Zappos

I read an article today on Harvard Business Publishing blogs about Zappos, the online shoe seller. Actually, Zappos says that they are a service company that happens to sell shoes.

This is the kind of company that I like to think I would create. Some of the company policies that I particularly like:

• Under-promise and over-deliver. They promise 4 day free shipping, but often deliver overnight. (they set up their warehouse near a UPS distribution hub)
• Put the company toll-free phone number on every page of the website. Love it. It sounds trivial, but most companies deliberately bury or exclude their phone number from websites, so that they don't have to talk with customers.
  
• Empower customer service agents on the phone to do what it takes to help customers
• Fanatical focus on customer service.
• Don't just satisfy customers, amaze them
  
• "Bribe" new employees to quit after the 4-week company training and 1 week on the job. The idea is that if they will take the $1000 offer to leave the company, they aren't bought in to the company vision, so you don't want them working there. $1000 is well spent to weed out those who aren't going to help you win.
  

I am inspired by this company. It will be fascinating to see if they can retain the culture as the company grows larger, and to see how they pull that off if successful.