Hi There,
Welcome to the 3rd issue of “Tap to Unlock”, where I write about economics, products, & strategy. And help you build a better perspective. Today I want to talk about Apple. In 2011, researchers and neuroscientists in the United Kingdom used MRI to discover that, for Apple fans, seeing images of Apple products lit up the same parts of the brain as images of a deity do for religious people.
So, how Apple infused its customers with such a spirit—the Apple spirit. So, without wasting much time let’s dive in and enjoy
When the Apple Store celebrated its tenth-year anniversary on May 19, 2011, the media focused on the success story: 325 stores, $10 billion in sales, one billion visitors, and so on. The numbers were very astonishing.
But there was also something else, something that numbers weren’t telling. Well, it’s the story that led to this success. A story of how Apple turned the process of buying a phone into an experience so thrilling that customers became true advocates for the brand.
In May 2011, Gary Allen Oakland, California, resident marked the 10th anniversary of the Apple Store by traveling thousands of miles to visit the first store in Tysons Corner, Virginia. He didn’t take a flight. He rented a Toyota Yaris and drove for five days.
No special event was set up by Apple to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Apple Store. He just knew how he would celebrate—by making a pilgrimage to the store. No reporters or banners were present.
But since Allen had been blogging about his journey, the Apple employees knew about his arrival, gave him a tour of the store, and even treated him to cake. For Allen, visiting an Apple Store is a religious experience.
Story
Steve Jobs realized that the Apple Store could touch people emotionally, make customers and employees feel empowered, and bring joy to their lives in all aspects of customer interaction. They would reward Apple with their loyalty. So, he decided to enter the retail business and hired former Target executive Ron Johnson.
Steve Jobs asked Johnson: who offers the best customer service experience in the world? The answer was not another typical computer retailer—or even any other retailer. The answer was the Four Seasons hotel.
The Brand That Inspired Apple Retail
Isadore Sharp founded the Four Seasons in 1960. Before building his first luxury hotel in London in 1970, sharp was in the business of building homes, apartments, and small motels in Toronto. Sharp’s goal—his vision—was to create a worldwide luxury brand that would offer an unparalleled customer experience.
He refused to settle for anything less than excellence. Sharp asked, “What would that luxury experience look and feel like?” And the innovations that followed, you would be surprised, are all thanks to Sharp:
Travel-Size Shampoo. Having grown up with three sisters. He learned that they didn’t like to wash their hair with soap, so they carried small bottles of shampoo. The Four Seasons was the first hotel to put shampoo bottles in every room. Since then it has become industry standard.
Fitness Rooms. Sharp liked to exercise, and he knew that travelers would need a revival, especially after long flights. The Four Seasons was the first hotel to provide fitness centers.
Comfortable Beds. Sharp’s first hotel in London catered to American travelers who flew overnight from the East Coast. These customers wanted a comfortable bed. Sharp searched several countries in Europe before he found a bed that met his standard for comfort. The Four Seasons offered the most comfortable beds of any hotel chain at the time.
Full-Service Spas. In 1986 a Four Seasons resort north of Dallas was the first to introduce a full-service spa on the property. He knew what travelers wanted even before they could express it themselves.
Most bold visions are met with a high degree of skepticism, and Sharp’s vision was no exception. Though Sharp’s wife Rosalie didn’t share Sharp’s confidence, she kept her skepticism to herself.
The Four Seasons does not have cashiers. Instead, it has a concierge. When the Apple stores first opened, a “concierge” greeted customers. Although the concierge title no longer exists, a greeter still stands at the door ready to welcome customers into the store.
Apple brought into play another Four Seasons innovation: the bar. Walk into an Apple Store and you’ll find a bar, just like the Four Seasons. There is one difference: The Four Seasons bar dispenses alcohol. The Apple Genius Bar dispenses advice. The Genius Bar is an example of connecting ideas from different fields.
Ron Johnson was the first person to come up with the idea of the Genius Bar after listening to members of his retail development team. According to Jobs’s biographer, Walter Isaacson, Jobs thought it was a crazy idea. But Johnson stood his ground. The next day Steve Jobs filed to trademark the name, “Genius Bar.”
Other Innovations
The screens of notebook computers in Apple stores are positioned at ninety-degree angles to force customers to reposition the screen to interact with the product.
Apple employees wear blue shirts to stand out in crowded stores.
Customers are greeted within ten seconds and ten feet of walking through the door.
Apple also believed that shopping bags are a part of Apple experience. And Apple innovated them as well.
