Page 134 - The Apple Experience

lives,” and so it would make sense for a manager to ask an employee who
spent a long time with a customer, “Did you enrich that person’s life today?”

Amazing customer service once again at the Church of Apple.
Swapped cat pictures and stories with the sales guy. —Bronwyn M.

It’s not enough to train yourself—or your team—to deliver the five steps
of service. You must help them understand why they’re going through the

steps. I’ve walked into several retail locations where a person is positioned to

say hello to every customer. In one trip to my local mall I heard, “Hi,

welcome to Justice” and “Hi, welcome to Pottery Barn.” When I asked the

employees in both locations why they greet each and every person who walks

through the door, they both had exactly the same answer—I was told to do

it. But when I asked someone in an Apple Retail Store why she greets
people, she said, “We welcome our customers to enhance the overall

customer experience. We’re all about the experience. We want you to feel

great about visiting our store, and we want you to have fun!” Clearly the

Apple employee had internalized the brand’s commitment to enhancing the

customer experience.

What AT&T Retail Learned from Steve Jobs

The retailer who most closely—and successfully—follows the Apple model

is, not surprisingly, the AT&T retail store. In fact, AT&T’s customer service

experience was directly influenced and inspired by Steve Jobs, who would call

the company’s head of retail to offer his advice. Of course, Steve being Steve,

the advice was often unsolicited but always spot-on. Jobs had spent decades

thinking about and refining the customer experience, and he could be very
gracious in helping other brands—partners, especially—improve their

experience.