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"This post is co-authored by Soren Gordhamer, author of Wisdom 2.0: Ancient Secrets for the Creative and Constantly Connected, and Paul Zelizer, author of Money Makeover 2.0: 5 Steps to Financial Well-being in Today's Economy.  \nMost Mashable readers have probably heard of the online retail company, Zappos. You may have learned of them via Twitter and count yourself among the 400,000+ people that follow the CEO, Tony Hsieh (pronounced Shay but who people refer to as Tony), or from a friend after she had one of the best customer experiences in her life.\nNo matter how you heard of them, we wager to guess that you did so through word-of-mouth. And word about Zappos has been spreading. . . . They did $3 million dollars in gross sales the day before our recent visit, and surpassed $1 billion last year. They are one of the companies forging a new era of business that emphasizes, in their words, \u201Cmaking personal and emotional connections.\u201D\nWe visited Zappos recently, initially planning to have an hour with Tony and ended up spending the entire afternoon there interviewing not only Tony, but the in-house coach, the help desk coordinator, and many others. Once in the Zappos universe, we wanted to know, \u201CWhat are they doing that is working? Why do they have a brand that is so well respected?\u201D And, \u201CWhy does it feel so damn good to hang out with these people?\u201D \nBelow are some of the lessons we gleaned from our time there.\n1. Your relationships are your brand\nThe first lesson was on how much they emphasize quality interactions, whether it is engaging with someone on their blog, Twitter, or a vendor. In fact, from their perspective, every interaction impacts how people view their company. \n\n\n\n\nTony put it this way, \u201CBrand building today is so different than what it was 50 years ago. 50 years ago you could get a few marketing people in a small room and decide, \u2018this is what our brand will be\u2019, and then spend a lot of money on TV advertising \u2014 and that was your brand. If you as a consumer only had your neighbors to talk to, you had to believe what the TV was telling you. Today anyone, whether it is an employee or a customer, if they have a good or bad experience with your company they can blog about it or Twitter about it and it can be seen by millions of people. It's what they say now that is your brand.\u201D\n2. Deliver a positive experience\nIt is of course nice to buy from a company that offers free shipping and a gracious 365-day return policy. These reflect the confidence Zappos has both in their products, but also its trust in people to not take advantage of such a system. A wide selection also helps \u2014 their state-of-the-art warehouse in Kentucky has over 1.5 million shoes, and is designed to get shipments to customers as fast as possible.   \nHowever, in our time there, we learned that delivering a positive experience extends beyond selection and return policies. We talked to one call rep who spent two-and-a-half hours on the phone with a caller; another spent five hours, both trying to address the caller\u2019s needs. When asked if they got in trouble for spending so much time on the phone with one person, they laughed. They emphasized that their goal is to connect with people who call and to meet their needs. This means that if someone calls for an item that Zappos does not carry, the customer service rep is encouraged to help the person find somewhere online that does carry it. Zappos may not make any money of the sale, but the person goes away with a positive experience. \n3. Embrace transparency\n...It's gonna happen whether you like it or not!\nThis was one of our favorite points Tony made in our interview. Of course, transparency can take place in many ways. What impressed us in our time at Zappos was how transparent staff were in our discussions.  In fact, this openness is a key element at Zappos. Jo Casey, the Help Desk Coordinator emphasized the importance of the freedom to be themselves, saying, \u201CAnyone can do what we do, but nobody can be who we are.\u201D \nAnd let's face it: when given a chance, you are more apt to work with someone that you know versus a complete stranger. However, people can only get to know us if we let them, if we are transparent, if we bring \u201Cwho we are\u201D into our work. Tony said in our interview, \u201CI think people worry too much about bringing their personal selves into business, when I think the way to succeed in today\u2019s world is to make your business more personal. Twitter is also a great way of doing that.\u201D\n\n\n\n\nIn fact, following Tony\u2019s and other Zappos\u2019 staff tweets, we have noticed that most of them are not about trying to get you to visit Zappos\u2019 website, but focus instead on giving people a chance to get to know them better. And when people know more about you, they feel closer to you, and they have a better sense if they want to do business with you.  \nConclusion\nThere are certainly many approaches to branding and engaging social media today. With business changing radically, becoming increasingly personal, transparent, and social, we each have to find what works for us. While many people focus on \u201Chow to sell\u201D and \u201Chow to brand and present oneself,\u201D it is refreshing to see a company model an approach focused on making authentic connections that are rewarding to both customer and employee alike. \nHowever, possibly the biggest take-away from our visit regarding their approach was learning that we may not always remember what someone tells us, but we generally remember how we felt when we were interacting with the person. And when people feel respected and engaged, whether it is in-person with a co-worker or online on a social network, they have a natural desire to tell other people about the experience. This sure was true for us in our time at Zappos. In this increasingly connected world with so many ways to share our experience with a company, from Facebook to Twitter, it may just be a key factor in any successful business. \nAbout the authors\nSOREN GORDHAMER blogs for Huffington Post and is the author of Wisdom 2.0: Ancient Secrets for the Creative and Constantly Connected (HarperOne, 2009). PAUL ZELIZER is the author of Money Makeover 2.0: 5 Steps to Financial Well-being in Today's Economy.  He has a coaching practice focused on helping small business owners learn to grow their business using social media marketing.\nMore social media brand resources from Mashable:\n- Colonel Tribune: Chicago's Unlikely Social Media Pioneer- 40 of the Best Twitter Brands and the People Behind Them- PRESENTING: 10 of the Smartest Big Brands in Social Media- Why Big Brands Struggle With Social Media"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2009/04/26/zappos/>