Today Jason Bradshaw confirmed the launch of LeadershipChatAU.

LeadershipChatAU is a weekly twitter conversation on Tuesday evenings commencing at 8pm, connecting leaders across Australia to share ideas and experiences, building the collective leadership knowledge of all Australian leaders.

Jason said that he hoped the weekly twitter conversation would inspire excellence, engage with a broad range of leaders and deliver benefits for all participants.

Jason went on to say that in today’s connected society bringing leaders together to network online was not only sensible it was the most efficient way to let leaders from across the nation connect with minimal interruption to their busy weeks.

On a Tuesday evening from 8pm (Sydney time) people can participate online at http://leadershipchatau.com/livechat/ or simply by following #leadershipchatau on twitter and including it in their tweets.

LeadershipChatAU will also connect leaders through facebook, linkedIN and be hosting industry specific conversations on google+

The first LeadershipChatAU goes live Tuesday 17 April 2012 at 8pm and the first conversation is inspired by renowned author and management guru Tom Peters. Peters often asks “If not EXCELLENCE NOW, when?”  Do you demand excellence in your organisation and how do you inspire it?

Share your ideas this Tuesday from 8pm.

Website www.leadershipchatau.com

Associated Website www.jasonbradshaw.com.au

Media enquires to media@jasonbradshaw.com.au

Steve Jobs – 20 Life Lessons – the title says it all, be inspired by or simply understand what guided the day to day life of one of the most successfully leaders in recent history.

This Time It’s Personal – Well it Should Be – a great reminder of the importance of delivering a customer a memorable personal experience.

7 Tips for Managing Social Media from McDonalds - one of the most recognized brands on the planet shares its insights into social media.

Enjoy and let me know what you think of these articles. 

With just 10 business days to go before Christmas here is the top 10 things I think you should do to end the year strongly.

1 – Thank in person (or at least with a handwritten note) your direct report team, colleagues and anyone that has played a significant part in your success during the year. If you have a number of layers of teams reporting through to you be sure to send them a note of thanks.

2 – Thank at least 10 customers in person or by phone.

3 – Communicate your operating hours during the holiday period, including emergency support options, if appropriate.

4 – Review a list of sales leads and call at least 10 of them before the year is out, especially if your product or service can help them during this busy period.

5 – If you have an impact on invoicing or debt collection get busy get the invoices out and overdue accounts followed up. January can be a specifically tight cash flow month so get a head start.

6 – Block out 2 days in the new year to review with your team the previous 6 months performance and to refocus efforts for the coming 6 months.

7 – Clear your inbox, not only is it important to be timely in responding to communication but it will help set you up for the new year.

8 – Donate to charity, no man, woman or child should be hungry on Christmas day – a donation from you will make a difference no matter how small.

9 – Buy yourself a Christmas present, you work hard and you deserve to celebrate your successes. If you don’t think you’re worth a present why would anyone else?

10 – Be sure, before you leave for the holiday break, to setup and test your email out-of-office reply.

Get busy and have a safe and enjoyable festive season.

So if you haven’t been to a tech start-up party before it is very similar, based on my experience, like a fraternity party (that you see on a US movie) but with a bit of business thrown in.

There was pizza, there was kegs of beer, there was antics galore and in every tech start-up party I went to I went through 100+ business cards.

The room may be filled with 20 somethings, hope and desires but behind all of that and the college fun is millions upon millions of venture capital funding and the hope and dreams of an entrepreneur .

In future blogs I will speak in detail about some of the start-ups that I met with and believe will go places but the there are three so called “take-away” lessons from these start-up parties that I wish to share, they are;

1- Dream big;

2 – Involve your key market place in your journey; and

3 – Celebrate milestones and keep building towards the vision.

Whatever phase you are in your start-up I encourage you not only to follow these three lessons but also, like many successfully and sustainable startups, engage a success coach to be your sounding board and to help you be all that you can be.

Embrace the future, enjoy and be successful.

