6 Reasons Why You Should Visit Zappos When You’re in Vegas

My wife and I had the privilege of going on a Zappos Tour on our Vegas trip last month, and I’m so glad we did! I knew I wanted to make it out there ever since I finish reading Delivering Happiness, the story about their company & how they built a great culture written by their CEO Tony Hsieh. Reading that book is enough to make you want to go, but since you haven’t read it here’s why you should take some time away from the Strip next time you’re in Vegas and go see Zappos:

1. They Pick You Up for Free

They sent a limo to pick up my wife and me from our hotel on the strip because their company cars were not available. They dropped us back off in the company car. It would have easily been $40 or more in cab fare for us, so this was very impressive for a free tour!

2. Their Office is One-of-a-kind

The building is arranged in a circle with a big open space in the middle, and every other floor has food, drinks and an entertainment/gaming area. They even pull out a rack of balls like we had for recess in school! (see below)

One of their core values is “Create Fun and A Little Weirdness” – and they definitely succeed at that. Most people exercised their right to decorate their cubes, the whole place was decorated with fun, random items. Some departments had started preparing for the holidays and had Christmas lights going around their whole area.

All the cubes also had license plates with their occupants’ names. The employees received a new “registration sticker” every year on their employment anniversary.

Here’s are some examples of Zappos being a little weird:

• Chair in a very prominent place in their lobby:

• Trash can, note the arrows:

3. You’ll Get Great Ideas on How to Design Work Spaces

There were a variety of work spaces including tall tables for standing and working, bar tables and stools by the community food stations (one on every other floor), a “roof-top” cafeteria with tables outside, a coffee-shop area, lounge-type rooms, and of course the usual conference rooms. It’s just a great way to get an idea of how to arrange people in an office.

There were only two closed-door offices: the legal department and their life coach, which leads me to my next point:

4. The People

The supervisors and management sat among the other employees – you couldn’t tell them apart. The CEO and 3 other executives referred to themselves as “monkeys” and were in a easily visible and accessible area of the office (pictured above). Unfortunately Tony Hsieh was out of the office the day we visited.

The company really watches out for their people, and they appreciate it and are happy there. Our tour guide was telling us about their policies while walking around and mentioned that 80% of the customer service reps’ time was expected to be spent helping customers via chat or phone. When she started spending closer to 90% of her time working with customers, Zappos encouraged her to take more breaks.

On the way back to our hotel, one of the other passengers asked the driver (Zappos employee) how much he liked his job on a scale of 1 to 10, and he said 11. He left a higher paying retail management job to come and do clerical/administrative/warehouse work (including driving people back and forth from the strip) for Zappos and hasn’t regretted it.

5. You Get a Free Copy of their Culture Book

 

They let everyone pick out a free copy of their 2013, 2010 or 2009 “culture book” (retails for $30) on our way out. My wife and I got the 2013 and 2010 ones. I haven’t had a chance to read through them yet, but here are the types of things these books include:

It’s like a yearbook for the employees! Quotes and pictures throughout with insights into why the employees there are so happy coming to work everyday. All of us can learn a thing or two by understanding what makes the culture at Zappos work so well.

6. You’ll Get a 20% Off Coupon for Zappos.com

I’ve never brought anything from them before, but the coupon was enough incentive to change that. Here are my new kicks:

They have free shipping, free returns and their customer service staff will chat with you about anything you want (for what seems like an unreasonable amount of time). The Zappos customer service rep I spoke with before the Vegas trip gave me some good advice about which hotels to stay at on the Strip, and didn’t ask once about what I wanted to buy or anything Zappos related. This is the norm and it works – they make lots and lots of money with just great customer service (and a large assortment of quality products too I suppose).

And if you don’t really care about any of the stuff above, just getting the opportunity to take this picture is worth it:

If you’re interested, you can sign up for the Zappos Tour here. I would do this well in advance of your trip to make sure you can get in. They didn’t have space when I tried to sign-up a week before so I had to call them and have them squeeze us in – I’m glad they were able to because it was a great experience!

You might be wondering why I spent my time writing what seems like an advertisement for Zappos. It’s just the direct result of their own marketing and customer service efforts. They care about their people, they care about providing a good experience and they delivered on what they said they would in every interaction I had with them. It’s that simple.

Do you have any other reasons to visit Zappos that I missed? Have you visited any other companies with a great office and culture? Share in the comments below!

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