The Apple Experience: Secrets to Building Insanely Great Customer Loyalty (32 page)

It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough. It’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that makes our hearts sing. And nowhere is that more true than in these post-PC devices. A lot of folks in this tablet market are rushing in and they’re looking at this as the next PC. They’re talking about speeds and feeds just like they did with PCs. Our experience and every bone in our body says that that is not the right approach. These post-PC devices need to be even easier to use than a PC. Even more intuitive than a PC. We think we’re on the right track with this. We
think we have the right architecture not just in silicon, but in the organization to build these kinds of products.
¹

The products Jobs envisioned continue to delight young and old the world over, but it’s the
experience
those customers have with those products that make them return again and again.

I mentioned earlier that my daughter Josephine was six years old when I took her to the Apple Store for the first time. She had never touched an iPad before but started navigating it like a pro in a matter of seconds. Josephine turned to me, smiled, and said, “I
love
this store!” Now you know why. If you can delight your customers and make them feel joyful, you know you’re on to something.

Steve Jobs was passionate about building a company that lasts. He told biographer Walter Isaacson that his most important professional goal was to do what his heroes Bill Hewlett and David Packard had done, which was to build a company so imbued with innovation and creativity that it would outlive them. Life is far too short to give anything you do a half-baked effort. Steve encouraged us to live a life of excellence, and that excellence extends to how you treat your employees and how they, in turn, treat the customer. Give your customers an experience to remember, and they’ll help you build a legacy to be proud of.

“Average is officially over,”
²
declares Thomas Friedman in his book
That Used to Be Us
. “What was ‘average’ work ten years ago is below average today and will be further below average ten years from now … As a result everyone needs to raise his or her game just to stay in place, let alone get ahead of other workers. What was an average performance in the past will not earn an average grade, an average wage, or a middle class standard of living.” Friedman believes that everyone should be asking if what they are doing is unique and irreplaceable. “Am I putting some extra chocolate, whipped cream, and a cherry on top of whatever I do?” he suggests asking.

In the hyperconnected world that Friedman describes, anyone who wants to start a business has more resources available than ever
before, far more than Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak had in 1976 when they started Apple in the garage of Jobs’s parents’ house in Los Altos, California. But unless that entrepreneur offers something “extra” or above average, it doesn’t matter.

Even those who are not entrepreneurs must reinvent themselves within their companies if they hope to remain relevant in an increasingly complex and competitive global environment. “For many others it will mean becoming a creative server and bringing a special passion or human touch to a job in a way that truly enriches the experience for the person paying for it,”
³
says Friedman.

You see it when you are waited on by a salesperson in the men’s suit department or the women’s shoe department who is so engaging, so up on the latest fashions and able to make you look your best that you’ll come back and ask for that person by name. You see it in that trainer or Pilates instructor who seems to know exactly how to teach each exercise properly—the one everyone is standing in line for, even though he charges more than his colleagues. And you see it on Southwest Airlines, where they manage to take an economy seat and give it something extra.

And you see it in the Apple Store and in every retailer in the past ten years that Apple has inspired to raise its game.

During an interview on
Charlie Rose
, Pixar chief John Lasseter told a short, insightful story about Steve Jobs. Steve had purchased Pixar for $10 million from George Lucas in 1986. Jobs lost money on Pixar every quarter for nine straight years, pumping $50 million of his own money into the company. But he believed in the people and their vision to create digitally animated movies that would enrich the lives of moviegoers of any age.

When Jobs was thinking of returning to Apple in 1997, he sought Lasseter’s permission. He didn’t need to, of course, but Pixar held a special place in Jobs’s heart. He told Lasseter, “The reason
why I’m going back is because I think the world is a better place with Apple in it, and they’re not going to survive.”
⁴
Jobs believed the world was a better place with Pixar in it, as well. Jobs told Lasseter, “The way people feel about our brand [Pixar] is the way people felt about Apple. It’s like a bank account. We have the opportunity to put deposits in the bank account by making a great product, something they really love, or we can do withdrawals, putting something out there that we know is not good enough but still putting our name on to it.”

