Customer Service — Kudos To Zappos
September 5, 2008
On the bottom of Zappos, an online retailer, website is a random display of one of their ten core values. When you click on it, you see a full display of all ten values.
Note the number one item “Deliver WOW Through Service”. An interesting, and on its face, a laudable statement. Ah, but do they really deliver WOW customer service? Many companies boast of superior customer service. Based on a recent purchase made by my son, the answer for Zappos is a resounding Yes.
The incident involved my son entering incorrect order information. He realized this when the order was received. He contacted Zappos customer service and was told to sent the item back and they paid postage. The correct item was sent by overnight delivery at no cost.
This would have been enough, but a few days later he received a post card with a hand written note.
I knew about Zappos but I wanted to learn more. I found an interesting commentary about them on Harvard Business Publishing - Discussion Leaders (access video). In fact they have an interesting customer service approach –
This company is fanatical about great service—not just satisfying customers, but amazing them. The company promises free, four-day delivery. That’s pretty good. But most of the time it delivers next-day service, a surprise that leaves a lasting impression on customers: “You said four days, but I got them the next morning.”
Zappos has also mastered the art of telephone service—a black hole for most Internet retailers. Zappos publishes its 1-800 number on every single page of the site—and its smart and entertaining call-center employees are free to do whatever it takes to make you happy. There are no scripts, no time limits on calls, no robotic behavior
But there is more. Zappos “bribes” new employees to quit. After about one week on the job Zappo’s offers the new employee pay earned plus $1000 (USD) to quit. WHY?
Because if you’re willing to take the company up on the offer, you obviously don’t have the sense of commitment they are looking for. It’s hard to describe the level of energy in the Zappos culture—which means, by definition, it’s not for everybody. Zappos wants to learn if there’s a bad fit between what makes the organization tick and what makes individual employees tick—and it’s willing to pay to learn sooner rather than later. (About ten percent of new call-center employees take the money and run.)
Brilliant!
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Zappos Employees as Brand Champions
September 5, 2008
Zappos.com is an online shopping site that sells clothes, shoes, gift items and more. It’s a site and company that has quickly gained a reputation for being a great place to shop online. According to an article in Advertising Age this week, Zappos.com executives attribute the vast majority of that success to word-of-mouth marketing and leveraging employees as brand champions.
The company even publishes a 300-page Zappos Culture Book each year that is jam-packed with stories from employees about how much they enjoy working at Zappos and what the Zappos culture means to them. And these aren’t just the canned responses you usually read in annual reports. These stories are heartfelt. Read more
Bashing Business Schools, What To Do
September 4, 2008
In my book “Simple Stories for Leadership Insights”, which was published in late 2005, I expressed a criticism of business schools –
This Business School-Media-Corporate complex seems to have engaged in a group think of enormous proportions—professors, consultants, journalists, students and executives all feeding on their own diets of best practices, theories and what defines leadership.
- Business schools taught Ethics as a sideline.
- Many companies have lofty Mission Statements and Operating Practices statements that address ethics, but do little to enforce them.
- Journalists give interviews to glitzy executives who brag about what they are doing to improve profits.
- Executives courted Wall Street analysts who might improve their stock ratings.
Earlier that year, leadership doyen Warren Bennis (one of today’s most influential leadership thought leaders) and James O’Toole published their critique of business schools –
Too focused on “scientific” research, business schools are hiring professors with limited real-world experience and graduating students who are ill equipped to wrangle with complex, unquantifiable issues in other words, the stuff of management. “How Business Schools Lost Their Way”, Harvard Business Review May 2005
You would think that by 2008 business schools would get the message, but Peter Navarro, business professor at the University of California at Irvine, wrote in the April 22, 2008 issue of BusinessWeek
The more things change in the global business environment, the more U.S. business schools stay the same.
He chronciled the results of his survey of the curricula of the top 50 U.S. business schools–
“…three major features of the ideal MBA curriculum—”…soft skill development, corporate social responsibility, and a global perspective—continue to get short shrift.” Leadership courses are also not featured and graduates are typically placed in leadership positions. This is troubling to business since many companies indicate they have significant gaps in their leadership pipeline.
SOME SOLUTIONS
There is an organization that is trying address the business schools shortcomings in the soft skills. It is the Aspen Institute and their innovative website BeyondGreyPinstripes, “Through dialogues and path-breaking research, we create opportunities for executives and educators to explore new pathways to sustainability and values-based leadership.” Business School deans should visit Aspen’s Teaching Innovation Program “Members of the network are each seeking to build the capacity of today’s MBA students to navigate the complex social, environmental, and ethical challenges of business.”
