“Delivering happiness.” That is the brilliantly simple and
effective organizational concept developed by Tony Hsieh, founder and CEO of Zappos.com, an online retailer that specializes in “fast, free
shipping on all orders.” It also just happens to be the title of his 2010 New
York Times best selling book.
In this video presentation hosted by
WordOfMouth.org, Tony describes how “delivering happiness” can apply to a
company’s customer service priorities as well as its internal company culture.
His general point is that if the focus of an organization is on making people
happy and not so much on the bottom line, the bottom line will take care of
itself.
So, what makes people (employees or customers) happy? According
to Hsieh's presentation, happiness is about
perceived control, perceived progress, perceived connectedness, and the sense
of being a part of something bigger than yourself.
In a nutshell, a great deal of the success of Zappos.com is attributable to the fact that company management
attempts to make both employees and customers feel happy. Like they are in
control of their careers or their purchases, as if they are making progress
towards a promotion or a discount incentive, feel a sense of connection with a
company and common community that is greater than themselves.
The company believes so strongly in the concept that they
built happiness-related statements into their core values. Taking it a step
further, the company makes these core values 50% of their hiring and firing
process. According to Hsieh, that is the only way to create true alignment
between what a company says it will do and what it actually does.
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