Why should Zappos spend money to let new employees leave?

I will spend a lot of time visiting the company to understand their ideas and learn from them. Generally, these accesses are just like a horse. There are many such companies that have popular products, fashion styles or soaring stock prices, but they are just a flash. They are doing well in the short term, but they do not matter in the long term.

However, from time to time, I will spend time studying some companies. They have original strategies, uncertain execution, and clear and thorough ideas that can make my brains quickly turn around. Zappos is such a company. Two weeks ago, I went to the Zappos headquarters in Henderson, Nevada, near Las Vegas. I visited the company's CEO Tony Hsieh and his colleagues. What I learned from this outstanding company is a seriesArticle. But here I just want to focus on a small matter. Things are small but small, especially for the gaming rules that want to change the industry, and want employees in the company to be as willing to contribute as they do.

Let me explain the background information first. As we all know, Zappos sells many shoes on the Internet. The company's sales this year are expected to exceed $1 billion, compared to only 70 million five years ago. Zappos's rapid success is partly due to its correct economic and operational initiatives. It gives customers a great choice-4 million pairs of shoes (and other goods such as handbags and clothing), and its warehouse is next to the ups hub in Kentucky. (If Imelda Marcos came to visit the warehouse, she may suffer from coronary heart disease at a Glance .) Zappos also provides free shipping and free return, that is, if you do not like the shoes and pack them back into the shoe box, you can return them back to Zappos without spending a penny.

Therefore, this value proposition is the key to success. But in fact, it is the emotional connection that makes transactions solid. This company has a kind of enthusiasm for excellent services, not only to make customers satisfied, but also to make them overjoyed. The company promises free delivery within four days, which is already good. But most of the time, it was able to arrive the next day, impressed the customers with the surprise: "You said it would take four days, and I will receive the result early the next day ."

Zappos also master the art of telephone services-a black hole for most online sellers. Zappos displays 1-free phone numbers on every page of the website, and its call center's smart and funny operators can decide to do anything that will make you happy. There is no lecture, no time limit, no mechanical behavior, and many legends about Zappos and customers.

This is a personalized company. Many of its 1600 employees are senior Twitter users. Their friends, colleagues, and customers can know what they are doing all the time. But the true meaning is below. Work can be very hard, and every time you receive a customer's phone call, you may need to talk about it for several hours. Therefore, Zappos provides four weeks of training to attract new employees, so that new employees are immersed in the company's strategy, culture, and loyalty to customers. During the training period, employees are paid in full.

About one week after the training began, Zappos was called "Bid. "If you resign today, we will pay your salary based on your work time, and we will also provide a $1000 bonus," the company, which is growing rapidly and is trying to recruit new employees, said ." Zappos is bribing new employees to resign!

Why? Because if you are willing to accept the company's bid, you obviously do not have the dedication they are looking. It is difficult to express the energy in the Zappos culture, which means it is not suitable for everyone. Zappos wants to know the company's values and whether each employee fits in, and it wants to know as soon as possible. (About 10% of new call center employees will take money and leave .)

In fact, CEO Xie Jiahua and his colleagues are continuing to raise the resignation bonus. Starting from $100, and then $500, it may be more than $1000 when the company is bigger (it will be more difficult to maintain all the important culture and loyalty to customers .)

This is a small but profound practice: people who maintain emotional relationships with customers are not the company. If you want to create a memorable company, you have to make the company a memorable person. How can you find the right person for the company? How much are you willing to spend to know the truth?