When it comes to hap­py cus­tomers, online retail­er Zap­pos is in a league of its own. Case in point: the first of its <a href=“http://www.zappos.com/d/about-zappos-culture”>10 core values</a>, which are repeat­ed through­out Zappos.com, is to “Deliv­er WOW through ser­vice.”

These Zap­pos val­ues, which also include “Cre­ate Fun and A Lit­tle Weird­ness,” and cul­ture, in which man­agers are “mon­keys,” help con­sti­tute a unique brand that dri­ves repeat – and new – busi­ness. In writ­ing about Zap­pos’ deci­sion to become an Ama­zon sub­sidiary in 2009, founder and CEO Tony Hsieh wrote about putting this cul­ture above all else and how being good to Zap­pos employ­ees has trans­lat­ed to best-in-class ser­vice. Ama­zon itself is no cus­tomer expe­ri­ence slouch.

Per a rep, the Ama­zon expe­ri­ence includes the abil­i­ty to order vir­tu­al­ly every prod­uct cus­tomers want or need from the com­fort of home, as well as dai­ly deals, free ship­ping on eli­gi­ble items, an “ecosys­tem” via Ama­zon Prime that gives mem­bers access to con­tent and stor­age, and prod­uct reviews, which help cus­tomers make informed deci­sions. But Zap­pos has nev­er­the­less remained an inde­pen­dent enti­ty with its own val­ues and cul­ture. “I believe that get­ting the cul­ture right is the most impor­tant thing a com­pa­ny can do,” Hsieh said in Inc.

He went on to write a book, Deliv­er­ing Hap­pi­ness: A Path to Prof­its, Pas­sion and Pur­pose, in 2010, which spurred a bus tour and an inde­pen­dent com­pa­ny that is pro­mot­ing a full-fledged move­ment to inspire hap­pi­ness through­out the world. As if that was­n’t enough to demon­strate Zap­pos’ cus­tomer expe­ri­ence prowess, the brand’s cul­ture has spurred so much inter­est from out­siders, Zap­pos even launched a depart­ment, Zap­pos Insights, which it says helps share Zap­pos cul­ture with the world via tours, Q&As, con­tent and events.

In a recent con­ver­sa­tion with Jon Wolske, a cul­ture evan­ge­list from Zap­pos Insights, Momen­tol­ogy asked about Zap­pos’ keys to cus­tomer expe­ri­ence suc­cess. Here’s Wolske’s take on what makes the Zap­pos expe­ri­ence unique and how the brand trans­forms cus­tomers into pas­sion­ate fans:

1. Happiness, Through and Through

Wolske echoes Hsieh’s focus on employ­ees and says Zap­pos cul­ture ensures the brand pro­vides great expe­ri­ences both inter­nal­ly and exter­nal­ly. A peek at Zap­pos’ job site makes it clear Wolske and Hsieh are not just blow­ing smoke. Zap­pos pays 100 per­cent of employ­ees’ med­ical, den­tal and vision pre­mi­ums and offers 401(k) match­ing, employ­ee hous­ing ben­e­fits, nap pods and free pup­pies, as well as free food, class­es and shut­tle ser­vices and a 40 per­cent Zappos.com dis­count.

And, Wolske notes, hap­py employ­ees use those same val­ues to take care of Zap­pos cus­tomers. “The whole idea isn’t just about ‘What do we do for those buy­ing shoes?’” Wolske says. “It’s about who are we as a brand and how do we live that for every­body?”

2. It’s All About Service

Indeed, Wolske says Zap­pos sees itself as a ser­vice com­pa­ny at its core – and one that hap­pens to sell clothes and shoes to make mon­ey. In oth­er words, cus­tomer ser­vice isn’t just what Zap­pos does for con­sumers shop­ping for prod­ucts, but is rather an inte­gral part of Zap­pos cul­ture.

