Using company culture to wow your customers

Ahmed Al Akber takes a tour of the US online fashion retailer Zappos and discovers how a company culture can wow customers.

I visited the Zappos head office in Las Vegas recently, an experience that was nothing short of an amazing and eye-opening. Never have I witnessed a company culture where people just seem happy and thriving.

Zappos is an online store selling shoes, clothing, handbags and accessories. Unfortunately, they only operate in the United States.

I've been following the company since I read Delivering Happiness by the company's chief executive, Tony Hsieh, a few years ago. I knew it offered a guided tour of its head office in Las Vegas, and other friends who have visited the city recommended it as a great exposure to what a healthy corporate culture feels like. So the minute my ticket was booked to fly to Las Vegas for a business conference, my Zappos Tour Experience was booked too. Here's what I learnt from the online retailer's workplace:

Culture is everything

If you can build a culture where everyone that is touched by your business gets an amazing experience, then you can go on to achieve amazing things.

Zappos does this by having a set of ten values that are espoused everywhere in the organisation. Employees seem very happy there, and they have customer stories that would surprise you.

Our very passionate tour guide, Ryo Zsun, is the “culture maestro” and a former call centre operative. He explained that his longest call with a customer was more than four hours long. The customer just wanted to speak about her problems – they weren’t necessarily anything to do with Zappos, but she just wanted talk, so he just listened. He ended up sending her a postcard and gift to top it off.

What this does is build up a lot of brand equity with customers, so they look to Zappos as a place that delivers what it calls “wow” service and in turn say positive things to others about it. Others hear about these positive experiences, and because they are tired with the typical experiences that other companies and industries provide them, they are happy to use Zappos.

Live a little more at work

Work does not need to be the uptight, rigid place I’ve been so used to after spending 10 years working for conventional Fortune 500 companies.

I couldn’t believe what I saw there – from toys to ping pong tables and a mini golf course, open-plan offices for everyone including the chief executive, graffiti art on walls and a ball pit used for meetings. It has canteens where drinks and food is subsidised or free, a mothering room for mothers (or fathers), and concierge services to employees who need help with other aspects of their life.

It has a goals department, complete with an in-house life coach who helps employees achieve important things in their life beyond just work. The well-equipped gym is used during work hours, not necessarily before or after. Musical instruments are on every floor.

Employees in the call centre (the biggest department in the company) have performance metrics that are linked to qualitative targets, not quantitative. People say hi, wave and even stop what they are doing to talk as you walk by.

The company’s mantra seems to be “help employees to be happy. Then they’ll make customers and vendors happy”.

And that can only be good for business. The growth shows it – Zappos was acquired by Amazon in 2009 for more than US$1 billion and consistently grows year-on-year.

Learning from others is extremely important

I noticed many books piled on the desks. Even the chief executive Mr Hsieh’s desk (a cubicle similar to everyone else’s) was littered with books. There is a recommended reading list and a book hall of fame, where the best books that have inspired the culture are listed and framed. The company invests in developing its employees, and employees grow in the company as their skills develop. So as employees read books, take courses and complete new projects, their salaries and responsibilities grow. Imagine if your company had employees that were focused on constantly developing themselves to be the best they could be – what would that mean to your sales or to the success of your company?

Zappos has been amazingly successful and is seen by many as a maverick in its industry. If you are looking to learn from a company that has the kind of culture many would envy, then I highly recommend learning from Zappos. Its Las Vegas office has different tour packages that you can book with friends or colleagues. If that's not possible, read Delivering Happiness by Mr Hsieh, which outlines the organisational culture and how the company was started and grew.

Ahmed Al Akber is the managing director of ACK Solutions, a firm that helps companies improve their marketing and sales ­results