Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh has taken the stage at Startup School this afternoon to talk about company culture and delivering happiness. Hsieh started out by talking about his beginnings at LinkExchange, a company he sold to Microsoft in 1998. The reason LinkExhange sold to Microsoft was because of the company culture, according to Hsieh. After LinkExhange, Hsieh was an investor in Zappos, and two months after the founding of Zappos, Hsieh came in as the CEO. Zappos started in 1999 with no sales, and last year in 2008, had over $1 billion in gross sales. Hsieh mentioned that the biggest source of revenue for Zappos is word of mouth, as well as repeat sales.
Zappos is best known for their customer service. When Zappos started out, there was no company culture. In 2003, Zappos decided that they needed to differentiate themselves from all the other companies, and chose customer service. Zappos now follows the 3 C’s; Clothing, Customer Server and Culture.
Now, in 2009, Zappos is all about delivering happiness, both for employees and customers. What makes Zappos so great, among other things, is their policy on returns. If something doesn’t fit, or you want it returned, Zappos gives the customer 365 days to return the item. Decisions like these have powered Zappos to the top in company culture.
Hsieh talked about the Zappos hiring process — each time Zappos interviews a candidate, Zappos sends a shuttle to the airport to pick up the interviewee. The shuttle driver then will tell the recruiting team what happened in the shuttle so that Zappos can get a better understanding of the interviewee.
Zappos has 10 core vallues that each employee must meet in order to work at Zappos. All 10 of these core values are talked about during the interview process as well. Hsieh mentioned that if employees don’t have the right company culture, they won’t be welcomed in the Zappos culture, so they make sure they hire employees with the right company culture.
In July 2009, Amazon announced their intention to acquired Zappos, which is still waiting for government approval.
Photo by Adam Jackson
Haha come out to Las Vegas and see how well respected Zappos is with the employees.
They get you out here and then BAM play games with you.
Next convention you come out to, hit up some twitter folk who worked for Zappos, and you will see how they really operate.
Don’t forget he owns clothes.com and will speak at the domainfest in jan 2010. Tony never sold a shoe in his life, he sells customer service.
Does Amazon have the same culture?
For anyone who wants a virtual immersion at Zappos, a full tour captured: http://www.fast...s-a-20-company/
dont forget Tony will be speaker at domainfest January 2010. Tony sells customer service not shoes.
“The shuttle driver then will tell the recruiting team what happened in the shuttle so that Zappos can get a better understanding of the interviewee.”
In America, you listen to shuttle driver. In Zappos, shuttle driver listens to you!
“Zappos has 10 core vallues”
Really? Spell-check not available? But seriously, the sixth commandment, I mean vallue, is:
“Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! By spying on your future employees?
Is no one at TechCrunch able to point out the contradictions when they are literally next to each other?
yeah he gave a similar talk at TieCon 09 this year. Pretty impressive
http://socialap...bout-happiness/
its so true Tony’s customer service is unmatched. 365 days to return an item -unheard of.
Ok, So what are the ten core values. Wouldn’t that be pretty helpful information for us?
Hey Hohn,
here Google helped me find Zappos 10 core values
http://about.za...pos-core-values
Also I support the spying mission(Shuttle driver strategy) because when you are talking to your potential employee – you know he/she is acting their best to impress you, which they don’t – to bus drivers! Wise strategy, you can see the persons true self faster this way!
More about culture and service, less about technology. Doing well. For good reason.
Tony is pure awesome, as is the culture he has created at Zappos. I was lucky enough to get Tony to give his advice to entrepreneurs on what they should focus on. The video of that interview is here: http://blog.ads...-ceo-of-zappos/