The cult and culture of Zappos

"We try to meet with every single new hire after they go through our training process. It's our company, it's our culture, it's everybody's responsibility to do the right thing. The best feedback, the best ideas, come from the bottom up," Lin said.

"It's a user-generated culture. We have the same philosophy with our employees we have with the customers." Employees and customers alike are encouraged to contact managers through a variety of ways, be it e-mail or Twitter or live chat. The company offers tours. It has an online video channel. Managers Twitter. The company encourages its fans to post "I Love Zappos" logos on their personal Web sites.

The company wants its customers to be its fans, and to become its walking and talking advertisements.

"We do advertise," Lin said, though "advertising is not the main driver of our growth." People telling their friends, family members and entire social networks about Zappos is a powerful thing, he noted.

Hsieh has more than 500,000 followers on Twitter, though Lin said he "doesn't try actively to promote Zappos." Instead, his posts are mostly funny and insightful and trivial and entertaining tidbits, such as this: "Bought salad to go at airport. When cashier told me I owed her $10.23, I almost threw up. But that would have made me hungrier."

People seem to identify with the company's quirky and very human online presence, Lin said. "The connection gets stronger and stronger and stronger, and it builds itself." He said he has heard customers say that they "bought from Zappos because I feel like I know you guys."

Some recent company blog posts highlight the literal "mashup" of an iPhone in a blender, items that occupy the desk of a marketing department employee, and the cowboy attire donned by employees on "Zappos Spirit Day."

A video at the site describes internal "parades" that feature random acts of kindness for randomly targeted employees, complete with bullhorn callouts, a funky hat and a gift card.

Some observers have said it appears the dot-com boom never busted here at Zappos.

Lin said that he and Hsieh are constantly evaluating other companies to find business elements that could be adapted for use at Zappos.

"I often joke with Tony, 'We don't have any really original ideas.' What we really do well -- we try to learn as much as we can from everybody we meet and every company we see. (That's) what has allowed us to stay sort of nimble."

Hear Alfred Lin speak about "Building a Brand that Matters" at the upcoming Real Estate Connect conference in San Francisco, which runs from Aug. 5-7 at the Palace Hotel. Click here for details.

***

What's your opinion? Leave your comments below or send a letter to the editor.

All rights reserved. This content may not be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, in part or in whole, without written permission of Inman News. Use of this content without permission is a violation of federal copyright law.