To Steve Jobs every single thing Pixar did had to be great. He wanted Pixar to always aim high. In Lasseter’s first meeting with Jobs, when Lasseter was just one of four animators in the company that Jobs had purchased from Lucas, Lasseter wanted to tell Jobs about a short film he was working on. Jobs’s only piece of advice: just make it great. That short,
Tin Toy
, became Pixar’s first animated film to win an Academy Award.

Just make it great
. If you are fortunate enough to make a product, offer a service, or back a cause that brings value to people’s lives, then you owe it to them and to yourself to make it great. By doing so, you move society forward. Avoid the mistake of just focusing on the product or service. Instead, create a magical customer experience that enriches people’s lives. Just make it great—insanely great!

Introduction: Enriching Lives

1.
YouTube, “Mark Malkoff: Apple Store Challenge,” YouTube,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo2p82aTQzo
(accessed December 31, 2011).

2.
Ron Johnson, “What I Learned Building the Apple Store,”
Harvard Business Review
, November, 21, 2011,
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/11/what_i_learned_building_the_ap.html
(accessed December 31, 2011).

3.
Ibid.

PART I: INSPIRING YOUR INTERNAL CUSTOMER

1.
Nikki Blacksmith and Jim Harter, “Majority of American Workers Not Engaged in Their Jobs,” Gallup, October 28, 2011,
http://www.gallup.com/poll/150383/Majority-AmericanWorkers-Not-Engaged-Jobs.aspx
(accessed December 31, 2011).

Chapter 1: Dream Bigger

1.
Isadore Sharp,
Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy
(NY: Penguin Group, 2009), xv.

2.
Ibid., 95.

3.
Michael Basch,
Customer Culture: How FedEx and Other Great Companies
Put the Customer First Every Day
(Upper Saddle River, NJ: FT Prentice Hall, 2003), 12.

4.
Ibid., 9.

5.
Ibid., 24.

6.
Ron Johnson, ThinkEquity Conference 2006, posted on
www.ifoAppleStore.com
,
http://www.ifoapplestore.com/stores/thinkequity_2006_rj.html
(accessed December 31, 2011).

Chapter 2: Hire for Smiles

1.
Steve Lohr, “The Power of Taking the Big Chance,”
The New York Times,
October 8, 2011,
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/business/steve-jobs-and-the-power-of-taking-the-big-chance.html?pagewanted=all
(accessed December 31, 2011).

2.
Apple website. Jobs at Apple,
http://www.apple.com/jobs/us/welcome.html
(accessed November 6, 2011).

3.
ifoAppleStore.com
, “10th Apple Poster,”
http://www.ifoapplestore.com/db/10th-anniversary-poster/
(accessed December 31, 2011).

4.
CareerBuilder.com
, “Personality Trumps Intelligence in Hiring, Study Says,”
CareerBuilder.com
, June 9, 2011,
http://www.careerbuilder.com/Article/CB-2544-Hospitality-Personality-trumps-intelligence-in-hiring-study-says/
(accessed December 31, 2011).

5.
Bill Taylor, “Hire for Attitude, Train for Skill,”
Harvard Business Review
, February 1, 2011,
http://blogs.hbr.org/taylor/2011/02/hire_for_attitude_train_for_sk.html
(accessed December 31, 2011).

6.
Ibid.

7.
Adam Bryant, “Job Interviews Lead with 2 Big Questions,”
The New York
Times
, August 27, 2011,
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/business/a-boss-who-believes-nice-isnt-a-bad-word.html?pagewanted=all
(accessed December 31, 2011).

8.
Ibid.

9.
You’re the Boss, “Can an Applebee’s Franchisee Be a Real Entrepreneur?”
The New York Times
, September 14, 2011,
http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/zane-tankel/
(accessed December 31, 2011).

