[Applause]
hello everyone this week on case studies
with the biz doc it’s Zappos the store
that we all love online to get shoes at
they made it easy
they had a great selection and the
service it was there made us feel really
good about spending our money with them
because we were treated so well this
week I’m gonna go over three things
number one a general history of Zappos
how they got the where they’re going
you’d be amazed that the growth rates
they had number two we’re gonna talk
about the milestones they had that
proved that the culture of service that
they were putting in place was truly
coming true for you and me at the end of
an experience when we buy from Zappos
and then number three I’m going to talk
about three quick things that you can
test for if you want service like Zappos
you have to be committed to these three
things and you can add it to your
business whether you’re operating Zappos
or you’re operating a t-shirt company in
Berlin Germany let’s start with history
in the beginning there is a guy named
Nick
Swinburne and Nick’s when myrn had
conceived something called shoe site.com
and he was trying to get that off the
ground and by the way you think about
shoe site.com do you know how expensive
that that URL would be how that web
address would be nowadays but
nonetheless back there in 1999 it was
available and he got it he’s trying to
get this thing up off the ground and
when you’re trying to get off the ground
what are you looking for you’re looking
for money and you’re looking for talent
enter Tony Hsieh and Tony Hsieh was
operating he’s entrepreneur had some
success who’s operating a venture firm
called venture frogs not exactly Sequoia
red point benchmark you know or kleiner
perkins but it was venture frogs the
happy little hoppy kind of venture firm
anyway he took a half a million dollars
brought that in and away they went as
co-ceos so that was the birth they had
some de minimis sales they had about 1.6
million online in 2000 I think if that
was the number so that’s a little over
$100,000 a month so it proved that
something was working and what’s really
interesting here is I haven’t mentioned
anymore venture money that’s what they
had and they were operating in San
Francisco so away they went and they
were reinvesting the profits that they
had and living on a shoestring and
making it work in 2001 they had got that
up to eight point six million dollars so
now they’ve crossed seven hundred
thousand dollars a month in sales and
it’s rolling along and then they really
caught the lightning in the bottle and
it started to go organic and they
quadrupled that to thirty two million
dollars in 2002 so here they are three
years into it and they’ve built a thirty
two million dollar company I think
that’s pretty good
one of the tenants that they made early
on they said look we’re selling shoes
online they can compare the price over
here they can compare the price over
here so we’re a pioneer and selling
things online and in 2002 and 32 million
dollar ecommerce played that’s pretty
good as we’re talking sixteen years ago
now that was made possible by what they
were conceived and able to do online
what they did in wrapping the service
around it for you and me is what really
made Zappos worth what they what they
became to be known as because they were
already putting things in place saying
listen we have to be about service at
the end of the day this can be
commoditized and what commoditize means
it’s like everybody could do it and
knock you down by another fifty cents or
another half a dollar and and sell
something for just a bit less than you
can but you have to add service to it
you have to add other things to it think
about Amazon Amazon Prime you get
everything shipped for free and then
you’ve got the Amazon Prime customers
that said you’ll have it tomorrow not
only will it be ship free but it’s in a
local warehouse somewhere and you can
get it in some cases same day in some
cases next day that’s an example of
Amazon operating in a commodity world
for this battery for this particular
camera is available from ten sites
what’s different
Amazon speed you know the sites are
trapped in a commodity war on the price
but then Amazon delivers it for you know
for free we’re not not perfectly free
because we pay for our Amazon Prime each
year but when you add up what you pay
for an Amazon Prime
what you get in shipping is really
tremendous it’s far outweighs the value
of the Prime the free shipping so
nonetheless they’re here thinking the
same thing
and I digress a little bit talking about
Amazon Prime because the point is Zappos
is thinking about how can we wrap
service around this so that we don’t get
commoditized and what Zappos does just
brings you a phenomenal shoe experience
with that was easy friendly to deal with
ooh these didn’t fit as well as I would
imagine ship them back you know be
treated very very well as opposed to be
treated like a criminal when you come
back to every receipt do you have this
that was never Zappos style and
something was working because they
quadrupled
they then double that you know 270 and
that 70 million dollars there’s a really
interesting thing that starts happening
people started hearing about their
legendary service they start popping up
in places and they double again more
than double from 70 to 184 there would
be three years of doubling where they
went from 70 it’s 184 to 370 in a 24
month period so finishing this year at
70 and then doubling and doubling you
really tremendous stuff they also moved
to Nevada so now they move to Nevada now
what do we know about Nevada there’s no
state income tax so they’re saving some
stuff there there also had a really a
