I am going to recommend “Delivering Happiness: A Path To Profits, Passion, And Purpose,” by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh. I received my copy of the book free of charge from the publicist. There is a lot of hype surrounding this book, so admittedly I had very high expectations. This is a good book for sure, but it’s not a great one. I liked “Employees First, Customers Second,” better as a CEO’s inside look at the transformation of his company.
Tony has a very engaging writing style. Although he is clearly extremely intelligent and talented, he tells his personal story and the story of building Zappos with others in a very simple sincere way. Tony might come off as goofy at times, but he did not to me come off as arrogant. This is a guy any of us would be lucky to work with or for.
For me, the book really took off at about page 130, when Tony began to describe in more detail the brand, culture, and people of Zappos. Two things that really impressed me were his list of 10 ways to instill customer service into your company, and the 10 core values of Zappos.
10 Ways to Instill Customer Service into Your Company (p. 147)
1. Make customer service a priority for the whole company, not just a department. A customer service attitude needs to come from the top.
2. Make WOW a verb that is part of your company’s everyday vocabulary.
3. Empower and trust your customer service reps. Trust that they want to provide great service…because they actually do. Escalations to a supervisor should be rare.
4. Realize that it’s okay to fire customers who are insatiable or abuse your employees.
5. Don’t measure call times, don’t force employees to upsell, and don’t use scripts.
6. Don’t hide your 1-800 number. It’s a message not just to your customers, but to your employees as well.
7. View each call as an investment in building a customer service brand, not as an expense you’re seeking to minimize.
8. Have the entire company celebrate great service. Tell stories of WOW experiences to everyone in the company.
9. Find and hire people who are already passionate about customer service.
10. Give great service to everyone: customers, employees, and vendors.
10 Core Values of the Zappos Culture (p. 154)
1. Deliver WOW thorough service
2. Embrace and drive change
3. Create fun and a little weirdness
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
That’s great stuff and entirely consistent with my philosophy at Positive Organizational Behavior. Tony’s description of these core values and the hyper-focus on customer service at Zappos make the book worth your time to read.
I actually think this book is more valuable for aspiring entrepreneurs and young managers than for CEO types. If you are a mid to upper level manager in a company that does not already embrace some of these values, you are going to have a difficult time applying any of this. If you like this stuff, my advice is to find a Zappos like company to work for.
But if you are a young entrepreneur you have a chance to build something new and unique that’s limited only by the stuff between our ears. If you get a chance to build a company from the ground up, then do it right. Tony’s insight as a young entrepreneur building two companies is extremely valuable.
I have to be honest, even though I loved the philosophy, there were times when I found myself skimming quickly through sections of the book just to get finished. And the last chapter of the book on delivering happiness just didn’t work for me. But this is a good book; one that I’m happy to recommend.
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