10.
Triumph of the Nerds
, PBS documentary DVD, directed by Paul Sen (1996; New York: Ambrose Video, 2002).

11.
Walter Isaacson,
Steve Jobs
(NY: Simon & Schuster, 2011), 114.

Chapter 3: Cultivate Fearless Employees

1.
Walter Isaacson,
Steve Jobs
(NY: Simon & Schuster, 2011), 564.

2.
Ibid., 460.

3.
YouTube, “Steve Jobs and NeXT,” YouTube,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOlqqriBvUM
(accessed December 31, 2011).

4.
Gary Allen, blogger,
www.ifoAppleStore.com
, in discussion with the author, October 11, 2011.

5.
Ibid.

6.
Walter Isaacson,
Steve Jobs
(NY: Simon & Schuster, 2011), 460.

7.
Ibid., 122.

8.
Terry Francona,
“On Leadership,” Opinions,
The Washington Post
, July 21, 2009,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2009/07/21/VI2009072102824.html
(accessed December 31, 2011).

9.
Men’s Wearhouse, “Creating Fearless and Energized Workplaces,” Men’s Wearhouse,
http://www.menswearhouse.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ContentAttachmentView_-1_10601_10051_10652_10708_10684_CreatingFearlessWorkplace.html_
(accessed December 31, 2011).

10.
Working Life, “Do Us a Favor, Take a Vacation,”
Bloomberg Businessweek,
May 21, 2007,
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_21/b4035088.htm
(accessed December 31, 2011).

11.
YouTube, “Steve Jobs Narrates Apple’s ‘The Crazy Ones’ TV ad,”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJzzu7ueZ7U&feature=related
(accessed December 31, 2011).

12.
uApple, “A Celebration of Steve’s Life,” Apple, October 19, 2011,
http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/10oiuhfvojb23/event/index.html
(accessed December 31, 2011).

Chapter 4: Build Trust

1.
Stephen M. R. Covey with Rebecca R. Merrill,
The Speed of Trust: The One
Thing That Changes Everything
(NY: Free Press, 2006), 21.

2.
Ibid., xxv.

3.
Apple Store credo card, anonymously given to author.

4.
Covey, op.cit., p. 229.

5.
Michael Lombardo and Robert Eichinger,
FYI/For Your Improvement: A
Guide for Development and Coaching; For Learners, Managers, Mentors, and Feedback Givers
, 5th edition (Minneapolis, MN: Lominger International, 2009), 180.

6.
Covey, op.cit., p. 146.

Chapter 5: Foster a Feedback Loop

1.
John Baldoni, “Hire People Who Disagree with You,”
Harvard Business
Review
, July 27, 2009,
http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/10oiuhfvojb23/event/index.html
(accessed December 31, 2011).

2.
Apple Store credo card, anonymously given to author.

3.
Nikki Blacksmith and Jim Harter, “Majority of American Workers Not Engaged in Their Jobs,” Gallup, October 28, 2011,
http://www.gallup.com/poll/150383/Majority-AmericanWorkers-Not-Engaged-Jobs.aspx
(accessed December 31, 2011).

4.
Fred Reichheld with Rob Markey,
The Ultimate Question 2.0: How Net
Promoter Companies Thrive in a Customer-Driven World
(Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing, 2011), 4.

5.
Ibid., 28.

6.
Ibid., 2.

7.
Ibid., 132.

8.
Ibid., 133.

9.
Apple customer feedback survey e-mailed to author on November 1, 2011.

10.
David Lazarus, “US Airways Could Add Some Humanity to Its ‘Corporate Personhood,’ ”
Los Angeles Times
, October 25, 2011,
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/oct/25/business/la-fi-lazarus-20111025
(accessed December 31, 2011).

11.
Reichheld op.cit., p. 284.

12.
Walter Isaacson,
Steve Jobs
(NY: Simon & Schuster, 2011), 569.