Shhh. Don't tell my boss. I landed a job interview at Zappos.com. Well, I did at least in a dream anyway.
It was a fantastical, whimsical journey at the most extravagant corporate headquarters I'd ever seen. It was located in Las Vegas but also on the banks of the Trinity River in Fort Worth, Texas. Odd, but beautiful, it was.
I arrived at Zappos headquarters the day of my interview. My first interviewer was a young lady who took me to this big "interview desk." There was a line of interviewees behind me who waited their turn. We talked a bit and she started to explain their new holocracy approach to management. She said holocracy replaces the traditional corporate organizational structure with "self-governing" groups with titles and no managers. I did not like what I was hearing. I liked my title.
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Next we headed into an elevator that took us down into the Zappos operations center. The elevator was very much like the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland, where the walls grow longer and longer. We finally submerged into a maze of employees, fashion displays and employee benefit booths. Think Oompa Loompas meet a telemarketing call center in India.
As my young lady interviewer continued to show me around, I was more intrigued by the carousel, beautiful view of the river and pounding EDM tunes, than I was by the actual people working. I wasn't even sure what position I was interviewing for.
Finally I was told I was going to meet the big cheese, Tony Hsieh, Zappos' CEO himself. Nervousness surrounded me. He's a BIG deal here in Las Vegas/Fort Worth. I'd heard he only ate raw hamburger meat so when he finally magically appeared and offered me a ride in his Hummer limo, he was gnawing on some, just like when Marlon Brando eats nuts in Apocalypse Now. He began talking about how he was a big fan of the bacon checking commercials, and then, BAM. I woke up from my dream. Boo.
Now flashback a few weeks ago to the Marketing Association of Credit Unions annual conference in San Francisco. A group of us credit union marketers took a tour of the Facebook headquarters campus. Our tour guide showed us around and took us to the gift shop to buy stuff we would soon throw away. All in all, it was very cool, much like my Zappos job interview dream. Free food, free books, free ice cream, free arcade, free bar. And a First Republic Bank brick and mortar facility onsite. What? No credit union? I expected a cool social media credit union, dropping debit cards out of the sky via drones. No mobile P2P or RDC. Oh the horror.
When I asked our tour guide why they had a bank onsite and not a credit union, her response was "they treat us really well."
So I guess the moral this amazing story after all is what it has always been. No matter the features and benefits, ALMs, ROIs, NEVs, and as much holocracy at your mega-corporate campus as you can stomach, customers just want to be treated well. Thanks Zappos!
Greg Barnes is the SVP of Marketing at One Nevada Credit Union. He can be reached at 702-641-4395 or [email protected].
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