3. Ensuring the Right Fit

And it all starts with hir­ing employ­ees who are aligned with the brand’s core val­ues and who can then deliv­er con­sis­tent­ly great expe­ri­ences, Wolske says. “We invest on the front end to make sure it’s the right fit,” Wolske says.

4. ‘The Zappos Experience Every Time’

Fur­ther, con­sis­ten­cy is one of Zap­pos’ biggest brand advan­tages, Wolske adds. The brand calls its phone team the “cus­tomer loy­al­ty team” because it’s about pro­vid­ing a great expe­ri­ence and rein­forc­ing it. “We do the Zap­pos expe­ri­ence every time,” Wolske says. “One of most frus­trat­ing things would be if some­thing changed and now all of a sud­den, we throw a pol­i­cy in your face. It should always feel like Zap­pos, no mat­ter how big or small the con­cern.”

5. ‘The #1 Tool Any Company Can Use is Listening’

And the con­sis­tent Zap­pos expe­ri­ence also comes from hap­py employ­ees who are empow­ered to solve cus­tomer prob­lems. “We answer, ‘How can I help you today?’ and then we lis­ten and fig­ure it out, no mat­ter what the sit­u­a­tion is, you get a con­sis­tent feel­ing for the brand,” Wolske adds. And, like any rela­tion­ship per­haps, it’s lis­ten­ing that’s key. “When it comes to cre­at­ing great expe­ri­ences, the num­ber one tool any com­pa­ny can use is lis­ten­ing,” Wolske says. “We don’t have a script we use.

There’s no ‘If then, this, here’s the answer.’ We lis­ten.” In fact, Wolske says remark­able expe­ri­ences don’t have to cost a lot of mon­ey – and they don’t even always have to go above and beyond. It’s sim­ply about lis­ten­ing to what’s impor­tant in cus­tomers’ lives – and mak­ing it impor­tant to Zap­pos as well – and then com­ing up with res­o­lu­tions to meet indi­vid­ual needs. “If you call and say, ‘I got shoes in a 9.5 and have to stand up all day at my cousin’s wed­ding, so I want a size 10 to make sure they’re com­fort­able,’ we can ulti­mate­ly focus on the trans­ac­tion and exchange it for a big­ger size – we do that trans­ac­tion every day – but you men­tioned it was for your cousin’s wed­ding, [so we can say], ‘To make sure you get them in time, let’s ver­i­fy your address,’ and then it becomes an expe­ri­ence rather than trans­ac­tion,” Wolske adds.

6. ‘It’s An Investment in the Customer Experience’

But, he notes, Zap­pos isn’t offer­ing perks that oth­er com­pa­nies couldn’t choose to extend to their cus­tomers as well, point­ing to free ship­ping and returns as exam­ples. “Com­pa­nies can do it if they under­stand it’s not a cost you’re los­ing, it’s an invest­ment in cus­tomer expe­ri­ence,” Wolske says. “When you make an invest­ment, you look for a return. So it’s about chang­ing the lan­guage from cost to invest­ment.” Zap­pos’ 24-hour call cen­ter is anoth­er part of the cus­tomer expe­ri­ence that costs a lot of mon­ey, but, Wolske notes, “No mat­ter what time cus­tomers want to call, we’re hap­py to say, ‘How can we help you today?”

7. ‘Word of Mouth is Driving Customers to be…Raving Fans’

And it works. In look­ing at cus­tomer and pur­chas­ing behav­ior data since Zap­pos was found­ed in 1999, Wolske says on an aver­age day, 75 to 80 per­cent of Zappos.com vis­i­tors are return­ing cus­tomers. “When you get a good expe­ri­ence, you come back because you want it again,” Wolske says. Fur­ther, of the 25 per­cent of cus­tomers that are new, about 40 per­cent indi­cate that friends or fam­i­ly told them about the Zap­pos expe­ri­ence, per Wolske’s fig­ures. “Word of mouth is dri­ving cus­tomers to be not only loy­al, but rav­ing fans that will in turn dri­ve new busi­ness,” Wolske says.