In our line of work - designing and building web applications - we don’t deal with consumer experiences as much as I’d like to, but we often take inspiration from the retail world. I have just finished reading a couple of articles about Zappos that I wanted to share with you guys.

The first article from Harvard Business Publishing, talks about how Zappos bribes potential employees into quitting in order to gauge their interest and commitment to the company’s values. Here’s a piece from the article:

This is a company that’s bursting with personality (…) So when Zappos hires new employees, it provides a four-week training period that immerses them in the company’s strategy, culture, and obsession with customers. People get paid their full salary during this period.

After a week or so in this immersive experience, though, it’s time for what Zappos calls “The Offer.” The fast-growing company, which works hard to recruit people to join, says to its newest employees: “If you quit today, we will pay you for the amount of time you’ve worked, plus we will offer you a $1,000 bonus.” Zappos actually bribes its new employees to quit! Why? Because if you’re willing to take the company up on the offer, you obviously don’t have the sense of commitment they are looking for.

The second bit of inspiration I want to leave you with is this presentation from Underground 4 in Los Angeles by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh. It talks about how Zappos became a 1 billion dollar business by caring about their customer experience:

What to take away

WOWing someone is a powerful thing. When you care deeply enough about someone - a customer, partner or employee - you are more likely to engage them in a way that makes them reciprocate the good will. Naturally, I’m stating the obvious when I say you should aim to please your customers, but when was the last time you heard people recommending a brand because they were just so nice to you?

What can we, as designers, developers and entrepreneurs, do for our audience that we haven’t yet? How can we WOW them? There’s a few lessons to take away from the Zappos story. I know I have, and I hope you do too.