Jason

Jobs is quoted “By expecting them [staff] to do great things, you can get them to do great things.” This quote from Jobs is exactly what I believe and i attribute part of my success to it.

In 2004 when I was recruited into Optus is I was faced with two teams that had a reputation for failure, they constantly paid out cash to clients as a result of failing to meet contracted service levels. Staff regularly resigned, the average length of employment was less than 60 days – in fact the combined group was considered in many ways as the departure lounge.

I am really excited that together I and the teams were able to change things around and in less than 3 months we became the place people wanted to work. As the leader I did the following

1 – set and demonstrated an uncompromising focus on delivering excellence to our customers

2 – clearly defined that I expected 110% from my team and that in return I promised to reward, recognize and develop them

3 – provided a clear vision if what the future looked and felt like

4 – lead with transparency, inclusion and passion

I am sure the history books will write that not everything I did was perfect as a leader, but time and time again when I have applied the above formula I have lead my teams and divisions to deliver excellence.

Your people can  and will deliver excellence if you inspire them, engage with them and partner with them in delivery.

Today’s daily question comes from an Australian manufacture who asks

“Our challenge has always been trying to keep up with demand, growing faster then the company and resources can handle and now needing to find an investor, how do we deal with this?”

Firstly thank you for your question and by the sounds of it your business has one of the best, yet frustrating challenges, that you can have.

The first thing that I would suggest you look at is improving your cash flow. If you were to reduce your trading terms with customers by 7 or 14 days what would this do to your cash flow and in turn help you increase production levels?

Have you tried negotiating higher credit limits or longer payment periods with suppliers to again help with cash flow and help increase your production runs?

The next thing I would suggest you consider is rising the prices of your products by a small amount. As I am sure you know there is a price point where supply and demand will match each other, I caution you here not to increase prices dramatically, but even a small increase will help generate more cash for you to help meet demand and growth costs.

Finally when it comes to attracting investments from venture capitalist you need to create a unique value proposition that makes you an attractive “gamble” for an investor and the more you can demonstrate sound business management and growth potential the better your chances are.

I would encourage you to check out the Australian Venture Capital Associations website to understand how this market works in Australia and how to attract investment of this nature.

Growth pains of this nature are good, with a few tweaks you can improve your supply capability and improve your attractiveness to potential investors.

Best of luck.

Jason Bradshaw

There are however three stand out books that I think anyone in business should read. I recommend these books regardless of what stage you are at in your career. I feel these books will provide you with a great passion for delivering excellence in whatever you do, challenge some standard business assumptions and help you build a strong career.

• The Pursuit of WOW! Every Person’s Guide to Topsy-Turvy Times by Tom Peters
• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap … And Others Don’t by Jim Collins
• Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh

I’d love to hear your thoughts on these books and any other book you think is great.

My business provides educational and entertaining courses for retirement villages and community centres aimed towards providing learning opportunities for the mature student.

One of the biggest issues facing the business at the moment is establishing exactly what we are providing to our clients. For many of our clients, this is a completely new concept and it takes a while for them to appreciate the benefits that such as system could offer.

Firstly thanks for contacting me with your question.

It is one that plagues many businesses, that is defining what it is you actually do.

I fundamentally feel that trying to define, pigeon hole if you will, what it is is that you do is flawed.  I know of very few businesses that do just 1 thing long term, sure many have started with doing one thing, scaled it up and subsequently diversified, but never one thing forever.

I think what is important is to define is two things with absolutely clarity and they are;

1 – What problems your business resolves; and

2 – What is your unique value.

As a buyer do you actively look for someone that sells widget a or someone that will fix your problems?

Once you have found someone to fix your problem do you make your decision on price or experience promise. Based on the question and reviewing your website I think the experience is part of your differentiator and not the price.

I think the key to building your business is not trying to be everything to everybody but rather targeting your market, helping them resolve 1 common problem.

After all it doesn’t matter if you are only serving 5% of your addressable market place if your ability to meet the supply level of the market place is reached and your profit needs are met.

