If you've had a chance to take take a peek at our Core Values, toured our Offices or Warehouse, or seen any of our Videos, you already know Zappos is unlike any other company. We filmed this video to show to our New Hire groups when Tony, Fred and Alfred are out of the office. Although I wish it was used more, I'm happy to say that Alfred, Tony and Fred have yet to miss an opportunity to talk to a new hire class since the video was made more than 6 months ago!

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

We show our appreciation for coworkers a little differently around here. Welcome to Neal-a-Palooza.

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!

Zappos Customer Loyalty Team takes great pride in their commitment to proving the best customer service possible. One of the ways they do this is their continuous training of CLT employees. Team Kaizen's job is to help everyone in CLT with the training available to them. All this training allows team members the ability to gain further knowledge and growth potential within Zappos.

This week, Team Kaizen held a "Snack and Chat" to go over some of the new training programs available for the CLT members.

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!

Once the New Hires Graduate from their one month CLT training course they go straight to incubation where they are watched closely and receive helpful feedback to take with them once they are released into the wild. And we know it's stressful being new to the CLT Floor, so they schedule fun Core Value arts and craft time to help relieve some of the tension.

Like the mysterious things that are said to take place in Area 51, there were some really amazing things happening at our own Area 52 here at Zappos last week. Each day emails were sent out about promotions into this area. So we decided to investigate what was happening by speaking to Jane J., our Senior Manager in charge of our Customer Loyalty Team.

Our CLT team is our call center, which is our main interaction of Zappos and our customers. Area 52 is the management staff for CLT. While Zappos is know for customer service, and the amazing job our CLT does is one of the main reasons why, they feel like they want to continuously improve the level of service they give. With Zappos call center growing so rapidly over the past few years, they felt they wanted to make some changes that would strengthen the department, and the service they give even more.

Zappos believes that if you take care of your employees, they will in turn take care of the customers - happy employees = happy customers. The CLT department's goal for this year is to "Develop people and cultivate culture." By promoting several supervisors into management positions, this will allow each manager to have less reps under them, and therefore, build even stronger manager and team relationships.

Congratulations to all those going into Area 52's management staff, and thank you to everyone in CLT for continuing to deliver WOW through service.


Pictured above: Area 52 Customer Loyalty Management Team

Last Week our HR , Training and CLT departments hosted an Ice Cream Social to give our New Hires a chance to hang out with current Zappos.com Team members. The New Hire class received T-shirts which can be written on, which gave us the opportunity to say welcome to the team with Colored markers as well as conversation. The Ice Cream Social also allowed Current team members to eat all of the cookies and cream flavored ice cream in a matter of 10 minutes! Thank you to everyone who made this possible, we look forward to the next ice cream flavored event.

Our Customer Loyalty team would like to thank our Merchandising department, as well as our vendors who participated in this Spring's Expos. We have Expos to show new products to our Team Members who answer emails and phone calls at Zappos.com....Thank you all!

Take it, CLT!

Todd's Blog, originally posted here:
http://www.sitelead.com/blog/zappos-live-chat/2009/06/01
I'll let him tell the story.

Zappos is known for service…and for letting their service agents “be themselves”. I put this to the test tonight and threw a curveball or two at the guy helping me in a Live Chat. I used the name “Timmy” as my alias and asked a totally random question about a random product. See actual chat log below. Zappos rocks! I could not even make this stuff up, I swear.
–
You are now chatting with Jonathan
Jonathan: Hello Timmy. How can I help you?
Timmy: do you know how wide the G-Shock Atomic Solar - AWG101 SKU #7403774 is?
Timmy: i mean, how big a wrist it would fit?
Timmy: Timmy has a big fat wrist
Timmy: Timmy need watch grande
Jonathan: I’ll see what I can find out for Timmy.
Timmy: awesome. and can we please continue to talk about Timmy in the 3rd person? Timmy likes to boost Timmy’s ego by talking about Timmy that way
Jonathan: Jonathan would be happy to neglect the use of pronouns for the duration of this conversation.
Timmy: Jonathan and Timmy shall get along just fine
Jonathan: Will Timmy be able to measure Timmy’s wrist?
Timmy: Timmy’s wrist is big, but not Biggie-Smalls big. Timmy doesn’t have the required measurement instruments.
Timmy: Timmy is 6′4″ 220lbs if that helps Jonathan
Jonathan: Luckily, that is roughly the size of Jonathan’s brother, so that does help.
Jonathan: Jonathan thinks that this watch will work out well for Timmy. The watch’s circumference is 9 inches, so it will probably fit around Timmy’s wrist.
Timmy: Ok cool
Timmy: Do your watches and stuff have free return shipping like your Zapatos?
Timmy: in case Timmy wants another one or something
Jonathan: And if it doesn’t work out, as long as the watch is in its original condition and in the original packaging, Timmy has 365 days to return Timmy’s order. We will even pay for the return shipping! As always, our shipping to Timmy will be free.
Timmy: Timmy thanks Jonathan for good help
Jonathan: Jonathan welcomes Timmy.
Jonathan: It’s Jonathan’s pleasure!
Jonathan: Can Jonathan do anything more for Timmy?
Timmy: no that is all timmy needs
Timmy: timmy happy
Jonathan: Good. Does Timmy have an account se up with Zappos yet?
Jonathan: Jonathan will upgrade Timmy’s account.
Timmy: yes timmy is repeat shopper
Timmy: but “Timmy” is my alter ego and not my actual name
Jonathan: Well, what is “Timmy’s” email address? I’ll hook you up.
Timmy: Timmy has placed orders using txxxxxx@gmail.com in the past
Jonathan: Alright TODD!
Jonathan: :)
Jonathan: I’m going to upgrade your account to VIP status! This will ensure that all future orders go out with 1-business day shipping free of charge!
Just place your future orders at http://vip.zappos.com.
Timmy: Timmy Likey!
Jonathan: Good. Good…
Jonathan: Let Jonathan know if there is anything else that Jonathan can do for Timmy.
Timmy: Ok, Timmy ok now. Timmy time to go shopping!
Jonathan: Have fun!