wonderful labor force that could come
work in their in their warehouse in
their order center and there was some
other benefits but nonetheless they
moved from San Francisco to Nevada and
opened up they also received an
investment their first investment of
thirty five million dollars from Sequoia
so finally a real venture firm shows up
and invest at a time where they’re
already a hundred and eighty four
million dollars so in other words they
gave up equity to get what they needed
to expand and build even further turning
around
we also heard in 2004 a thing called the
quick bonus and what they did is they
paid people to quit and it started out
as $200 hey you want to quit right now
we’ll pay you to quit in other words
they wanted to maintain that that if you
want to work at Zappos and you want to
be part of our culture of service if
it’s just not for you and you
want that we want that but if it’s not
for you and you don’t want that we’ll
pay you to quit because it’s better to
pay to quit than to keep somebody around
that doesn’t represent who we are and
does and do things how we want that
manifested so nonetheless they’ve now
double double doubled and then in 2006
Nick actually leaves in Tony Hsieh who
by now was the face of the company and
there’s a lot of things going on with
that and will you just not dive into
that but then Tony Hsieh is really the
guy driving and he is the the face of
the company
and all that it stands for and from 2005
to 2006 when Nick leaves they go from
370 to 600 so they didn’t quite double
but it was a very big lift and then from
oh six 207 they’d go to eight hundred
and forty million dollars and they are
now selling more than just shoes or
selling handbags and there are some
eyewear and certain other accessories
that they were selling but they still
the core of their business was 70% shoes
and then from 7 to 8 they hit a billion
dollars in annual sales and that’s only
about a hundred and sixty so you can see
that the growth was starting to taper
off because you can’t keep doubling at
these kind of numbers but now you’re
coming up on your one year to me one
year on your one decade anniversary
you’re ten years old and you have gone
from zero to a billion dollar company
with a stellar reputation for service
well there is something also that was
going on is because you tend to attract
attention and they attract attention
from Amazon and it’s very interesting
you’ve ever get a chance to read you can
read many different articles forbes has
a great one about all the boardroom
intrigue that went around with Amazon
kind of in this dance and negotiation to
buy the company what tony was most
concerned about and certain other board
members were most concerned about is if
we sell to them we certainly want to
keep our culture of service we want to
keep what’s going on we the drum-beating
we don’t just want to sell to them and
parachute out and sometimes you see
entrepreneurs do exactly that they sell
and they parachute out other times
they’ll sell to a larger company and a
larger company says we’re just going
roll this into our existing organization
and we don’t need the founders anymore
but nonetheless you have Tony sitting
there Tony Hsieh saying I really want to
make sure that that we consistently keep
the culture and jeff bezos talked to
tony they had this very famous one-hour
meeting and at the end of it Tony said I
think he wants to buy us I think he’s
serious about this but he wants to leave
us what we are because he sees the value
in it and lo and behold in July of 2009
Amazon buys Zappos for nine hundred and
forty million dollars and it’s where the
company is today what was also happening
there and now I’ve kind of been
peppering this in but point two is
talking about some of the very
interesting milestones that prove that a
great selection of shoes at great prices
delivered with great service at the
point-of-sale and great service to
return them or to solve any issues that
you had with those shoes that’s who
we’re all about every part of that is
important and every part of that is the
Zappos experience powered by service so
check this out they made it on the
fortune number twenty three of fortunes
top a 100 places to work so something’s
working there isn’t it people are
encouraged to work there the quick bonus
that started a hundred actually we get
up to two thousand dollars we’ll just
pay you $2,000 to quit yes that’s the
number there’s also a very funny thing
where apparently Tony was out late with
a friend one night and they were as the
story goes he were partying a little bit
and Tony made him at that I bet right
now if you called my service desk
24-hour service desk then we asked for a
late-night pizza place I bet you they
would help us well the guy he was with
was apparently a Skechers executive and
Skechers this like seriously dude that’s
not gonna happen and he’s like let’s do
it
they made a phone call and initially
apparently a person on the phone is like
wait what is it you want hey I love
Zappos shoes I work with you but I got a
question I’m here right now and I’m in
this area and I
I really want you know get a late night
pizza can you help me with that you’re
so famous for going the extra mile to
help people what can you do after a
couple minutes supposedly as the story
goes this confused employee comes back
to the phone and says okay thank you for
trusting Zappos I have five four yet
that are close to where you are five so
isn’t that amazing that also reminds me
of another story that they told about a
self-empowered employee at Zappos a
woman calls up and she says hey I need
to return some boots I bought them a
