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.

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.

Zappos is always working on finding better ways to take care of our customers. One of the ways we do that is by continuing to build upon the products we carry, and finding different lines that are customers are interested in.

One of the newest categories we have is our Housewares department. We have several categories within the department that can help you in any room in the house. Here are some of the categories we have so far: Cookware, cutlery, bed & bath, kitchen electronics, dining and home decor. So no matter if you are looking to redecorate your bedroom, or need to find that special wedding gift, we can help.

So, in honor of our housewares department taking Zappos by storm, we gave them their own conference room to decorate!

Zappos.com just recently turned 10 years old, and we celebrated with our ten year anniversary/vendor party. During our ten years, we've had several customers that have shopped with us every year since our inception. One of those customers is Mary Ellen. We invited Mary Ellen and her husband, Robert, to join us this week in Las Vegas to celebrate. We really enjoyed having them here!

Thank you both for taking the time to come celebrate with us!

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.

For over a year now we've had our wonderful coffee machines in the lobby of each of our buildings. In fact, they have become such a part of our family that we dressed one of them up and named it Rosie.

Express Oh is the company that supplies and maintains these wonderful machines so that no Zapponian is left without a quick pick me up. This week, as part of their annual customer appreciation day, our friends from Express Oh stopped by and whipped up some great coffee drinks for everyone at the office. All the coffee drinkers in the office were extremely excited and very grateful for those cool iced coffees on the 100 degree day.

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.

This week our Customer Loyalty Team's graveyard shift celebrated its 5th anniversary. That's right, June 21, 2004 is the day Zappos started WOWing customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. One of the reasons Zappos moved to Las Vegas from the Bay Area five years ago, was for the 24 hour workforce and culture that is alive and well in this town. So, shortly after moving to Las Vegas the graveyard shift was started.

The amazing thing is that even though the graveyard shift only started with just a handful of people, five years later, we still have a couple of the original members here working on the shift.

So just remember, when you're curled up in bed at night - "You sleep, they Wow!" And if you ever find yourself up on the computer in the middle of the night, and what to find some shoes, clothes or a handbag, just go to Zappos.com. While you're having fun shopping, if you need help or even just want to say hi, give our graveyard team a call, because they would love to help you out. We're here 24 hours a day, online and in person.

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

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!

Over drinks and Karaoke at a Zappos Customer Loyalty Happy Hour, we discuss what CLT means to us.

The Zappos.com Customer Loyalty Team is always looking for ways to better serve the customers. One of the most important things they do, is to make sure they are always available to answer any customer questions, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In order to do this, they need the right amount of people here at all times. Last year, the CLT scheduling team came up with the "Pandy" award as a way to recognize all members of the CLT team who had perfect attendance.

Each month, the CLT members with perfect attendance receive the Pandy award, along with additional benefits, depending on how many consecutive months they have received it.

They started the Pandy award in January 2008, and there are 30 CLT representatives that have a current streak of perfect attendance for one year or longer. Their longest current streak is held by Jean D., who is currently at 28 months of perfect attendance (started even before the award existed).


Here are the CLT members with a current streak of one year or longer:
Jean D., Anna C., Crystal M., Elissa S., Elsie F., Laura R., Peri G., Quintaye P., Rebekah F., Sharon R., Stacy H., Tami L., Jennifer M., John D., Susan J., Candace S., Eleni D., Eric P., Grace H., Lacey J., Monfredo M., Thomas S., Irene V., Kathy H., Krystle G., Lauren A., Rosario S., David J., Joyce E., Mark G.

Congratulations to everyone on a job well done.

Zappos is know for doing whatever it takes to help the customer. The Customer Loyalty Team is trained to take the time to make sure the customer's needs are met - no matter how much time it takes.

Jennifer talks about her record for the longest customer call here at Zappos.