Zappos: The Perfect Fit
When Nick Swinmurn approached investors with a plan to sell shoes online in 1998, they wouldn't touch him with a 10-foot pole. More than a decade on, Swinmurn's brainchild Zappos.com grosses over US$1 billion annually. The naysayers must be kicking themselves.
One man who took Swinmurn seriously was Tony Hsieh, the current CEO of Zappos. Hsieh, who made his fortune by selling his start-up LinkExchange to Microsoft at the tender age of 24, was initially skeptical. However, Swinmurn convinced him and they founded Shoesite.com, which became Zappos (from the Spanish word for shoes — zapatos). The company moved to Las Vegas in 2004 to avail itself of the city's call centers. Zappos expanded offering handbags, eyewear, clothing and watches. The company's success did not pass unnoticed and late last year it was acquired by Amazon for US$1.2 billion in cash and stock.
Zappos is renowned for its corporate culture. The company espouses what it calls a WOW approach to customer service. Employees are encouraged to be open and honest. If, for example, a product is sold out, they will direct customers to competitors. During a 4-week training program, staff are “untrained” in habits like trying to minimize call times for efficiency. Incredibly, they are offered US$2,000 to quit at the end of training. Hsieh stresses that only 1 percent of people accept the offer.
拆解 Zappos 跌破專家眼鏡的成功術
當尼克‧史溫姆於一九九八年向投資人提出在線上販售鞋子的計畫時，大家都避之唯恐不及。十多年後，史溫姆所創立的 .com 年營收超過十億美元。拒絕其提案的人現在一定都懊悔不已。
有把史溫姆當一回事的人就是Zappos現任的執行長謝家華。在廿四歲稚齡將創辦的公司 LinkExchange 賣給微軟而大賺一筆的謝家華一開始也是抱著懷疑的態度。然而，史溫姆說服了他，兩人創立了 Shoesite.com，也就是後來的 Zappos（Zappos 源自西班牙文 zapatos，即鞋子）。公司在二○○四年遷到拉斯維加斯好利用當地具備優勢的客服中心。 Zappos 接著將商品項目拓展至手提包、眼鏡、服飾與手錶。Zappos 的成功未被忽視，去年底公司以總值十二億美元的現金和股票被亞馬遜收購。
Zappos 以其企業文化聞名。這家公司採用其稱為 WOW 的客服執行方式。公司鼓勵員工展現坦率與真誠。舉例來說，如果一項產品售罄，員工會把顧客轉介紹給競爭對手。且在為期四週的培訓課程中，員工被訓練不要養成試圖減少通話時間以增進效率等習慣。令人難以置信的是，培訓結束後他們還可領到兩千美元的離職金。謝家華強調僅 1% 的人會接受這項提議。
資料來源：biz 互動英語
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