The Avocado Story and 27 Other Reasons Why Zappos Excels in Customer Experience

… or should I say, Employee Experience? Yes, I’ve been wondering what the title of this blog should be, and I chose “Customer Experience.” Just because I had to choose. If, after reading this blog, you think it should be the other way around, let me know!

January²², 2019. A big day: I was going to visit Zappos. I was excited because I’d heard so much about the company; I follow them on Instagram (@ZapposCulture) and, of course, I’d read the book *Delivering Happiness*. Today, I was going to see it for myself. Would it be a huge hit, or would it be a disappointment? I had no idea, so the excitement was real.

My first impression of the building was a bit of a letdown. The building isn’t exactly a thing of beauty; it used to be Las Vegas City Hall. It’s a building like any other, and they’ve tried to make it look cheerful with some pictures, but to be honest, neither the building nor the square made me feel happy.

A quick aside: I arrived in Las Vegas two days earlier and had plenty of time to stroll around the city. If you’ve ever visited the city or seen some pictures, you know that the Strip, in particular, is a pretty crazy place. A miniature Eiffel Tower, Venetian gondolas—everything you could want for entertainment. My hotel was on the Strip, and I’d brought some crackers with me. Since I’m trying to eat healthy, I was looking for an avocado to spread on my crackers. After walking the Strip for more than two hours, I couldn’t find a single avocado. Yes, I could gamble, drink, eat, and buy souvenirs, but there were no avocados to be found.

Let’s go back to the Zappos experience. When you walk into the building, you’re pleasantly surprised. The colorful Lego wall, the merchandise, the wall telling the company’s story—the whole atmosphere exudes that fun Zappos vibe. Want to get a sense of it?

Megan was my tour guide, and we started with the company’s history. We watched a video highlighting the company’s culture, and saw some examples of amazing employee experiences, like the “snowman prank” and the CEO living in a trailer. It was a preview of the actual tour, where they gave me the Zappos experience. We weren’t able to visit the customer service department, but I saw HR, how the company is organized, their fitness studio (in the former prison), their restaurant, and their Aquarium lounge area. Seriously!

When we passed the square during our tour, I saw a drawing of an avocado in the main square that said “AvocaDO.” I giggled and told Megan that Las Vegas was more of an “AvocaNO” city. I shared my experience of hunting for an avocado, and we laughed together.

As my tour came to an end, I had two interviews with company leaders. I wanted to learn more about customer experience strategies, about listening to customers, and about what it’s like to work at the company. Just as I was about to start my first interview, Megan walked into the room carrying a small bag with two avocados inside. “For you,” she said, handing them to me with a big smile. How about that? That’s how they bring their core value—“Deliver WOW through service”—to life. A simple gesture with a big impact. Zappos truly does deliver WOW.

So, it’s a nice story, and Zappos walks the talk. That gives you a first impression. But what did I learn, and what can you learn from this shoe retailer? I decided to share a list of ideas with you. You can choose for yourself what applies to you—what resonates with you. And I’ll be honest: the longer I write, the more ideas come to mind. So be prepared—sometime this year, I’ll publish a second blog post on this topic ?