Additional suggestions to improve business schools curricula–
- Go to BeyondGreyPinstripes and do a search on Ethics, you will find many articles, syllabi and references on how to teach Ethics
- Visit some of our posts such as Watch Movies, Learn Leadership movies combined with case studies are an excellent way to teach leadership skills
- Another of our posts Why Business Needs The Arts describes how the liberal and performing arts are used by companies to deal with a variety of issues.
- Learn about how Babson added creativity to its MBA curriculum.
- A best practice is corporate-university collaboration.
Business schools no longer have a monopoly in business education. There are an increasing number of competitors. If business schools are to remain relevant they must adapt to the future otherwise–
If you don’t take the future sufficiently into account, may find that you wake up one day and are.
- In the railroad business instead of the transportation business
- In the music industry instead of the digital music industry
- Selling SUVs in a Hybrid world
- Obsolete
How Universities Can Transform and Adapt to a Changing Higher Education Environment , Peter J.Stokes, Ph.D. Eduventures, Inc.
Summary Information on Company Investor Pages
September 3, 2008
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently put forth some guidance for publicly traded companies with respect to summary financial information posted on the company’s website. While earlier topics covered from this release (here and here) required some rooting around in the details and language for full understanding, the concepts put forth by the SEC here are simpler. Indeed, the comments regarding the posting of summary information span just three and half pages of the 47 page document.
Using Summary Information
The SEC in some cases actually requires the inclusion of a summary in certain filings or prospectuses in order to highlight important information that could otherwise be lost within the lengthy pages of details, boilerplate, and disclaimers that make up such documents. The SEC further notes that summaries are particularly appropriate when information provided is either long or complex.
So, it comes as no surprise that the SEC does not oppose, and in fact encourages, the use of such summaries on a company web site as well. The key issue, however, is that such a summary must not give any indication of being complete information. In other words, a summary published in such a way that a reasonable investor might believe he is reading the complete report or filing, is unacceptable. While most IR sites and their staff’s have no intention of misleading investors into thinking that they are reading anything other than a summary, just how to go about properly posting such information comes down to a few easy sign posts that can be marked by the IR staff.
First, while documenting that the information on the web site is a summary either in the title of the document itself, or via accompanying text on the IR site, is a natural first step, the SEC suggests taking the next step and providing a guide to where the full information is located. For the IR professional looking for best practices, such information should be linked both within the document’s web presence itself, and at the point of entry. For example, if a summary of a complex financial transaction is made available from a web page via a link, a corresponding link to the full information should be included as well. Such a link should be coded and positioned in such a way as to be obviously related to the link to the summary information. Further, at the end of the summary itself, should be something along the lines of:
“This summary provides an overview. The complete report can be found here.”
In this way, the IR site both makes clear to the investor that the information is a summary AND provides unfettered access to the full documentation.
Layered or Tiered Information
The SEC is a proponent of presenting information, not just on company web sites, in a format in which the most important summary or overview is presented first. Within that summary or overview, directions to more detailed information would be included at the appropriate points. Thus, an overview that included summary explanations of three concepts would also include the means with which to find further details on those three topics. In published materials, such pointers would take the form of something like, “For more information, see page 173.” On an IR web site, obviously, these pointers would take the form of “For more information, click here.” Indeed, the argument could be made that simply telling someone where the additional details could be found might be insufficient without a direct link. This raises the issue for IR professionals to carefully review material that is being published to ensure that when appropriate, actual links are added or substituted for the existing “go here” directive from print materials.
Depending upon how a company publishes such materials, the difficulty may rest in having the link not only send the user to the right web page, but also the right location on that web page. For example, an overview which mentions stock option compensation and has a link to more details would be much less effective if by clicking the link, the investor simply arrived at the top of a lengthy web page about all aspects of executive compensation.
IR Action Items
The information and guidance from the SEC in regards to providing summary information on a company web site is hardly earth shaking. None the less, it does provide some sign posts for the savvy IR professional.
First, don’t leave summary information out there on its own. Just because it was a previously approved publication doesn’t mean that it belongs front and center on your IR page without any context.
Second, always provide clearly marked and easily accessible links to the detailed information from which any summary or overview is drawn.
Third, always review any such summary or overview for references to additional materials that may have been appropriate for the printed version, but may not be ideal for an on line version. Most importantly, if an item is referenced, make sure it is made available in some form via the same web site that the summary and overview are available from.
Brands that Dominate the Web According to BusinessWeek and You
September 3, 2008
BusinessWeek conducts a survey each year to find the Best of the Web. This year’s survey is going on right now, and you can vote on your favorite web site, blog, social network, podcast, news site, business news site, and much more. There are 25 categories to vote on and one open ended question, “Who holds most sway over the direction of all things Web?”
While I don’t agree with many of the choices given in the survey, it’s still interesting to take a look at the choices in each category. Take a few minutes to check out which brands are included in the 2009 survey, then take a moment to think about what you have to do to get your brand’s website or blog included in this survey next year. Read more