Page 39 - The Apple Experience

An Apple manager will rarely walk over to an employee on the sales floor
and tell that person to end a conversation with a customer (unless there’s a

situation that requires the employee’s attention, in which case the manager

will make sure the customer’s needs are still met). If an Apple employee

spends twenty minutes talking football with a customer and five minutes

talking about the product, it’s perfectly OK, even if the customer doesn’t

leave the store having bought a product that day. Apple hires friendly

employees who genuinely like people and who are passionate about building
relationships. It’s a philosophy that works for any company in any field.

Everyone is super nice at the Apple store at The Pier in Atlantic City. Take notes
NJ! —Julia G.

Disney’s People Management Philosophy

Steve Jobs was Disney’s largest shareholder (today his wife Laurene Powell-

Jobs manages the family’s trust of 138 million Disney shares). Jobs admired

the way Walt Disney built a legacy that would outlast him, and he studied

how the Walt Disney company maintained a high and consistent guest

experience. In turn Disney also benchmarked its customer experience against

Apple. The Disney Store was reinvented with input from Steve Jobs himself.

The two brands made each other better, and by studying what they’ve
learned, your brand can become better as well.

At 60,000 employees the Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando,

Florida, is the largest single-site employer in the United States. Those

employees embrace the Disney culture and spread the Disney magic to the

thirty million guests who visit Disney theme parks every year. I’ve always

been fascinated with how Disney can provide a consistent guest experience in

almost every customer interaction, despite thousands of guests walking