Page 149 - The Apple Experience

occupied while they are waiting. The goal at Disney, of course, is to make its
guests happy, and Disney has found that the less time you perceive waiting in

line, the happier you’ll be.

Three Simple Secrets of Customer Service Champs

If you study the great customer service brands of our time, including The

Ritz Carlton, Four Seasons Hotels, Zappos, Nordstrom, Starbucks, FedEx,

and Apple, you will find a common theme. Each brand has learned that

customers or guests want three things—smart staff, a friendly face, and fast

service.

 Smart. Smart means that the staff is knowledgeable. Everyone on the Apple
floor knows about the products. Some are more specialized than others and

focus on certain areas or product categories, but they can all explain the

products. In Part III you’ll learn about a soap company called Lush that sends a
sample of all new products to every employee so each one can speak about each

new product from personal experience.

 Friendly. Friendly people greet you with a smile, offer their name, ask for

yours in return, use your name during the conversation, give their undivided
attention, have a positive attitude, and walk you to the door as though you were

a guest in their home.

 Fast. Fast service should not be interpreted as getting a customer in and out
as fast as possible. Fast is as fast as the customer wants the experience to be! If

an Apple customer walks into a store and says, “I’m on my lunch break, and I
don’t have that much time,” an Apple employee will serve that person as

promptly as possible. But if another customer wants to spend a leisurely
amount of time to learn about a MacBook and it takes an hour to answer all his

questions, that’s OK as well. Remember, Apple Store employees are told

constantly that their goal is not to sell stuff. The goal is to make people’s lives