Book Report on Delivering Happiness by Tony Hseih

By Brian

Delivering Happiness is a success story that goes beyond the typical start up recount. Tony Hseih graduated from Harvard, was a successful entrepreneur from an early age, and often thought outside typical framework. While many people would sell a business initially when offered millions, Tony continued to work at what he was passionate about on his projects. His passion and determination has paid off financially and personally throughout his business life.

While some of the ideas in the book that Tony expounded on may not fit the typical law firm, there were several points which stood out that could be applied to us at Oliver Law Firm.

Customer Service

When customer service became a core value, success began to grow. Faith for a customer leads to many benefits, including word of mouth advertising and repeat business. Tony did this when Zappos stopped the drop shipments and focused on sales from prior customers. Marketing plans to send emails to current and potential customers in this way could lead to generating further business. Also, the customer service focus allows for building of trust and interaction to lead to better case building and handling throughout the process.

Empower and Trust Your Staff

Tony did this by making sure the employees knew the core values of the company and that they would be held to those standards. They also had an empowerment opportunity for all employees to write about the company and create a Zappos Culture Guide, thereby allowing all the employees to have a say in the outlook of the company. At Oliver Law Firm, we have an open door policy, work towards team goals and interact not only in work environments, but are able to reinforce our goals and message through community service and events.

Have the entire company celebrate great service. Tell Stories of WOW experiences to everyone in the company: This is accomplished in many ways at Oliver Law Firm, from our recent Coffee Connection where we showed everyone what a great person Sandy is to each and every one of us to postings on Facebook of photos and stories of our accomplishments.

Work to Create Customers for Life Whenever and Wherever Possible

We do this at Oliver Law Firm through not only our clients, but through our community contacts and friends and colleagues in the legal community.

Would all of the ideas that Tony had work in every business? Probably not. Personally, I found that while the specifics of the stories may not always cross apply from a tangible product to a service related product, the main ideas behind the work environment and business can apply to virtually every business. Focusing on the core ideas of customer service, investing in personal growth and development of employees, and believing in Oliver Law Firm brand and culture, we can use the ideas discussed to continue to grow into the future.