Over time you can build, through brand awareness and reputation, your business and widen your service offering.

In the mean time be crystal clear about what problem you will solve and attract clients that are willing to have the problem solved.

Best of luck, let me know what you try and how it goes.

Virgin Blue was fresh, young, hip and offered air travel at rates the every day Australian’s could afford. Virgin Blue was not competing head-on with Qantas in terms of product offering but rather offered a different travel experience.

It must have worked because in 2004 the largest airline in Australia, Qantas, launched it’s own low-cost airline Jetstar in direct competition to the Virgin Blue experience.

Indeed it was also around 2004 that I first experienced the Virgin Blue product and I recall at the time I was travelling with a team of my colleagues, our executive support staff, and we were all offered face painting and other such things on board our Monday morning flight while all dressed in corporate attire.

I never did use that return flight and immediately booked with Qantas for my flight home a week later. I was appalled that the airline would not understand that a plane mainly filled with people in corporate attire on a Monday AM flight would not want to have their faces painted, etc.

It would take almost six years before I would try the Virgin Blue product again and shortly after that in 2010 the leadership of Virgin Blue changed to that of John Borghetti and the airline started to aggressively change it’s market position.

I say aggressively because over the years Virgin Blue had continually tweaked it’s product offering but it was clear in 2010 with the appointment of Borghetti that they were going to start taking the still largest domestic carrier Qantas head-on and appeal to a wider audience, beyond the holiday traveller.

Now known as Virgin Australia over the last 18 months the airline has transformed beyond a name change to be an airline that can appeal to any audience from holiday traveller to busy executive.

Unlike many in the industry they have successfully managed to transform their brand into one that is friendly, approachable, fun and yes serious if that is what you seek. If you want a cheap seat that gets you from point a to b with no frills you can get it and if you want a premium seat with meals, entertainment and lounges you can get it as well.

Of course it doesn’t matter where you sit on the plane you will leave it with a smile and an experience to remember, positively.

So as someone that once would never even logon to their website to check fares I am now a brand advocate and would encourage you to give them a try, I am sure you will be pleasantly surprised, even delighted.

As a side I flew 1st class on Virgin America and loved it, the Virgin Australia equivalent is business class and I am very eager to try it out, which I am doing on December 9. I am quietly confident that the Virgin Australia, like the Virgin America product, will be as good, most probably better, than the Qantas Domestic Business Product.

To think I was once so loyal to Qantas I wouldn’t look at another airlines website – how experience can influence your loyalty.

Happy flying.

I am a trade show communicator that helps exhibitors generate more exposure- Problem: Governments exhibit all the time, yet their stands are the worst, yet they normally provide an important solution for people in all walks of life- I don’t know how to sell the idea of my services to them. Ideas?

Thank you for your question I am going to simplify it down to how to sell to governments because let’s face it there are a whole range of products and services the government could benefit from buying.

This is a topic I have been asked a lot especially since I presented at the NSW Government’s Selling to Government Conference a few years back.

The fundamental difference between selling to government, compared to other customers, is the buying cycle timeframes.

Every customer, including governments, go through a fairly standard buying cycle starting with awareness and research moving through to buy and renew. Where each of us individuals might move through these buying stages quickly in governments the time frames can be quite extensive.

Part of the reason government time frames can be longer is because legislatively, and also the community demands, that governments achieve value for money. In addition the budget cycle and approval cycles are longer and for major purchases it could be twelve months or more before budget can be made available.

Governments in order to at least appear fair and transparent while also encouraging participation from the whole industry usually resort to open tender processes which also extends the time to actually procure items. During this time for probity reasons they shut out suppliers from 1on1 conversations.

I hope you are starting to sense that the buying process for governments is certainly not as simple as just going that is a great idea let’s buy it.

Across Australia each of the layers of government have different ways to streamline procurement activities and make it easier for agencies to conduct business.

