Zappos and delivering happiness

Zappos is a company that prides itself on providing the best customer service possible. The philosophy is to deliver happiness to every customer; they are even willing to direct customers to other websites that offer lower prices. This is because they know that, even though they may have lost a sale, providing a good customer experience will lead to one potential customer telling their friends about their positive experience. Having good customer service builds competitive advantage because customers are likely to remember the positive experience they had when speaking to a customer service representative. The customers, in turn for being treated well, respect and trust the company by recommending it to family and friends. This is an excellent example of increasing returns.

Delivering happiness is also ingrained in Zappos's culture. They want employees to be compatible with the company culture and employ their employees based on the compatibility of the culture, regardless of job performance. (You can learn more about their culture at Zappos's website.)

Some of their philosophies are based on books they have read such as Good to Great by Jim Collins and Tribal Leadership. They have a library at Zappos where they give books to employees. This is one way that Zappos is helping further educate their employees on some of the company's underlying philosophy. They also offer customers access to the Zappos Library, a further way to build customer relations and be innovative at the same time.