1. Choose your values: Zappos has ten core values, and they’re everywhere. Of course, their best-known value is “Deliver Wow through Service.” The other nine are just as important to the employees.
2. Hire the right employees: “It’s easier to get into Harvard than to work at Zappos.” Zappos receives thousands of job applications every six months. They only want the right people to work for them—those who are a good fit for the company and who are motivated.
3. Take time for onboarding: new employees undergo a four-week onboarding and training program, during which they spend three weeks working in the contact center. That goes for everyone. Whether you start in IT or in Accounting, you’ll begin in the contact center so you can get to know your customers and understand what their lives are like.
4. Test whether new employees get it: once a new employee has completed their onboarding, at Zappos that’s when they have to take THE test. This test is crucial, because if you don’t score 90%, you don’t pass and are asked to leave. The test covers culture and values, computer systems, and how to conduct yourself on the phone.
5. Give new employees a choice: once they’ve completed their onboarding, they’re offered a month’s salary to leave the company. Yes, you read that right. If you stay, you don’t get it. They only want people who truly want to work for Zappos.
6. The 10-hour rule during the holiday season. Everyone has to help out at the contact center for ten hours. Everyone. EVERYONE. Sorry for the bold text, but this is magic. It’s already magical when IT colleagues actually listen in some companies, but Zappos takes it to the next level.
7. Recognize employees and the number of years they've worked for you: for every five years you work at Zappos, you receive a nameplate in a specific color. The first five years is blue, five to ten is red, and so on. These nameplates are displayed at the desks, so you can see who works there and how long they've been with Zappos.
8. Serendipitous Collisions: The Zappos building has ten floors; on one floor, there are drinks, and on another, there are snacks. So people have to move around to get a drink or something to eat. In doing so, they meet people from other departments, and they hang out together.
9. Earn business money. Zappos has its own currency system: Zollars. Yes, where dollars and Zappos meet. You can earn Zollars in several ways and spend them the Zappos way.
10. Zappos Merchandise: Not only can you buy Zappos merchandise as a visitor, but they also have their own little Zappos store for employees, offering everything from T-shirts to bicycles—all Zappos-branded, of course. Here, you can spend the Zollars you’ve earned.
11. Co-working Bonus Program: Employees can award colleagues a bonus of 50 Zollars for doing nice things for one another, or for providing outstanding customer service.
12. Department of Celebration: for any occasion worth celebrating, from birthdays to weddings. At Zappos, they have a catalog where you can order everything you need to celebrate. For example, you can order balloons with a card, and they’ll be delivered to the desk of the person being celebrated.
13. Add some fun to the IVR: when you call Zappos, you can choose to either press one to speak with a representative or two to hear the joke of the day. My goodness, I love this one.
14. Organize fitness: At Zappos, they have their own fitness studio (in a former prison—so funny!) and they also offer yoga and boxing classes. You earn points that you can spend at a special Zfit store.
15. Tech Support: Zappos has a special help desk in the cafeteria. You can bring your laptop there, and they'll make sure you're back on track as soon as possible.
16. Incorporate values into annual reviews: as an employee, you’re asked to rate yourself on the core values, and your peers will also rate you. You can choose the core values that best suit you, because you don’t have to rate all ten.
17. Stimulate change: At Zappos, there is an investor board made up of investors who help employees with ideas. These investors provide employees with funding to develop their ideas.
18. Support employees as entrepreneurs: at Zappos, they have a program called “48 Hour Founders.” Employees can pitch their ideas (like on *Shark Tank*) to a group, and when an idea is selected, they develop it with colleagues and a business coach. In 48 hours, they’ll refine their idea and pitch it to the Investor Board.
19. Team Building: Every month, employees receive a budget of 50 dollars to go out and have fun. Plan the activity yourself and foster a sense of teamwork and family. You can also save up the money for a couple of months to do something more elaborate.
20. Family time: Once every quarter, a family movie night is organized for employees and their families. So, the focus isn't just on the employees—their families are involved as well.
21. Measure because, as you know, HR surveys employees every quarter to gauge how they’re feeling and to identify areas for improvement. The findings are shared with everyone via company email. And HR always follows up on the actions taken.
22. Shadowing: If an employee is curious about another role in the company, they can shadow a colleague in that role for two days to learn what the job entails. During my tour, a colleague from the Customer Service department shadowed Megan to learn about being a tour guide.
23. A constant focus on customer interaction: Everyone at Zappos understands that every interaction matters. This means that the focus is almost intentionally on the customer in that moment. There are no average call handling times or other internal metrics that could undermine the connection.
24. Quality assurance: Zappos has a dedicated team that listens in on live calls to learn and provide advice and suggestions to agents. The focus is on learning, improvement, and customer satisfaction.
25. Values and the floors: there are ten floors and ten values. They assigned one value to each floor. This is visible and serves as a subtle connection.
26. Focus on making it effortless: managers and team leaders are committed to making it as easy as possible to live out the core values. Employees should be able to put these values into practice as easily as possible.
27. Create photo opportunities on your premises: since we're in the Instagram era and people love taking pictures, help them out by creating beautiful spots for photos. I love this spot at Zappos where they've painted unicorn wings.

This is my special gift, just for YOU! Idecided to create an e-zine about the most important lessons learned. Keep in mind that Zappos focuses on Employee Experience to enhance Customer Experience. Interesting! Download this visually appealing e-zine and decide for yourself: which lessons are most applicable to your organization? What resonates with you? I’m very curious to know which lessons inspire you the most. Please feel free to send me an email with your insights!

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