One popular way is to establish approved supplier panels and/or approved catalogues and pricing. If you want to sell to government I would encourage you to identify which panel contracts are suitable to your products and take steps to get approved to sell on them.

Once you are on a panel contract it gives you a better chance of being able to engage with the various departments and it also means you are approved to do business with them.

Not withstanding panel contracts the easiest way to get in to selling to government is to focus on solving one of their problems. Like every business government agencies have to do more with less every year, so how will your product help them achieve efficiencies and cost them less? Really what business wouldn’t want a discussion with you if you had the answer.

Unless you have unlimited sales people and budget to throw at the vastness of government you are always going to have a problem no matter how good your product is, so you have to be unique.

I always encourage new entrants to the government marketplace to focus on one primary sector and embed themselves in it, understand it deeply and build relationships. Not only will it cost you less in terms of money and time to focus on one area but also improve your chances of being successful and closing a sale. From that first sale you can use their referrals and endorsements to enter other parts of the government market.

A great tip that I give everyone is to host a free breakfast or lunch with a unique angle that will help the attendees learn something new but also lets you gently push your products while building a relationship.

150 or so invites, breakfast for 30 people, an interesting speaker on topic and a chance to network – the cost is low relatively speaking and starts to build that much needed connection with your audience.

Best of luck entering the market.

Thank you for today’s question and it is one that I am sure many small businesses are faced with each day.

The best way to get people to talk about your business is to engage with your buying community pro-actively and through various mediums, thankfully many of the internet platforms are free or low-cost.

Firstly let’s consider your businesses website, does it address each stage of your customers buying cycle, from research through to purchase and support? If I was to google your product category would you come up on the first page or preferably are you the first listing?

There are some great guides around to help do-it-yourselfers with search engine optimisation (SEO) and I would suggest checking out Mashable’s 20 essential tips.

If customers can’t find you online it’s going to be much harder for you to engage and generate brand awareness, conversations and conversions to sales.

The next area to focus on is social media and recent research shows that over 50% of online shoppers are logged in to facebook while they shop and over 80% of online shoppers share their experience on a social-media site. If you are serious about building your online brand you simply have to get involved in facebook and twitter, at the very least.

Through these sites you can engage with potential customers, build relationships and generate conversation and interest in your company. The key is to ensure that every landing page generates action back to your website which in turn creates a desire and action of purchasing.

If you blog why not mix it up with some video blogs to engage with customers in a way that lets you show off your product and how it is something they need in their life.

Also in Let’s Get the Conversation Started I explore how social media can assist companies procurement teams but the same principles apply to other areas of the business why not check it out here.

Finally I think it is important to identify at what point does a customer need your products, what triggers their research into buying your products and initially, at least, focus your online engagement at ways to answer that question.

Finally at every touch point with your business, make it memorable, it will help build your sustainable brand.

Today’s question is – When you run an internet business how do you develop relationships with your potential clients and make them feel special?

I think it is important to remember that fundamentally online customers have similar desires to those of every customer. Ultimately a customer wants to be heard, have their needs for a good or service to be delivered and delivered in a way that meets or exceeds their experiential expectations.

A great way to look at the opportunities to improve and build your relationship with customers is to look at each moment of truth, that is each touch point your business has with the customer.

Harvard Business Review has an excellent article on how to use a customer journey map to improve the customer experience check it out and build your map.

From here you can explore each of the motivators at each touch point, each step of their journey and enhance the relationship by addressing the unique motivator at that time.

Of course once you have secured your first sale you need to move into building the relationship. I encourage you to avoid mass emailing specials and what have you but rather identify the unique needs of your customer and respond to those.

Now responding to thousands of customers unique requirements can be costly and not profitable so this is where it is important to do customer groupings and then meet that groups needs by sharing and engaging in a targeted away.

Of course beyond all the science the easiest way to make your customer feel special is to listen to them and respond appropriately.

Finally remember to ask your customers how you are performing and what they want, listen and respond to their feedback and repeat often.

