Page 14 - The Apple Experience

 “Apple has the best customer service in the history of service.”

 “Apple has just made me the happiest person in the world. Great customer

service!”

Three months after my experience with Sears, the company dropped a

bombshell, announcing that it would close 120 stores and lay off thousands

of people after a significant drop in same-store sales. Sears blamed the

economy, but retail experts pointed to a severe decline in customer service as

the primary culprit behind Sears’s trouble.
What was the difference? How does Apple succeed when so many others

fail? What is Apple doing right? Most important, what principles can any

business learn from Apple about creating an extraordinary customer

experience? It starts by asking the right questions. While Sears leaders were

asking themselves, “Where are the best places to cut expenses?” Apple senior

executives including Steve Jobs were asking, “Who provides the world’s best

customer service?”

Stuff You Don’t Learn in School

I hold a unique position within the Apple community. My book The

Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs is an international bestseller and has changed
the way entrepreneurs and business leaders around the world tell their brand

stories. In some countries such as Japan, it has become one of the most

successful nonfiction books in recent history. Everyone, it seems, wants to

communicate better, and who better to learn from than the late Steve Jobs,

the master of communication? The principles outlined in the book are

catching on. When Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg introduced a

redesign to the site, many observers on Twitter suggested that he must have