To step lively and fashionably
You don't necessarily have to leave home for a shoe store anymore
Not when an online retailer is walking all over conventional wisdom in the shoe business
Our cover story is reported by Aaron Moriarity. A forty-eight hours
What if once a year, your company holds a Bald and Blue Day
If you wanna show company spirit
You can either shave your hair or dye it blue
And imagine if one of the people shaving his head is your boss
You're not nervous at all, shaving the boss
Must be special if you can hold the blade to the CEO’s head
Welcome to the rather wacky world of Zappos.com
[Laughter]
It's an online shoe and merchandise company
Where business as usual is anything but
I like it
At a time when many retailers are struggling
Zappos derived from the Spanish word for shoes ZAPATOS is thriving
Thanks in part to a unique company culture
And its 36-year-old CEO, Tony Hsieh
Our whole belief is that everyone's a little weird somehow
And so it's really more just a fun way saying that
We really want people's true personalities to shine in the workplace
Tony Hsieh so believes he's learned how to create both passion and profits
That he's outlined his philosophy in Delivering Happiness
The book is another way to help spread the message that
It's possible to actually make employees happy
Make customers happy and still make investors happy
And you know, and still have profits
He's not kidding
Zappos is now so successful
The last fall, Amazon paid 1.2 billion dollars to acquire it
Tony Hsieh, who works out of a cubicle and earns as CEO less than thirty seven thousand dollars a year
Never imagined he would one day run a shoe store
I'm not a shoe person at all...Um, I used to wear one pair shoes for two years
Until there're holes and then it was falling apart and then buy another pair
In fact, as the oldest of three boys growing up in California
Hsieh was supposed to be a doctor or at least that's what his parents had in mind
I think their mindset was you know, the goal of childhood is to get into college
And then the goal of college is to eventually get into grad school
So that you could put a PhD or MD at the end of your signature
Hsieh was also expected to master music
And one instrument was not enough
I ended up playing piano, violin, trumpet, French horn
But even at that early age, he showed a flair for doing things his own way
To avoid practicing every day
Hsieh would lock himself in his bedroom and play recorded tapes of himself on the piano
His mother only learned about his deception
When she recently read about it in his book
My mom had an interesting rant
She was like Oh, I know that part about you
I recorded the piano like I know that didn't really happen, you just wrote it to make it a better start
After graduating from Harvard, naturally
Hsieh joined the dot-com craze
In 1998, he sold an online venture----Link Exchange to Microsoft
And walked away with over thirty million dollars
He was just 24
And then Hsieh decided to invest in a tiny internet startup
I really miss being part of building something
So within a year, ended up trying full-time at Zappos, I've been with Zappos ever since
But selling shoes on the internet presented a particular challenge
People were used to trying on shoes before buying them
Purchasing online meant customers had to take a risk
So the challenge is how do you get customers to try out Zappos for the first time
So Zappos began offering something very few other companies do
Free shipping and free returns for up to a year
It worked
And while many companies cut cost by outsourcing their call center overseas
Zappos center is in Las Vegas
Where the operators are all members of something called the customer loyalty team
You're very welcome, Monica! Have a great day
We view our call center as a branding opportunity
Every... Every phone call is a branding opportunity
Every operator's giving discretion to do what it takes to make a customer happy
Hey! You have a fabulous trip and um...I don't know, blow a kiss at the Eiffel Tower for me. [Laughter]
So there are no plan scripts, no time limit the phone calls
As we discovered when we called last month
Thank you for calling Zappos. This is Christi. How can I help you
Um, Christi. I'm looking for a good summer shoe
I went on and on and on for more than 20 minutes and never did buy a pair of shoes
I do remember your phone call
27-year-old Christi Martin was on the other end of the call
And worried she had disappointed me
Sometimes it's hard to direct people if they don't know what they want
So you'll let someone prattle on as long as they want?
Yes. Pretty much [Laughter]
Did you remember which actor's in this movie at the boots
Another operator patiently work with the customer
Trying to find a pair of boot she saw on a lifetime television movie
Is it on YouTube
Christ in the dark. I'll watch it
I'll watch it with you and we're gonna find something out here
But Zappos isn't just about making customers happy
Hsieh is determined to make his 1,400 employees happy as well
We want all employees to really think of their work here not as a job
Or not...Not as a career or something to build their career
But really as a calling to something a place where they want to be (at) for life
Along with full medical insurance, there are free meals
Feel like singing
Wanna pinball break
We found happy employees everywhere
Even at the Kentucky warehouse
Where many have what would seem to be physically exhausting and mind-numbing jobs
Like shoe picker Mandy Rager, who came to Zappos three years ago
A friend of mine told me about it and she suggested that I should check it out
And I was like Ewww. I was skeptical
And I'm like yeah right, no place is that great you know, that's why they call it work
So... But then I got here and I realize you know, you work hard but you know, the reward you gets greater than that
The company is so determined to get dedicated workers
That it will test their loyalty by offering them money to quit
Christi Martin started work right before Christmas
Turned down three thousand dollars
Where else you are gonna find a job that's as good as this and especially in this economy
You know, a job that's gonna take care of you
That senses scurity as well as company benefits seem to matter more than the salaries
Which are on par with Zappos competitors
I think a lot of it boils down to empowerment
Employees at Zappos feel empowered
Stephanie Mehta is Executive Editor at Fortune magazine
Which for two years running, has put Zappos.com on its list of best companies to work for
They feel respected, they feel as though they have the ability to make decisions on their own
But to an outsider, all these really happy people in one place, all willing to shave their heads for the company
It can be a little off putting
There is a risk with having so many optimistic like-minded people
All working on the same project
And Stephanie made a wonder if happy employees are always a good thing for a company as it continues to grow
One does wonder if they are getting the full range of perspectives including customer perspectives
If everybody is so um...cheerful
But Tony Hsieh is not bothered by the criticism
When you have the little Zs on people's cheek, you could understand why people would say
Ooh, it feels a little cult-like
You mean, that's not normal
[Laughter]
His hoping is only a matter of time
Before other companies follow his example
Ultimately we believe that it's making the world a better place
[Laughter & Music]