little bit ago but I need to return them
they were for my husband but he passed
away and after we were sorting
everything out I discovered these boots
that had not been worn were here and I
like to return them would it be possible
if I could return them and the Zappos
employee not only did they she take the
return of the boots she sent them a card
and some flowers and she didn’t ask her
supervisor she picked a reasonably
priced item that she found from an
online florist and had that sent and
that proves that the the culture of
service is authentic because if that
story is correct and it’s been relayed
in a lot of different ways she didn’t
ask her supervisor but she acted
reasonably and she acted quickly so in
other words she’s thinking like an
interested party business she’s thinking
like an owner but she’s delivering on
this promise of service and I think
those are proof points being ranked
number 23 on the fortune list of the
best places to work and the pizza bet
with the Skechers executive and flowers
and the return of boots for a woman that
just unfortunately and horribly lost her
husband I think that shows that what
they tried to instill with the culture
of service that says we’re not going to
get commoditized you know if we can add
value to it and the value we’re gonna
add is selection price service ease
we’re gonna invest in IT and make our
site really easy to work with there’s
gonna be service at every place not just
the humans that answer the phone saying
oh you like to make a return let me help
you with that
that’s wonderful but you have to make it
easy to work with all the way around 360
degrees so now real quick people have
read the books there’s several books
that have been written about Zappos and
Tony Hsieh and I’m sure you may have
read them if you hadn’t pick them up and
go through it but remember the following
you can’t just march into your company
and turn it into a culture of service
you have to be intentional about the
service be intentional about training
your employees and here is a simple
three-point process that if you want to
change the culture of your company into
a service-oriented culture first of all
it’s got to start with the top and be
sponsored all the way down all the way
through the company second you’re gonna
lose some of the executives you have
because this is not easy to do and the
test that you can go through is it
authentic
do you talk service or is it authentic
do you self reflect and say is that
really service is that really service
recently on a beer and business I
interviewed an entrepreneur that built a
restaurant company and he said that
early on in the existence of that
company they would get feedback on Yelp
or opentable from their customers and
they would say well that person doesn’t
know what they’re talking about that
person doesn’t know what they’re talking
about
hey don’t they know we do this in that
and then they stop they go wait wait
wait wait wait that’s not service that’s
denial and they step back and look if
that person dropped $80 at our
restaurant on date night and that’s the
way they feel and that’s the way we are
and the culture of service we have to
change it we are sitting here in this
room reflexively criticizing our
customer it stops here and the CEO from
that moment drew out a culture of
service that took root over time but it
was on a day when self reflection about
the authenticity of your intent came to
be then empowered or your employees
empowered empowered to act like the
woman that took the boots back at Zappos
are they really empowered do they know
they can do this and they’re not going
to get in trouble that says well I’m
glad you helped the customer but that
was a little expensive
that’s not empowerment that’s after the
fact someone says well great I do some
thing that I thought were supposed to do
and I’m a little bit in trouble my boss
has a little tone of voice no empowered
is empowered within framework the woman
is Zappo’s didn’t spend $900 on flowers
she was reasonable which showed that she
was empowered but she operated within a
very reasonable aperture and lastly
consistent filtering and selecting of
the people that you bring in each new
day with the company and filtering and
selecting those people is what
Nordstrom’s what Zappos and what
Fairmont all do so well Nordstrom is
legendary for its attitude of service
and there’s a story which I think turned
out to be not exactly true but a story
used to go around that an older
gentleman attempted to return snow tires
to Nordstrom and they actually took them
back now who knows if that’s real and
I’ve heard a little bit of it that
there’s a little fable to it but the
point is the only way a fable like that
takes root and doesn’t just get snuffed
is because there’s some authenticity and
truth to it and so that’s what Zappos
did they went from shoe site.com
a commodity place to buy shoes and they
wrapped it with service easy-to-use
websites
easy-to-use procedures for their people
and they delivered on the promise of
service to you and me to the point that
they are a pillar of service and they
actually will sell Zappos insights for I
think 40 bucks a month so that you can
get insights on customer care and
service that you can apply for your
company that’s it this week I really
appreciate the suggestion for Zappos
because this is a case study that you
can apply no matter where you are
remember to subscribe because we’re on a
mission to get to a million subscribers
and when we do the first annual value
tainment
entrepreneur conference is coming to
town and you can come be a part of it
until then I’m Tom Ellsworth and I hope I left you better than I found
hello everyone this week on case studies