For me this is not surprising to see Steve was passionate about Apple, the brand and providing customers with a seamless experience. What fascinates me though is so many business leaders do everything they can to be removed from customers.

Far too often, in my opinion, do we see leaders focused purely on revenue growth or cost reduction strategies, forgetting that it costs a whole lot less to keep and grow an existing customer than it does to attract a new one.

As someone that has had the privilege of leading and transforming numerous customer service divisions I have always believed that a key to my success and the success of my team was keeping close to the front line operations and our customers.

I have fielded customer calls directly, taken calls straight from the queue and more at all hours of the day or night. It helps me appreciate the challenges to providing excellence in service that my staff face, helps me connect with my team and our customers.

I believe that every leader should have a key performance indicator relating to customer experience and that every leader must spend at least one day a month on the front-line of the business.

If an organisation embedded that level of commitment to customer experience it is my belief, based on personal experience and more, that customer retention, growth, employee engagement and overall business performance improve.

Are you up for the challenge? Call a customer today.

Strategic can be defined in many ways but by generally refers to a plan of action to achieve a MAJOR goal.

I highlight the words MAJOR goal – so when you are having a meeting about next weeks sales meetings, that it is NOT strategic. When you have a meeting about how to win that elusive multi-million dollar account that may qualify as strategic.

My point is that generally in the corporate setting we overuse the word strategic and whole pile of other words  and by doing so we have devalue them.

Today when you get an invite to a “strategic” meeting do you give it any more importance than any other meeting, if you are anything like me probably not.

So I encourage you stop using strategic to describe just any old meeting – use it when you are wanting to actually work on ground breaking projects designed to deliver significant results.

Let me go a step further next time you set up a strategic meeting make it known that everyone attending needs to be ready to make magic happen and kick not just next weeks goal but some big audacious goals.

Are you going to be strategic or ordinary?

While Qantas returned to the air today the dispute is far from over and the public debate on the action taken by Qantas and the Unions has kept the 24 hour news cycle busy. Everyone of course has an opinion on what needs to happen and some are even calling for the airline to be nationalised again so that they can compete with other international carriers owned by foreign governments.

I am not going to get in to a debate on this blog about the various options but I ask you to consider for a moment what the biggest lesson we can take from the challenges that got Qantas to the point it is today and I say that lesson is one about the constant need for a company to innovate, evolve and transform itself pro-actively.

Transformation is an ugly word, it’s ugly because it instantly conjures up thoughts of change, uncertainty and in turn fear in people. However if we look across the world those companies in any industry that  have continued to evolve themselves have continued to be strong resilient companies.

IBM, for example, started as a computer hardware company and is now helping deliver “smarter thinking” through its global services company and is ranked the 18th largest company in the world. Their hardware business is no longer their core business and maybe in the future consultancy won’t be.

Within the airline industry I think of Virgin Atlantic and Southwest Airlines two companies that have fought to shake up the airline industry and proven that you can win by doing things slightly differently.

Southwest wins through a number of approaches and one of them includes having the fastest aircraft turnaround times in America. In 30 years of operations they have never posted a company loss have won numerous awards for customer service and employee excellence. A great example of what can be achieved with strong employee and customer engagement.

Today Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said that Qantas has 14 to 15 maintenance engineers per plane compared to the 2 to 3 that their major domestic competitor Virgin Australia has. Joyce was using this as just one example of why Qantas is struggling to compete in the market place.

The problem I have with this comparison is that improvements and efficiencies in engineering, maintenance and all areas of business didn’t happen overnight, Virgin and others don’t have some magic dust that makes things easier to fix.

The only difference is that Qantas is plagued by legacy issues, issues that undoubtedly in some instances go back generations but issues that should have been considered and acted upon by an engaged focused leadership team.

Qantas needs to invest heavily in innovation, it needs to make some difficult decisions and it needs to embed a culture of continuous innovation, employee and customer engagement.

