Apple is a company renowned for its endless zeal for innovation, design and branding. But a fascinating story from the Wall Street Journal has revealed just how seriously the company takes customer service in its rapidly-growing retail chain.
The expansion of Apple’s foray into retail has been one of its key strategies in building the incredibly brand loyalty around its iPhone, iPad and iPod products.
The “Genius Bars” within Apple stores are designed not to flog things, but to educate (some wags might say indoctrinate) customers about the entire suite of Apple’s products and provide technical support.
As Jobs said in a video tour of Apple’s first store back in 2001: “People don’t just want to buy personal computers anymore, they want to know what they can do with them.”
So how do they do it? According to the Journal, the keys include extensive training of staff and a deliberate lack of sales commissions and targets.
“Your job is to understand all of your customers’ needs – some of which they may not even realise they have,” one training manual says.
There are some nice little flourishes that customer service managers might like to latch on to.
For example, the “Apple steps of service” sets out the basics that all customer service staff must adhere to:
Staff are also told not to correct customers who mispronounce a product name so they don’t sound patronising, and are instructed to say “as it turns out” rather than “unfortunately” to sound less negative.
These last insights particularly underline how seriously Apple takes its customer service systems and processes and should challenge entrepreneurs to think about their own customer service standards.
You might not have the cool products that Apple has, but are you doing everything else in your power to keep your customers buying and coming back?
James was the editor and publisher of SmartCompany and LeadingCompany for five years. He is now the Australian Financial Review‘s companies & markets editor, and a former BRW editor.
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