Instill Some Zappos in Your Business

October 23, 2011 Leave a Comment

Zappos: Delivering "Wow!"

Want to invigorate (or reinvigorate) your business?  Why not take a cue from Zappos.com who sells over $1 Billion worth of merchandise every year.  They are  known as a company that gives great customer service that just happens to sell shoes.

Here’s a list of Zappos’ top 10 ways to instill superior customer service from the book Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose by Tony Hsieh.  (NOTE: my comments are in BLUE)

 1. Make customer service a priority for the whole company.  Every program and service offered should revolve around the customer – not you.

2. Make “wow” a verb that is part of your company’s everyday vocabulary.  Strive to hear your clients say “Wow!”

3. Empower and trust your customer service reps.  The more you empower others, the more time you will have to deliver.

4. Realize that it’s okay to fire customers who are insatiable or abuse your employees.  Stop trying to work with anyone who sucks the life out of your enthusiasm.

5. Don’t measure call times, don’t force employees to upsell and don’t use scripts.  If you help clients to attain their goals – meeting your goals will follow naturally.

6. Don’t hide your 1-800 number.  How easy are you to find?

7. View each call as an investment in building a customer service brand.  Practice SMILING when you pick up the phone.

8. Have the entire company celebrate great service.  Collect client references and share them with others (HINT: you’ll need to ask for them).

9. Find and hire people who are already passionate about customer service.  Only work with vendors who share your passion for service – they are a reflection of you.

10. Give great service to everyone: customers, employees and vendors.  You never know who might be looking for a home in the future.

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The Keys to Success

November 8, 2009 Leave a Comment

Every once in awhile I see, hear or read something from outside of the real estate industry that just strikes a chord with me.  This video was one of them.  Here’s a guy who took a product as simple as soda and turned it into a success for himself.  The twelve minutes that you spend watching this will be worth it’s weight in gold down the line.  Enjoy!

  So what are the lessons to be learned here.  If you want to be a Success, follow these rules:

  1. Be passionate about your job or chosen field of endeavor.  Whether you’re negotiating for your client, chopping wood or parenting, do it with vim and vigor.
  2. Become educated about your product or service.  You should be a sponge that sucks up knowledge so that you become known as the “go to” guy or gal in your field.
  3. Be honest in everything you do.  Continually ask yourself the question when faced with tough decisions, “What’s the right thing to do?”
  4. Provide exceptional customer service.  Anyone can sell you a widget.  But not everyone sells you the widget, delivers it to your home, shows you how it works and follows up to make sure that you’re happy.  Go the extra mile.  It pays off.
  5. Find your niche.  Stop trying to be the best at everything.  In the end, you’ll be good at nothing.

Now that you’ve read this post, go have a cold, banana nut soda.  You deserve it!

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If the Shoe Fits . . .

May 29, 2009 Leave a Comment

Zappos - Powered by service!

Image courtesy of Flickr

I’m going to be right up front and tell you that this post is not about shoes; so if anybody is looking for tips on what kind of shoes go with that black cocktail dress – sorry to disappoint.  I’ve never been mistaken for a fashion consultant anyway.  It’s about a shoe company – Zappos.com.  Zappos is an on-line retailer of shoes that was founded in 1999 and has grown over the past ten years into a business that does over $1 billion in sales.  Over the weekend I read an article about Zappos that blew me away so I thought I’d share the highlights.

In order to understand how Zappos has made such a giant splash in a short period of time, you first have to look at their published core values:

  1. Deliver WOW through service.
  2. Embrace and drive change.
  3. Create fun and a little weirdness. (Imagine GM having this as one of their core values)
  4. Be adventurous, creative and open-minded.
  5. Pursue growth and learning.
  6. Build open and honest relationships with communication.
  7. Build a positive team and family spirit.
  8. Do more with less.
  9. Be passionate and determined.
  10. Be humble.

Now that you’ve read them, take a moment and find one that talks about the product that they sell – Shoes.  Go ahead – I’ll wait – tick – tock – tick – tock – time’s up.  I couldn’t find one either.

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