The key here though is engagement and a good dose of reality from both the executive and the employees of the company. Qantas can’t expect not to have to spend money in modernising its operations, staff can’t expect to continue to outpace industry benefits or staffing levels.

Both parties, in my opinion, need to find a common goal and work together to achieve it. The reality is I actually think both the employees and executive already have that goal – to have the best airline in the world, the only problem is they are poles apart in how to achieve it.

So if you are a business owner or a business leader don’t wait for things to get to the do or die level, engage with your staff, inspire your staff and deliver month on month (day on day if you can) improvements to your business so that whatever “storm” hits your industry you are prepared for it.

I would love to hear about how your company has weather storms and continues to innovate, leave a comment – or leave a comment on how you would fix the Qantas challenges.

Qantas was founded in 1920 in regional Queensland and since that time has branded itself successfully as the great Australian airline with arguable the best safety record in the world.

Qantas over the past years has been dealing with the opportunities and challenges presented by various global events, financial crisis, natural disasters etc. Like all companies over the years Qantas has built up a number of legacy issues, employment entitlements, systems, operating procedures etc all of which the airline and analysts have argued make it harder for the airline to respond swiftly to changing market conditions.

In my opinion today’s events sees an airline with a great history demonstrate what happens when you have a disengaged workforce and that disengagement I believe is largely the responsibility of the Qantas leadership.

Leading HR Consulting firm AON Hewitt, who conduct the Australian Best Employer Program, indicate that their research shows that companies with have high levels of staff engagement outperform the market and deliver higher total shareholder return than their competitors.

Employers with a high level of engagement also benefit form less industrial action, lower staff turnover and attract talented employees. Winners of the award in Australia in previous years include Hilti, Dimension Data, Bain & Co, Sales Force and others. Each of these companies have outperformed their competitors in terms of profits and shareholder returns, all also enjoy high levels of customer satisfaction.

So I am challenged by anyone that suggests employee engagement doesn’t matter – in fact employee and customer engagement are the two key ingredients to success.

The unions may be demanding too much from Qantas, I don’t know enough detail to comment, Qantas may not being realistic either but what I do know is that staff do not get disengaged overnight and when they do become disengaged they become destructive and have unrealistic demands and reduced performance.

The disengagement I predict is not just limited to front line employees it would be rife throughout the organisation and all contributing to the deterioration of trust and respect that has got Qantas to the point it is at today.

Qantas has to work quickly with the unions to resolve this current situation and get the airline flying again.

After the airline is flying again I believe that Qantas urgently needs to establish a Organisational Renewal Team with one mandate – rapidly develop and embed in the organisation practices that month on month improve employee and customer engagement.

Qantas needs to get to a position where staff positively reinforce the brand, are committed to the success of the organisation and strive to deliver excellence in everything they do.

Qantas also needs to return to a time where it’s customers are brand ambassadors and are happy to pay a small premium to fly an airline they trust and respect.

I must make it clear I do understand that their are some amazing staff throughout Qantas delivering excellence, my belief is that these people do so because of their personal desire to deliver excellence and not because they are fully engaged by the organisation.

Qantas like all organisations will probably never get 100% of their staff engaged but they need to be aiming for over 65% of staff to be engaged, I would say over 80% (a very hard target) to be engaged – if they are going to return this company to greatness.

As always I am interested to hear your thoughts on the matter.

I lost my father when he was just 59 years of age and my heart goes out to his children and his wife. Regardless of how long the family had been preparing for Steve’s passing, it is never enough.

I am sure that what made Steve Jobs great will live on in some way through his wife and children as they continue to live lives that I am sure that Steve Jobs as husband and father was proud of.

In his commencement speech (click here) you get a glimpse into the man that loved his family greatly and also the work that he did.

Many have paid tribute to his inspiration, passion and the legacy his vision has left on the world.

I simply take this quote from him

“Do what you believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet keep looking and don’t settle.”

I hope that whatever you do in your life, socially and professionally, that you do what you love and in turn do great work.

