King for a Day - My Zappos Visit

I was in Las Vegas for Magic last week. On my last day, I paid a visit to Zappos, the wildly successful online shoe retailer.

I was drawn to Zappos after reading so much about them in the press. I had heard they offered tours of their offbeat company and I was keen to see it in person. So I emailed CEO Tony Hsieh about being in town and whether I could drop by to see his company. Within 10 minutes, I had a personal response from Tony saying I was more than welcome and that his tour leader would schedule a time for me ... and by the way what hotel was I staying at as the Zappos shuttle would come and pick me up. Wow!

I was picked up at 8:30am by a friendly Zappos staffer named Jo who told me about her previous job as a waitress at a local restaurant steps from the Zappos office. Looking for a new challenge she submited her resume to Zappos (after restaurant regular Hsieh urged her to apply). She told me she had been at the company for 13 months and had never felt such a close affinity to a job before.

Zappos front desk staff cheered (literally) when I arrived at reception. My name was advertised on a flat panel monitor and to set the stage for the tour, I was offered a bag of popcorn from their vintage popcorn machine (circa the vaudeville theatre era). I was then greeted by their Training Supervisor, Loren, who enthused about his 5 years at the company and how he left a job as a dive instructor in California to join Zappos in Vegas.

He spent the next 2.5 hrs showing me around his company.

He grabbed a Zappos flag and off we went around the office. We weaved through a series of departments (legal, finance, marketing, purchasing, merchandising and customer service). 90% of the office is open concept, including the executive corridor which is festooned with jungle vines.

As we passed from department to department, staff would jump out from their cubicles with pom-poms and party horns welcoming me to their section of the office. I was dumbstruck. This was the furthest thing from a typical office environment. This was camp, albeit one with $1 Billion in annual sales.

I ended my tour with a stop in the office of Zappos' in house coach, Dr Vik. A tall man with a beaming smile, Dr Vik explained that he was a resource to staff to help them plan and achieve their goals. I suppose if Zappos can be described as camp, Dr Vik would be its head counsellor. He directed me towards an upholstered throne in the corner and asked me to select my choice of headwear for a polaroid photo (between the tiara and the crown, I opted for the crown). I was given one copy and the other one was pinned to his office wall. There were hundreds of photos of past visitors covering the wall. (and yes, I know the pic is super nerdy)!

Upon my departure, I was given a 2008 Zappos Culture Book. This is the company's yearbook celebrating the past 12 months of company life. The focal point of the Culture Book are the employee comments about their experiences at Zappos. I browsed through the book on my flight home and the word "family" was mentioned in almost every sentence. It was a deeply personal tribute to the company.

The Culture Book is handed out to all visitors, business partners and employees. It is also an amazing marketing piece that speaks volumes about what Zappos is all about and why you would want to work with this company. The fact that I have told this story to about 50 people in person (and many more on facebook, twitter and my blog) is a testament to the power of viral marketing.

I would strongly encourage others to visit Zappos and see first-hand how they are re-writing the rules of how to run a 21st century business. Just drop them an email at tours@zappos.com

Thank you Zappos!