One of our clients has always been about making customers happy. Since we started working with them, they've told us incredible stories about how they've gone far above and beyond the industry norm to make sure their customers are happy. We're in the process of creating a campaign that aligns well with this corporate culture. I'll tell you more about that after it breaks, but I have to tell you about something I discovered while working on it.
While we were putting together this corporate culture based marketing campaign, Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com put out a book about their corporate culture called "Delivering Happiness, A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose." It dovetailed so nicely with what we were doing that we picked up multiple copies for the client and for ourselves to read.
I found the book fascinating. Even though I had heard plenty about Zappos and how they've rode their weird and wonderful corporate culture to big success, hearing the details from Hsieh and his people made for a great story. And I learned a lot that I can use both for our clients and for our own firm. It's an easy read; I read it over the weekend. It starts with how Hsieh's early life lead him to become the business person he is. Then it goes all the way through the struggles to keep Zappos going from a startup to a thriving business.
Any entrepreneur would find great insights that could be used in his or her own business, whether it's a huge corporate firm or a small startup. Hsieh gives solid examples of how looking at things different and making sure not only the customers are happy, but the employees, vendors and investors are all happy too leads to a much more successful business model than one driven by profit. You may even learn a bit about personal fulfillment, too.
But, it's not all touchy-feely, hippie commune mumbo-jumbo. (not that there's anything wrong with that)There is solid business reasoning behind everything they do and analytics to back it up in terms of ROI and other metrics. I highly recommend picking up a copy to read this weekend. It could change how your do business for the better. At the very least, it'll make you think.
Mike McClure, Happy Book Lover and Business Person.
