Monday, June 7, 2010

Book Review and Giveaway

Today was the launch of the new book Delivering Happiness A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh the CEO of Zappos.com.  I was lucky enough to receive an advance copy of this book to read and review.  I have heard about the Zappos.com culture for years and seen Zappos.com on the Fortune list of Top 100 companies to work for so I was quite interested in learning more about how this company got started and has developed such a strong corporate culture. 

The book is broken out into three sections: I - Profits, II - Profits and Passion, III - Profits, Passion, and Purpose. The book follows a chronological review of Tony Hsieh's career from being a young entrepreneur to financing start-ups and ultimately his involvement in turning Zappos.com into $1 Billion company in 10 years. 

I enjoyed all of the stories that the book contained.  It was easy to make comparisons to my own experiences with online retailers.  I love the simplicity of the Zappos brand promise: Zappos is about delivering happiness to the world.  Zappos employees strive to deliver a WOW experience for their customers and this unmatched level of customer service has served as a competitive advantage and differentiation in the world of online retail.  Another aspect of the book that I enjoyed were the short quotes and tweets such as "You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf," by Jon Kabat-Zinn and "Life isn't about finding yourself.  Life is about creating yourself," by George Bernard Shaw.  Overall, this book was a great read and much more light-hearted than traditional business books.  The book gave me ideas to think about in how to make sure that I incorporate passion and purpose in my work. 

You can purchase this book from Amazon.com but you could win a free copy by entering my giveaway!  One winner will receive a free copy of the book.  The giveaway will run through Friday, June 11th at midnight CST and the winner will be announced over the weekend.  Good luck to all!!!

To enter:
1) Leave a comment listing your best customer service experience. 
2) Gain additional entries by posting on your blog, Facebook, or Twitter. (leave a comment for each)

*Full Disclosure: I received free advanced copies of the book, and these statements are my honest opinions of the book.

6 comments:

  1. Woo hoo - I love giveaways! I've actually been pretty lucky in the customer service department, so I'll just tell you about the most recent experience, since it was just yesterday. I was at Bed, Bath and Beyond returning an item that didn't work and looking for something similar. I didn't have my receipt or the credit card I'd used for the original transaction, but the clerk helped me quickly and nicely. She helped me look for the new item and when they didn't carry it, she suggested other stores that might! I walked away with a huge smile on my face.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Best Customer Service = Chick Fil A, Consistently. Would like to see behind-the-scenes of the management. Jon C

    ReplyDelete
  3. Best customer service experience lately--Four Seasons, Houston. So maybe this experience is built in to the price of your stay, but I was impressed with their professionalism and attention to detail. One evening I asked the front desk if they had a charger for my phone and they did not. One of the employees overheard and offered me his personal cell phone charger for the evening, only asking that I return it the next day. Above and beyond!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Whit! The books sounds awesome. Whether or not I win your free copy, I am definitely going to read it! :)

    Best customer service I experienced was from a little family-owned Asian restaurant called Wah-Q in Turlock, California. They treated everyone like family. At night when it was closed and you passed by the restaurant you could see a light on and the family playing cards at the table. It was sweet.

    Three years after I moved away, I went called in a to-go order from Wah-Q from my hotel. Immediately they said "Is this Lyndi?" How cool was that. We never even went much beyond pleasantries but they KNEW me.

    It is still one of my favorite restaurants because of it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for letting me know about your giveaway! I added it to my list of giveaways on my blog.

    ReplyDelete
  6. There's a link on my blog, so now all EIGHT of my followers can find you...you're totally welcome. :P

    ReplyDelete