Loading...Web 2.0 Summit 08: Tony Hsieh (Zappos.com)
- Hsieh ran a Pizza business in college.
- He started Link exchange after college with the same partner, and grew it to a 100 employees.
- They sold it to Microsoft for $260 Million
- The money was put into web companies
- Zappos was one of the most promising of these.
- They are known as an online retailer.
- They sell footwear, clothing and handbags.
- They focus on customer service and the customer experience
- They look to Virgin for inspiration.
- They have 9 million customers (3% of Us population has bought from them)and focus on repeat customers.
- In the last 10 years, they have grown to 1 billion in gross sales.
- Customers who order regular are often upgraded to surprise overnight upgrades, etc.
- This creates the WOW experience.
- The 1-800 number is on every page of the website as they want to talk to customers.
- The telephone is one of the best branding devices available.
- They do not have scripts, or try to cut down on calls.
- The #1 priority of the company is culture. Everything else, they believe will fall into place.
- With the web making companies transparent, they believe that culture and brand are two sides of the same coin.
- They do all they can to make the culture scale.
- They have two rounds of interviews, one technical and the other a culture fit.
- All employees are put through the same training.
- They given $2000 to leave the company and the time they spent in the company.
- Only 2-3% leave.
- They have a culture book organized by categories.
- People are fired if they are not a culture fit.
- Culture is defined as 'commitable' 10 core values.
- Zappos also offers field trips with the company for other companies like Lego and South West.
