Tony Hsieh is not a household name, but if you’ve ever spent agonizing hours on the phone with customer service and contemplated driving your car over a cliff with you and your family in it, then you should know his name and his story. Because Tony, a one in a million CEO, actually gave a fuck about customers and the 1st world problem of being mentally tortured by automated and unhelpful customer service. He found a major pain point and built a company around it. Tony Hsieh, rest in peace you fucking brilliant man.
The company I am referring to is Zappos and in the early 2000’s it was sitting at the top of it’s game, and it was known for one huge thing, not fucking shoes, no fucking way, it was the customer service. The support team at Zappos was the most distinguishable attribute of the company because the company literally strived to give its customers “WOW” moments, and that commitment to a customer service focused company gave them lead way to stand out in an industry that was cluttered by reebok, nike, adidas, and so many others. Zappos wasn’t particularly evolutionarily in the fashion world, and that’s just what Tony envisioned. He famously said that Zappos is a “customer service company that happens to sell shoes”.
See, Tony was a visionary because he knew the best way to get customers coming back is with exceptional customer service, he didn’t take a revolutionary step forward, he didn’t create the new best app, he didn’t change the fashion world, no Tony took a broken bike and fixed the shit out of it. The broken bike being mainly over the phone customer service in that analogy if you are too slow to catch on. Tony took one very overlooked industry and revamped it to fit into a shoe selling model. I mean that is fucking brilliant to say the least. He truly was seeing the bigger picture while so many in the dot com boom, focused on the dollars. And Tony got the last laugh there as well, because just a few years after toppling the customer service world, a little company called Amazon acquired Zappos. And they had so much faith in Tony that they kept him on as CEO.
Tony was amazing, he really changed the business world and the way we interact with the products we consume. Now, the stories behind how Tony died might be a little fucked up, but you’re no better. So, the guy liked a lil whomp whomp after a long day, everyone has a vice. Anyway, Tony died far too early, in a year of shitty deaths, this one hits different in the business world. Tony wasn’t done yet, but he left a mark that will forever change the business world and how companies interact with their customers.
Tony, you changed the world. We won’t forget it. RIP in peace my dawg.
Anyway, that’s my take on it. Until next time. -GS
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