Page 121 - The Apple Experience

sure every customer is greeted within ten feet or ten seconds of entering the
store. Well, it didn’t take more than two seconds before “Brittany” welcomed

me with a smile and a friendly, “Hello, welcome to AT&T.” Although sixty

to seventy people were in the store at the time, making it considerably busier

than normal, I felt welcomed upon entering.

My second stop was the LEGO Store located directly next to the Apple

Store that, not coincidentally, offers the same style of experience. Before I

could even start my stopwatch to see how many minutes would go by, “John”
greeted me, my daughters, and the friends who had accompanied us.

“Welcome to LEGO. Let me know if you have any questions,” he said. John

then turned to a thirteen-year-old girl in our group who was wearing a

holiday-themed snow hat and said, “I like your hat.” A few minutes later the

girl walked up to me and said, “Did you hear what he said? He likes my hat!”

Amazing. That’s all it took for this girl to feel special—a smile and a friendly

“personalized” greeting.
The LEGO Store was packed. With about one hundred people in the

store, there was hardly any place to stand, yet John was able to greet each and

every person who walked through the door. When John had a break in

between customers, I asked him why he said hello to everyone. “It’s my job.

I’m supposed to give everyone a warm welcome. It’s part of our customer

service experience,” he said. I was stunned that John actually used the words

“warm welcome.” It seems as though this particular LEGO Store had learned

something from the customer service champion next door.

Finally, we reached the moment I had been dreading: the Apple Store. I
was dreading the event because Apple is busy on a slow day. Sure enough, it

was slammed on Black Friday. I didn’t even bother to count the customers,

because I could not see past the first few feet. I saw only a wall of people. Yet

each and every customer was being greeted with a warm welcome and a