A Zappos é um site de venda de sapatos nos EUA que foi recentemente adquirida pela Amazon. Vendem US$1Bi de sapatos por ano e tem uns 1300 funcionários. Foi fundada em 1999.

É uma empresa que se destaca pelo seu “customer care”, conhecido no mercado por ser surpreendente, e essa foi uma das razões pelas quais Jeff Bezos decidiu comprar a Zappos.

Além disso, a Zappos é reconhecida por ser uma empresa democrática. E a democracia vai até o ponto da liberdade com que o pessoal de atendimento tem para resolver problemas de clientes.

“As many democratic and decentralized companies have realized, the key to offering fantastic support is to enable employees to rely on their instincts and to trust them to make their own decisions. At Zappos, customer service call center reps are not required to read from scripts. Instead, they are encouraged to use discretion in making their own decisions without seeking approval from their supervisors.”
fonte: http://workplacedemocracy.com/2009/07/27/investors-benefit-from-zappos-democratic-work-environment/

Eles reconhecem que investir em cliente satisfeito era melhor do que investir em mkt, mesmo pq no começo eles não tinham dinheiro para mkt:

“Because the company could not afford to spend money on marketing, the sales strategy involved making customers so happy that they bought again or told their friends or both.”
fonte: http://www.inc.com/magazine/20090501/the-zappos-way-of-managing.html

E a história abaixo mostra um exemplo de como a soma de “foco em cliente satisfeito” com “gestão participativa” pode ser poderosa:

“In his speeches, Hsieh [Zappos’ CEO] likes to point out that Zappos does not have specific policies for dealing with each customer service situation. He claims that the company’s culture allows it to do extraordinary things. I saw him make this point earlier this year in New York City, when he told a story about a woman whose husband died in a car accident after she had ordered boots for him from Zappos. The day after she called to ask for help with the return, she received a flower delivery. The call center rep had ordered the flowers without checking with a supervisor and billed them to the company. “At the funeral, the widow told her friends and family about the experience,” Hsieh said, his voice cracking and his eyes tearing up ever so slightly. “Not only was she a customer for life, but so were those 30 or 40 people at the funeral.”

Hsieh paused to compose himself. “Stories like these are being created every single day, thousands and thousands of times,” he said. “It’s just an example that if you get the culture right, then most of the other stuff follows.””
fonte: http://www.inc.com/magazine/20090501/the-zappos-way-of-managing.html