with the biz doc it’s Zappos the store
that we all love online to get shoes at
they made it easy
they had a great selection and the
service it was there made us feel really
good about spending our money with them
because we were treated so well this
week I’m gonna go over three things
number one a general history of Zappos
how they got the where they’re going
you’d be amazed that the growth rates
they had number two we’re gonna talk
about the milestones they had that
proved that the culture of service that
they were putting in place was truly
coming true for you and me at the end of
an experience when we buy from Zappos
and then number three I’m going to talk
about three quick things that you can
test for if you want service like Zappos
you have to be committed to these three
things and you can add it to your
business whether you’re operating Zappos
or you’re operating a t-shirt company in
Berlin Germany let’s start with history
in the beginning there is a guy named
Nick
Swinburne and Nick’s when myrn had
conceived something called shoe site.com
and he was trying to get that off the
ground and by the way you think about
shoe site.com do you know how expensive
that that URL would be how that web
address would be nowadays but
nonetheless back there in 1999 it was
available and he got it he’s trying to
get this thing up off the ground and
when you’re trying to get off the ground
what are you looking for you’re looking
for money and you’re looking for talent
enter Tony Hsieh and Tony Hsieh was
operating he’s entrepreneur had some
success who’s operating a venture firm
called venture frogs not exactly Sequoia
red point benchmark you know or kleiner
perkins but it was venture frogs the
happy little hoppy kind of venture firm
anyway he took a half a million dollars
brought that in and away they went as
co-ceos so that was the birth they had
some de minimis sales they had about 1.6
million online in 2000 I think if that
was the number so that’s a little over
$100,000 a month so it proved that
something was working and what’s really
interesting here is I haven’t mentioned
anymore venture money that’s what they
had and they were operating in San
Francisco so away they went and they
were reinvesting the profits that they
had and living on a shoestring and
making it work in 2001 they had got that
up to eight point six million dollars so
now they’ve crossed seven hundred
thousand dollars a month in sales and
it’s rolling along and then they really
caught the lightning in the bottle and
it started to go organic and they
quadrupled that to thirty two million
dollars in 2002 so here they are three
years into it and they’ve built a thirty
two million dollar company I think
that’s pretty good
one of the tenants that they made early
on they said look we’re selling shoes
online they can compare the price over
here they can compare the price over
here so we’re a pioneer and selling
things online and in 2002 and 32 million
dollar ecommerce played that’s pretty
good as we’re talking sixteen years ago
now that was made possible by what they
were conceived and able to do online
what they did in wrapping the service
around it for you and me is what really
made Zappos worth what they what they
became to be known as because they were
already putting things in place saying
listen we have to be about service at
the end of the day this can be
commoditized and what commoditize means
it’s like everybody could do it and
knock you down by another fifty cents or
another half a dollar and and sell
something for just a bit less than you
can but you have to add service to it
you have to add other things to it think
about Amazon Amazon Prime you get
everything shipped for free and then
you’ve got the Amazon Prime customers
that said you’ll have it tomorrow not
only will it be ship free but it’s in a
local warehouse somewhere and you can
get it in some cases same day in some
cases next day that’s an example of
Amazon operating in a commodity world
for this battery for this particular
camera is available from ten sites
what’s different
Amazon speed you know the sites are
trapped in a commodity war on the price
but then Amazon delivers it for you know
for free we’re not not perfectly free
because we pay for our Amazon Prime each
year but when you add up what you pay
for an Amazon Prime
what you get in shipping is really
tremendous it’s far outweighs the value
of the Prime the free shipping so
nonetheless they’re here thinking the
same thing
and I digress a little bit talking about
Amazon Prime because the point is Zappos
is thinking about how can we wrap
service around this so that we don’t get
commoditized and what Zappos does just
brings you a phenomenal shoe experience
with that was easy friendly to deal with
ooh these didn’t fit as well as I would
imagine ship them back you know be
treated very very well as opposed to be
treated like a criminal when you come
back to every receipt do you have this
that was never Zappos style and
something was working because they
quadrupled
they then double that you know 270 and
that 70 million dollars there’s a really
interesting thing that starts happening
people started hearing about their
legendary service they start popping up
in places and they double again more
than double from 70 to 184 there would
be three years of doubling where they
went from 70 it’s 184 to 370 in a 24
month period so finishing this year at
70 and then doubling and doubling you
really tremendous stuff they also moved
to Nevada so now they move to Nevada now
what do we know about Nevada there’s no
state income tax so they’re saving some
stuff there there also had a really a
