Has your organization delivered Wow today?  Have you exceeded the expectations of your clients, your volunteers, or your donors?  Have you done something remarkable?  Tony Hsieh and the team at Zappos have given us a marvelous insight to how they do this everyday with the best selling book Delivering Happiness.

Foundational to their approach are the 10 Core Values. Take some time on your own to dive into them, but today I wanted to touch on #1: Deliver Wow Through Service.

Service seems to be a dying art in America. I can remember my first job in high school working for The Finish Line. At the time, they had less than 50 stores and the four original founders were still actively involved. I can remember being intimidated that one of them came to the store for a visit. That day, he helped me unload a truck full of shoes. I was terrified! But, I learned he was a terrific guy and that listening to him would teach me a lot.  The Finish Line stressed product knowledge and excellent customer service back then.

Today, I rarely see the type of service they preached in retail stores (sadly, even at the Finish Line). Zappos is different! Much different. So different, they shouldn’t even call it customer service. Calling Zappos is like calling a good friend for a quick favor. There is a peacful, playful, interchange that makes you forget your handling a transaction. And that’s the magic!

Here is how they describe delivering Wow:

WOW is such a short, simple word, but it really encompasses a lot of things. To WOW, you must differentiate yourself, which means doing something a little unconventional and innovative. You must do something that’s above and beyond what’s expected. And whatever you do must have an emotional impact on the receiver. We are not an average company, our service is not average, and we don’t want our people to be average. We expect every employee to deliver WOW.

Insert nonprofit for company and either donor, client, or volunteer for customer.  Are you delivering Wow to your stakeholders? How would it transform your organization? How would it reenergize your career, your team, your organization?   How much more fun would work be?

Please share your feedback on Delivering Wow.

Thanks for taking the Trolley.