The innovation, in this case, is how Apple intends to hold the bag together with such a high proportion of recycled material. White paper bags made of recycled material tend to be fairly flimsy due to the amount of bleach used, so Apple has come up with a bundle of alterations that should help its bags remain both pearly white and environmentally friendly.
After dealing with Apple, you feel it’s not like Apple has the best customer service, but Apple is the only company that has customer service. —Rohit A.
At Apple, nothing about the customer experience is taken for granted. The Four Seasons hotel didn’t develop the complete Apple Experience. The Vision and the work culture of Apple did the rest of the work.
Vision: Enriching Lives
A vision is not a mission statement. A mission statement is about the “company”; a vision is about “customers.” What are you going to do for your customers? A vision is bold, specific, concise, and consistently communicated. Often misunderstood
‘A thousand songs in your pocket’ (The Vision of iPod).
Steve Jobs understood that people didn’t want to buy computers; they were more interested in knowing what they could do with them. They wanted to have a tool that can help them fulfill their dreams.
Image: Apple Lincoln Road, Miami Beach
Jobs didn’t want to grow Apple’s market share from 5 to 10 percent but he did want to make products that would help people unleash their creativity. He wanted to build a legacy. “Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me,” Steve Jobs once said.
Store employees are trained, motivated, and taught to create memorable moments for their customers. The Apple Store cares less about what you know than it cares about how much you love people.
If an Apple employee spends twenty minutes talking football with a customer and five minutes talking about the product, it’s perfectly OK, even if the customer doesn’t leave the store having bought a product that day.
Since they are more interested in how passionate you are, hairstyle, mohawks, tattoos, piercings are all acceptable. Early in the Apple Store history, they also learned that former teachers make the best salespeople because they ask a lot of questions.
In a lot of companies the compensation structure doesn’t reward the behavior, the company is trying to create and thus acts as a roadblock in creating an empowering culture.
Apple has, instead, a non-commissioned salesforce particularly becuase employees are not pressured to make a sale. They are empowered to do what they believe is the right thing to do.
Image: Apple Cotai Central, Macau
When evaluating potential talent, Apple store hiring managers ask themselves if the candidate “Would have gone toe-to-toe with Steve Jobs, or would he or she have been mowed over?”
Ron Johnson was a fearless employee. When Johnson came up with idea of “Genius Bar”, Jobs thought it was a crazy idea. But Johnson stood his ground. He went toe-to-toe with Steve Jobs.
Fearless doesn’t mean rude. Fearless means ownership. If a customer approaches an employee with a problem or a question, the employee must own the problem and care about it.
An employee won’t rest until the customer gets a resolution even if it’s not his department. A fearless employee will own the relationship from start to end and ask for help if he doesn’t have the answers.
Image: Apple Zorlu Center, Istanbul
The position of the computer lets you see the screen but forces you to touch the computer to adjust it. Spend as much time as you’d like to play with the products. The sense of touch helps create an emotional connection with a product. And store employees do not touch the computer without asking for permission. They want you, the customer, to do it.
On the lines of letting the customer feel, Apple launched a $99 one-year One to One membership program which offered personalized instruction inside the Apple Store by Apple Store instructors called “creatives”.
Customers can learn anything: basics about the Mac operating system; how to design a website; enjoying, sharing, and editing photos or videos; creating a presentation; and much more.
Image: Apple Piazza Liberty, Milan
Apple Store specialists are taught to sell the benefit behind products and to customize those benefits for the customer. For instance, if a parent walks into the store with their two children, Instead of touting speeds and feeds show them benefits by letting the kids use the product. On one device play a movie and on the other device brought up a coloring app. Show them how the device could improve their lives.
Image: Apple Fifth Avenue Store, New York
Clutter forces the brain to consume energy. Create uncluttered environments instead. The Apple Store is spacious, clean, well-lit, and uncluttered. Cables are hidden from view and no posters on placed on the iconic glass entrances. Computer screens are cleaned constantly. Keep the environment clean, open, and uncluttered.
A-P-P-L-E
The Apple Store teaches its employees to follow five steps in each and every interaction. These are called the Apple five steps of service. They are outlined by the acronym A-P-P-L-E. They are,
Approach with a customized, warm greeting.
Probe politely to understand the customer’s needs.
Present a solution the customer can take home today.
Listen for and address unresolved questions.
End with a fond farewell and an invitation to return.
That’s all for this week. Until then have a great weekend 🚀