wonderful labor force that could come
work in their in their warehouse in
their order center and there was some
other benefits but nonetheless they
moved from San Francisco to Nevada and
opened up they also received an
investment their first investment of
thirty five million dollars from Sequoia
so finally a real venture firm shows up
and invest at a time where they’re
already a hundred and eighty four
million dollars so in other words they
gave up equity to get what they needed
to expand and build even further turning
around
we also heard in 2004 a thing called the
quick bonus and what they did is they
paid people to quit and it started out
as $200 hey you want to quit right now
we’ll pay you to quit in other words
they wanted to maintain that that if you
want to work at Zappos and you want to
be part of our culture of service if
it’s just not for you and you
want that we want that but if it’s not
for you and you don’t want that we’ll
pay you to quit because it’s better to
pay to quit than to keep somebody around
that doesn’t represent who we are and
does and do things how we want that
manifested so nonetheless they’ve now
double double doubled and then in 2006
Nick actually leaves in Tony Hsieh who
by now was the face of the company and
there’s a lot of things going on with
that and will you just not dive into
that but then Tony Hsieh is really the
guy driving and he is the the face of
the company
and all that it stands for and from 2005
to 2006 when Nick leaves they go from
370 to 600 so they didn’t quite double
but it was a very big lift and then from
oh six 207 they’d go to eight hundred
and forty million dollars and they are
now selling more than just shoes or
selling handbags and there are some
eyewear and certain other accessories
that they were selling but they still
the core of their business was 70% shoes
and then from 7 to 8 they hit a billion
dollars in annual sales and that’s only
about a hundred and sixty so you can see
that the growth was starting to taper
off because you can’t keep doubling at
these kind of numbers but now you’re
coming up on your one year to me one
year on your one decade anniversary
you’re ten years old and you have gone
from zero to a billion dollar company
with a stellar reputation for service
well there is something also that was
going on is because you tend to attract
attention and they attract attention
from Amazon and it’s very interesting
you’ve ever get a chance to read you can
read many different articles forbes has
a great one about all the boardroom
intrigue that went around with Amazon
kind of in this dance and negotiation to
buy the company what tony was most
concerned about and certain other board
members were most concerned about is if
we sell to them we certainly want to
keep our culture of service we want to
keep what’s going on we the drum-beating
we don’t just want to sell to them and
parachute out and sometimes you see
entrepreneurs do exactly that they sell
and they parachute out other times
they’ll sell to a larger company and a
larger company says we’re just going
roll this into our existing organization
and we don’t need the founders anymore
but nonetheless you have Tony sitting
there Tony Hsieh saying I really want to
make sure that that we consistently keep
the culture and jeff bezos talked to
tony they had this very famous one-hour
meeting and at the end of it Tony said I
think he wants to buy us I think he’s
serious about this but he wants to leave
us what we are because he sees the value
in it and lo and behold in July of 2009
Amazon buys Zappos for nine hundred and
forty million dollars and it’s where the
company is today what was also happening
there and now I’ve kind of been
peppering this in but point two is
talking about some of the very
interesting milestones that prove that a
great selection of shoes at great prices
delivered with great service at the
point-of-sale and great service to
return them or to solve any issues that
you had with those shoes that’s who
we’re all about every part of that is
important and every part of that is the
Zappos experience powered by service so
check this out they made it on the
fortune number twenty three of fortunes
top a 100 places to work so something’s
working there isn’t it people are
encouraged to work there the quick bonus
that started a hundred actually we get
up to two thousand dollars we’ll just
pay you $2,000 to quit yes that’s the
number there’s also a very funny thing
where apparently Tony was out late with
a friend one night and they were as the
story goes he were partying a little bit
and Tony made him at that I bet right
now if you called my service desk
24-hour service desk then we asked for a
late-night pizza place I bet you they
would help us well the guy he was with
was apparently a Skechers executive and
Skechers this like seriously dude that’s
not gonna happen and he’s like let’s do
it
they made a phone call and initially
apparently a person on the phone is like
wait what is it you want hey I love
Zappos shoes I work with you but I got a
question I’m here right now and I’m in
this area and I
I really want you know get a late night
pizza can you help me with that you’re
so famous for going the extra mile to
help people what can you do after a
couple minutes supposedly as the story
goes this confused employee comes back
to the phone and says okay thank you for
trusting Zappos I have five four yet
that are close to where you are five so
isn’t that amazing that also reminds me
of another story that they told about a
self-empowered employee at Zappos a
woman calls up and she says hey I need
to return some boots I bought them a
little bit ago but I need to return them