We may not all have the reach of Steve Jobs but in being our best and doing what we love we can achieve our own greatness.

In closing take a moment out of your day to say “I love you” to someone important to you and “thank you” to someone that inspires you.

Gratitude, respect and love.

This quick post is a little bit of a rant on my behalf and I hope it encourages you to stop saying (if you say it) the phrase “I WOULD like to thank …”

You either DO or DON’T want to thank someone when you add the word WOULD aren’t you also saying “Well I would like to thank … BUT …”.

Think about it!

Now I DO thank everyone that reads my blogs, leaves a comment or contacts me.

I promptly downloaded Delivering Happiness on my kindle and started reading what Ashton had promised would not only be a great read but insightful and inspiring – I have to say Ashton was right on the money.

The book, which I later provided a copy to each of my team members, inspired me to continue to follow my passion of championing, coaching and delivering excellecnce in employee and customer experience. It doesn’t mean I always get it right but that I am determined to keep moving positively forward. It also made me want to test out whether Tony was just a great story teller or if Zappos was really as good as the book says.

So first thing first they don’t deliver to Australia but that wasn’t going to stop me in testing them out, first I ordered a pair of shoes and had them delivered to a US address. That was simple, it all worked, it was fun – more on that over a starbucks or wine – but so what it is an online retailer they were able to take my shopping cart and turn that into an order that shipped.

Next test a tweet to @zappos_service that basically just said can you make me a vip customer so I get over night shipping. The book said all you had to do was ask and it was right within minutes of asking I was upgraded to “vip” status sent the link to the vip site and promptly I went and placed another order.

So now two orders on the same day, the non vip order arrived a few days later, the vip order arrived the next day – in boht cases shipping was free.

Ok still not convinced I had to check out Zappos for myself so I flew to Las Vegas to the Zappos headquarters. It is the only reason I went to Las Vegas, it’s a destination I have never thought of going to before learning they were headquartered there.

So not knowing anything about Las Vegas and knowing that Tony promised Zappos always looks to wow customers I thought my impending trip would prove a good test. Over the pursuing weeks until I arrived in Las Vegas I asked everything from where is good to stay, how to get to and from their office, where to go out, everything. Not once did they say they couldn’t help, they were always great at giving me hints and tips.

Through this process I also got to “know” some of the team and it was great on the insights tour to actually meet the people I had been tweeting away with over the previous month and a bit.

Through the insights tour I learnt that they really do live the Zappos values and that the culture that exists at Zappos, unlike many companies, it is what guides every action of the Zappos team.

Over the last two months I have placed 3 or 4 orders with Zappos every single one of them have been delivered overnight, every order has been correct, every enquiry has been dealt wit professionally, efficiently and with a whole lot of the human connection.

Zappos works hard to make a customer feel more like a member of the Zappos family as opposed to just another sale. Like all good families they like to have some fun and you can see that in so many ways.

For example when looking at my orders status instead of being clinical and saying “processing” at Zappos it will say “we’re on it”. There are heaps of personalisations throughout the Zappos experience – small things that all combine into WOW.

In fact Zappos regularly wins awards for outstanding customer and employee experience. The company went from $0 to over a $1billion in sales in just 10 years. The company gets dozens and dozens of applicants ( I think 100′s of applicants) for every job they advertise because people want to feel the WOW as an employee and get to deliver the WOW.

At 14 years of age I read a book called The Pursuit of WOW by Tom Peters since that day. I have been passionate about delving the WOW. I get energised when I see other companies delivering the WOW – ZAPPOS delivers the WOW.

I am not going to advocate for a moment that you should try to duplicate Zappos but I am encouraging you to be relentlessly passionate about your employee and customer experience, be focused on both of these and deliver WOW in your field.

As one of the Zappos core values says BE PASSIONATE and DETERMINED.

What companies deliver the WOW to you every single time? Leave a comment about the companies that WOW you or how Zappos has delivered WOW to your day.