Going Beyond (Our Third and Final Look at "Delivering Happiness," by Tony Hsieh)
This is the third and final part of our discussion of Delivering Happiness, by Tony Hsieh.
Service That WOWs Translates to Great Marketing
Tony Hsieh often talks about a concept he calls WOW. (In fact, it’s Zappos' first core value, Deliver WOW Through Service). Here’s how he defines it:
To WOW, you must differentiate yourself, which means do something a little unconventional and innovative. You must do something that’s above and beyond what’s expected. And whatever you do must have an emotional impact on the receiver.
I love it. Creating WOW moments Building a great company is about delivering positive "emotional impact." Leadership in the marketplace today is more than just goods and services and a clever marketing jingle. It's about connecting with your customers in a truly meaningful way. It's about setting their goals at the core of your business.
It's not traditional, but it can be win-win. (The Zappos deal is just one example.)
Free Shipping Both Ways
Look at every interaction as an opportunity to WOW your customer. There are things your customers need. Things they want. And then there are things that go beyond all that. That's the Zappos model. That's WOW.
For instance, at Zappos, shipping is free both ways. The policy isn't intended just to hook the customer, it's to WOW them into a loyal relationship. Sure, the costs are high, but Hsieh rationalizes that quite easily:
The additional shipping costs are expensive for us, but we really view those costs as a marketing expense.
Now, most companies might find the free shipping model a satisfactory WOW experience. But is this really going beyond all possible expectations? Not for Zappos. It also upgrades frequent customers with free overnight shipping—ya gotta love a company like this.
Going Beyond Goes Beyond
Great customer service doesn’t merely translate into friends sharing experiences with friends. As time went on, stories about "the Zappos way" popped up on popular blogs and even in the mainstream media. And none of it was scheduled. It was all organic. And it all took Hsieh and his team by (pleasant) surprise.
Every once in a while, a reporter or popular blogger would pick up on something that we were doing, and the story would spread like wildfire. We were as surprised as anyone else by the publicity because it was never planned for on our end.
We learned a great lesson: If you just focus on making sure that your product or service continually WOWs people, eventually the press will find out about it. You don't need to put a lot of effort into reaching out to the press if your company naturally creates interesting stories as a by-product of delivering a great product or experience.
Conclusion
Treat every customer interaction as an engagement critical to the long-term health of your business, and find every opportunity to overwhelm customers with excellence. Keep in mind that WOW moments resound long after the actual experience and do more to build your brand than any traditional marketing effort ever could.
Yup, Hsieh and Zappos have set a high bar. We think you should set a similar one.
Posted by 