they were for my husband but he passed
away and after we were sorting
everything out I discovered these boots
that had not been worn were here and I
like to return them would it be possible
if I could return them and the Zappos
employee not only did they she take the
return of the boots she sent them a card
and some flowers and she didn’t ask her
supervisor she picked a reasonably
priced item that she found from an
online florist and had that sent and
that proves that the the culture of
service is authentic because if that
story is correct and it’s been relayed
in a lot of different ways she didn’t
ask her supervisor but she acted
reasonably and she acted quickly so in
other words she’s thinking like an
interested party business she’s thinking
like an owner but she’s delivering on
this promise of service and I think
those are proof points being ranked
number 23 on the fortune list of the
best places to work and the pizza bet
with the Skechers executive and flowers
and the return of boots for a woman that
just unfortunately and horribly lost her
husband I think that shows that what
they tried to instill with the culture
of service that says we’re not going to
get commoditized you know if we can add
value to it and the value we’re gonna
add is selection price service ease
we’re gonna invest in IT and make our
site really easy to work with there’s
gonna be service at every place not just
the humans that answer the phone saying
oh you like to make a return let me help
you with that
that’s wonderful but you have to make it
easy to work with all the way around 360
degrees so now real quick people have
read the books there’s several books
that have been written about Zappos and
Tony Hsieh and I’m sure you may have
read them if you hadn’t pick them up and
go through it but remember the following
you can’t just march into your company
and turn it into a culture of service
you have to be intentional about the
service be intentional about training
your employees and here is a simple
three-point process that if you want to
change the culture of your company into
a service-oriented culture first of all
it’s got to start with the top and be
sponsored all the way down all the way
through the company second you’re gonna
lose some of the executives you have
because this is not easy to do and the
test that you can go through is it
authentic
do you talk service or is it authentic
do you self reflect and say is that
really service is that really service
recently on a beer and business I
interviewed an entrepreneur that built a
restaurant company and he said that
early on in the existence of that
company they would get feedback on Yelp
or opentable from their customers and
they would say well that person doesn’t
know what they’re talking about that
person doesn’t know what they’re talking
about
hey don’t they know we do this in that
and then they stop they go wait wait
wait wait wait that’s not service that’s
denial and they step back and look if
that person dropped $80 at our
restaurant on date night and that’s the
way they feel and that’s the way we are
and the culture of service we have to
change it we are sitting here in this
room reflexively criticizing our
customer it stops here and the CEO from
that moment drew out a culture of
service that took root over time but it
was on a day when self reflection about
the authenticity of your intent came to
be then empowered or your employees
empowered empowered to act like the
woman that took the boots back at Zappos
are they really empowered do they know
they can do this and they’re not going
to get in trouble that says well I’m
glad you helped the customer but that
was a little expensive
that’s not empowerment that’s after the
fact someone says well great I do some
thing that I thought were supposed to do
and I’m a little bit in trouble my boss
has a little tone of voice no empowered
is empowered within framework the woman
is Zappo’s didn’t spend $900 on flowers
she was reasonable which showed that she
was empowered but she operated within a
very reasonable aperture and lastly
consistent filtering and selecting of
the people that you bring in each new
day with the company and filtering and
selecting those people is what
Nordstrom’s what Zappos and what
Fairmont all do so well Nordstrom is
legendary for its attitude of service
and there’s a story which I think turned
out to be not exactly true but a story
used to go around that an older
gentleman attempted to return snow tires
to Nordstrom and they actually took them
back now who knows if that’s real and
I’ve heard a little bit of it that
there’s a little fable to it but the
point is the only way a fable like that
takes root and doesn’t just get snuffed
is because there’s some authenticity and
truth to it and so that’s what Zappos
did they went from shoe site.com
a commodity place to buy shoes and they
wrapped it with service easy-to-use
websites
easy-to-use procedures for their people
and they delivered on the promise of
service to you and me to the point that
they are a pillar of service and they
actually will sell Zappos insights for I
think 40 bucks a month so that you can
get insights on customer care and
service that you can apply for your
company that’s it this week I really
appreciate the suggestion for Zappos
because this is a case study that you
can apply no matter where you are
remember to subscribe because we’re on a
mission to get to a million subscribers
and when we do the first annual value
tainment
entrepreneur conference is coming to
town and you can come be a part of it
until then I’m Tom Ellsworth and I hope I left you better than I found
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