It's our favorite time of the year, Halloween costume contest season!
Which Costume is your favorite?

Jeanne Bliss is the Author of the new book "I Love You More Than My Dog" and is also known throughout the retail world as the queen of Customer Loyalty. Not too many people can say they helped 5 of America's hugest companies bring their customer service to such a level that they are now known for providing some of the greatest customer experiences in the industry.

In this Video Jeanne speaks with our COO/CFO Alfred Lin, and asks about the special mixture of service and culture that is Zappos.com. Alfred also touches on recruiting the very best people, and what it means to be a good culture fit within the company.

Stay tuned for more interviews with Jeanne Bliss, and our CEO Tony Hsieh!

This week the Customer Loyalty Team graduated the newest class into the call center from incubation. Right after the initial four week new hire training class, all new members to the customer loyalty team go through a three week incubation period. During this time, they go through more training on policies and procedures, and gain the necessary skills needed to give our customers the very best service possible.

This training period also gives new employees a chance to learn and be a part of the Zappos culture. Here are some of the newest graduates talking about what their experience has been like at Zappos since they started.

These three Zapponians are known for their Flow.

They want to break it off so we're gonna let it go.

It's true they love to wow in a major way.

That's why they keep the job that the work in the day.

Adrian M. - Funky Cold
Rian C. - Rhino
Graham K - G - Money

The first week of October is national Customer Service Week. Each year during this time, Zappos plans a lot of fun activities to recognize employees for a job well done. To kick off customer service week, we had an Oktoberfest carnival here at the Zappos office. With carnival games and some great tasting food, this was a great start to an entire week of fun.

Each day this week, we are going to have some fun and exciting things going on around the Zappos office. More craziness to come...

No matter how happy a person you are, how great your job is, or how much fun your co-workers are to be around, everyone has those little things that bother them at some point during their day. We usually refer to these minor annoyances as "pet peeves".

For those of you who cringe every time you walk by you co-workers messy desk, or steam comes out your ears every time you get cut off in traffic, don't worry, you're not alone. Here are the pet peeves of some of the employees around the Zappos office.

Heather bet Ebonique a dollar a day that she wouldn't wear her purple Chucks for a month. Ebonique took her up on that bet, and in the spirit of Core Value #3, she one uped the bet and wore uber hip 80's outfits along with her purple Chuck Taylors the entire month of August. Well, every day except the 31st that is! How long can you wear your Chuck Taylors?

In the age of Lightning fast internet and HD television, it's easy to forget the ultimate family and friend uniter – The board game! There are too many to name, but please feel free to try!

What's your favorite board game?

We are happy to announce that our Customer Loyalty lead Jean D. has implemented the Internet Vendor Mentor program. This new program allows our vendors the opportunity to listen in on phone calls from our customers regarding questions about their respective categories. For example, if one of our rideshop vendors wants to hear questions that our customers are asking about skate shoes, they can sit in with representatives of our rideshop business unit. We currently have 5 business units: Kids, Outdoor, Running, Comfort and Rideshop.

Great job, Jean!

The Zappos Customer Loyalty Team works 24 hours a day/seven days a week, doing everything they can to take care of our customers. So when they get a chance to get out and have a good time, they sure know how to party, people! This week they had a happy hour to have some fun and recognize their co-workers for a job well done.

We all ate a lot, played games, like beer pong and pool, gave out awards to celebrate some of their accomplishments, and like all Zappos parties, had a few drinks.

The Zappos Customer Loyalty Team not only makes it part of their daily routine to wow customers, but they always go out of their way to help out fellow Zapponians. They set up a recognition program to thank those for being especially helpful in CLT. They call it the "Cultivator of Wow" award, or COW for short. Each team made a fun cow box to house all the nominations.

There are several choices when it comes to purchasing a new smart phone, and it seems that we change up more and more all the time. We just found out about some brand new technology that is powered by potassium, and never needs a recharge, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Banana Phone is here.

Our June Customer Loyalty Training class graduated this past Friday, and, during the ceremony, they had a special treat from one of the graduating class.

Amanda (BOK!!!) C., who you might remember from a few blogs ago for her special chicken noise talent, really laid it down for the 60+ Zapponians in attendance.

Congratulation to all the new graduates! Roll it, yo!

Team Kaizen, representing our fabulous Customer Loyalty department and fully inline with our mission of continuous improvement, decided we were getting a little rusty on our ninja thumb skills. So, at Krissi's suggestion, we decided to have a little Kaizen Thumb War! Needless to say, it was a vicious and bloody affair...okay, not really, but we sure got in each other's faces about it! Here is the breakdown:

Round 1 – Jasime vs. Krissi
*Jasmine moves on
Round 2- Jasmine vs. Ernie
*Ernie moves on
Round 3 – Ernie vs. Jenny
*Ernie moves on
Round 4 – Ernie vs. Holly
*Ernie moves on
Round 5 – Ernie vs. Martha
*Ernie moves on
Round 6 – Ernie vs. Will
Ernie moves on and WINS!

So, congratulations to Ernie L., the Kaizen Thumb War Champion! Disclaimer: If any of you know Ernie and have seen his hands, you will realize this was not a fair fight. Sore losers?? You bet!

At this point, Kaizen decided it would be good to further humiliate me by highlighting my gross inadequacy in the battle of the thumb, so I went on to battle Krissi...and was ignominiously defeated. As I lamented by awful skills, Rob Seifker, who couldn't help but hear our antics, strolled over and asked to have a go. In the spirit of “Will's utter humiliation”, I was chosen to battle Rob...and subsequently lost. Let's go ahead and wrap this up now, but I just want everyone to know that I will have my sweet thumb revenge!

Our most recent Customer Loyalty Team class graduated last month, and this week, they all got together for lunch to reminisce and talk about how their jobs are going. The best thing about these classes is that it's not just people from our call center taking them. People all through the company, no matter their position, go through the training. This give everyone a chance to meet people in different departments, and grow our team and family spirit.

Check out the class talking about how they enjoyed the training, and how it has affected their current job.