So, Zappos.com sent me a free culture book…

So, Zappos.com  just sent me a free 2009 culture book…  To share how great company cultures create valuable brands, I thought I’d share  Zappos.com as a premiere example.

Zappos.com is an amazingly successful on-line “shoe” retailer. They reached $1billion in sales in only 9 years and they were recently purchased by Amazon for $850M.  Zappos fully embraces being a service company as the driver of their culture and are known for incredible customer service.  Their tagline?  Zappos.com – Powered by Service.

In researching this iconic company,  I stumbled into their new website which actually now sells … their culture.   “Fill out your information so we can send you a FREE Culture Book.”

 It looked like a nice book. As phone/email were optional, I clicked “submit” to get to the next screen to pay for shipping and – “Thanks! Your book is on the way!” Really?   When that 3 lb “no shipping” envelope arrived, the book was open in seconds.  It turns out that Zappos feels so strongly about their culture that every year they publish this book, which is written by leadership, employees, trade partners and customers.

Key Take-Away: The quote on page 2  is priceless in any business –or personal- relationship.  For those in business of selling new homes, it may inspire your approach to sales, customer service/ warranty, construction, marketing, acquisition and  internal communication.  

“People may not remember exactly what you did… or what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel.  – Tony paraphrasing various authors”

So how did I FEEL?   Candidly… it felt like Christmas morning in my office with the easiest and most interesting FREE thing I ever got.  Will I remember Zappos.com for this feeling? Definitely.  But it’s more than this Book that’s making me want to buy from Zappos.  It’s how easy it was to buy shoes. It’s how they assured me the $400+ order from my stolen credit card was stopped by their security.  It’s everything I see, read and hear about Zappos.com, which is all consistent with my personal experience that is driving my desire to buy from them and refer friends.

Without all the teams at Zappos.com focused on service as part of their culture, would they have such a valuable brand today?  Probably not. 

So very worth a visit: http://www.zapposinsights.com