listening. We're always here to support you, so connect get with us on Facebook or LinkedIn @mattweaverspeaks.
If you have a real estate topic for our next shot or blog, please shoot us a message on Facebook @mattweaverspeaks, we love listener requests!
If you're in the South Florida area and want to meet for lunch, send me a message on LinkedIn and let's get something on the calendar!
We also have our next Elevate conference upcoming in October in Boynton Beach, so if you're looking for a great seminar on how to grow your real estate business by leveraging key mortgage concepts, send me a message on Facebook @mattweaverspeaks to secure your seat today!
The views of this blog, "Your Morning Shot" podcast, and on this site in general are solely those of the authors, Matt Weaver (NMLS-175651) and Zack Lewis, and do not express the views or opinions of Finance of America Mortgage.
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By Matt Weaver, Zack LewisCLICK THE PLAY BUTTON ABOVE TO LISTEN!
There is no other company in the world that has demonstrated such an outstanding level of commitment to customer service and appreciation than Zappos. What has since been dubbed a pillar of excellence for customer service; the story of how this mentality literally became Zappos business took place in January of 2000.
According to the company's website, a customer sent an email to share feedback on her recent experience when attempting to order two different pairs of shoes - neither of which were available – but surprisingly, not to voice a complaint. Instead, this customer felt she had to reach out and share how much she valued the "fast and courteous response of the Zappos Customer Loyalty Team, and for having received both a gift certificate and a t-shirt for the inconvenience." She was, as they put it, "WOW'd". This feedback touched management at their very core, and lead them to consider, "what if the company focused not solely on what it sold, but how it sold it." The question became, how could they shift the focus to WOWing their customers? As Hsieh put it, "We asked ourselves what we wanted this company to stand for? We didn't just want to sell shoes. I wasn't even into shoes – but I was passionate about customer service."
A few months back we did a Morning Shot on Tony Hsieh's famous book Delivering Happiness. To express our gratitude for what I learned from reading the book I shared it via direct message to his LinkedIn account. The man truly lives out his passion, and his team was quick to respond. During our brief exchange, they encouraged me to take a tour of their headquarters next time I visited Las Vegas to experience it for myself.
Recently, I did just that.
On a business trip to Las Vegas, I reached back out to Zappos and scheduled a 1 ½ hour walk-through of the culture (headquarters) for a nominal fee. It was one of the best investments I'd ever made, as with anything else, there's nothing quite like seeing things with your own eyes. I wondered what it took to WOW customers. As it turns out, the path to WOWing customers starts with WOWing employees. Out of the company's 1,400 employees 600 are service reps. There is no middle management, no offices and no stripes across the organization. Team members are encouraged to dress their workspaces in any way they choose to make themselves feel comfortable. Food provided through the campus bistro, 17 kitchenettes and vending machines are free. Some off-the-wall perks available to employees include dry-cleaning, car detailing, free individual health insurance, pet insurance and a library.
They say you have to spend money to make money, so how has this investment translated into workplace productivity? Employees are incentivized not to sell customers, but to understand each individual's needs. Wait time on customer service calls averages only 15 seconds. 75% of purchases come from returning customers. Repeat customers order 2.5x every 12 months. 43% of new customers come from word-of-mouth. In 2009 Zappos was acquired by Amazon for $1.2 billion and produces in excess of $2 billion annually. Even more startling than that, when we were first getting to the campus we saw Tony Hsieh himself walking into the office – literally, he lives in a 250 sq. ft. airstream down the streat and walks to work. Humility without stripes.
I learned a great deal from this experience. Obviously the dollar value of his investment made in his employees from the standpoint of perks far exceeds the budgets for most of our offices. However, it is the fundamentals of what he practices that makes his organization so successful. Basketball courts, free food and car detailing were not initial offerings to Zappos's first employees; but rather the byproduct of the success and profitability they enjoyed by practicing these fundamentals from day one.
Now I ask myself, am I WOWing my customers and employees? How can I do a better job of sharing the excitement I have for my business with my team? How can I make The Pulse Team at Finance of American synonymous with WOW every time I'm referred to a new client? WOW, that's a lot to think about!
Want to join us?
Thank you all for listening. We're always here to support you, so connect get with us on Facebook or LinkedIn @mattweaverspeaks.
If you have a real estate topic for our next shot or blog, please shoot us a message on Facebook @mattweaverspeaks, we love listener requests!
If you're in the South Florida area and want to meet for lunch, send me a message on LinkedIn and let's get something on the calendar!
We also have our next Elevate conference upcoming in October in Boynton Beach, so if you're looking for a great seminar on how to grow your real estate business by leveraging key mortgage concepts, send me a message on Facebook @mattweaverspeaks to secure your seat today!
The views of this blog, "Your Morning Shot" podcast, and on this site in general are solely those of the authors, Matt Weaver (NMLS-175651) and Zack Lewis, and do not express the views or opinions of Finance of America Mortgage.