Page 230 - The Apple Experience

clean. He was more concerned about saving a penny on a coffee cup. He
simply didn’t care about what customers care about. His vision was all about

saving money and not enhancing the customer experience. This lazy practice

doesn’t have to be the case. A friend of mine works at a Starbucks location,

and she says it’s their policy to scan the tables every fifteen minutes to make

sure they are clear, clean, and ready for the next patron. Starbucks gets it.

Apple gets it. But many others do not.

When this restaurant in my town goes out of business—and it will—what
do you think the owner will blame? The economy, of course. But it’s not

about the economy; it’s about the experience. Successful business owners

care. They care about the people they hire, how they are trained, the quality

of the product, the interactions between staff and customers, and the way

customers feel when they walk in and when they walk out.

Dirty Toilets and Other Ways to Piss Away Your

Customers

The infamous, handwritten “Please let us know if our bathroom needs

attention” sign is typically a telltale sign that you are in a much neglected

bathroom (and it won’t get better after you notify the staff). A friend of mine

purposely goes to certain stores and restaurants where he knows the
bathrooms are clean and orderly, because he doesn’t want to get stuck using a

dirty toilet. During an interview for an article I wrote for Bloomberg

Businessweek, I remember a story Paul Orfalea, founder of Kinko’s, now

FedEx Office, told me. When he would visit Kinko’s locations, one of the
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first actions he took was to visit the loo, not for the obvious, but to make sure

customers were getting the clean, well-stocked bathroom they deserved