Next up on the hit list of amazing conversations at CM Summit is Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, now a division of Amazon. Tony is also an author, and everyone who comes to the conference will get a copy of his new book “Delivering Happiness,” which will be published the first day of the event (June 7th). Who wants to take odds that the book will do well at Amazon?
Zappos is an extraordinary story, but so is Tony, who sold his first business to Microsoft for more than a quarter billion dollars (Tony was in his mid twenties at the time).
But the core of Tony’s success lies in his philosophy around customer service, and I think all good marketers have something to learn from his story. As with Arianna, I’ve got tons to ask Tony, including:
– How is the new boss? Is Zappos changing Amazon, vice versa, or a bit of both? I know Zappos is retaining its brand, but do you spend much time with Amazon execs? How do the employees co-mingle, or do they at all?
– How is the supply chain integration working?
– “Are you still a little weird ?” (One of Zappos’s values is, “Create fun and a little weirdness.”)
– How big is Zappos marketing department, and how does it differ from a traditional approach?
– The Zappos Real Time Purchasing Map is pretty cool. What other real-time marketing initiatives is your team thinking of? How do you use data to drive your business?
– Tell us about the book, which you’ve said you wrote because “it was on your check list”… what else is on your checklist?
What do you want to hear about from Tony? Tweet it out with the #cmsummit hashtag, or leave a comment here!
I’d like to know how exactly he’s involved in marketing side of Zappos. Does he actually do the company’s PPC/seo/social media marketing? If so, what percentage of his time and to what extent?
How do you get [offline] word of mouth to convert into traffic and sales?
Ask him how his high school experience informed (or didn’t) his customer service philosophy!