The Apple Experience: Secrets to Building Insanely Great Customer Loyalty (31 page)

Apple did succeed in doubling its market share and in the process built a store that inspires retailers to elevate the customer experience. “He [Jobs] didn’t ask, ‘How do we build a phone that can achieve a 2 percent market share?’ He asked, ‘How do we reinvent the telephone?’ ”
⁴
said Ron Johnson. “In the same way, retailers shouldn’t be asking, ‘How do we create a store that’s going to do $15 million a year?’ They should be asking, ‘How do we reinvent the store to enrich our customers’ lives?’ ”

Apple is perfecting the notion of experience shopping for computers while Build-A-Bear has done so for teddy bears. By allowing
children to participate in the actual creation of their stuffed animals, the store has moved beyond a toy store to one that creates treasured childhood memories. Two years after their first Build-A-Bear experience, my daughters remember choosing their animals and the outfits they would wear. They also remember making a wish and watching as the animals’ “heart” was stuffed into the casing. Build-A-Bear learned long ago that kids love to create and that families enjoy interactive experiences together. In fact Build-A-Bear is not called a “store,” but a “workshop.” Its mission is to bring the teddy bear to life and to evoke warm thoughts about childhood. Anyone can sell a stuffed animal, but Build-A-Bear won the hearts and minds of millions of children around the world by turning the commodity into a multisensory experience.

Dr. A. K. Pradeep says the brain loves multisensory experiences. The more you engage the senses, the more likely it is that the brain engages with the product or service on an emotional level. This stimulates information retention and, not surprisingly, the willingness to buy. By encouraging customers to touch and play with products, Apple and
LEGO
stores are satisfying a core subconscious need. According to Pradeep, “Superior shopping experiences are those that enable consumers to walk away not only having absorbed a lot of information, but having extracted insight that becomes part of an educational experience. Education is more than information. It is distilled insights that can be used on an ongoing basis.”
⁵

Pradeep also believes entertainment plays a key role, in addition to information and education. “A huge benefit of modern life is the luxury of being entertained while we shop. This is such a compelling feature of the experience that we seek it out whenever we can. The combination of shopping (which the brain more or less equates with hunting and gathering) and entertainment is enormously powerful.”
⁶

The Apple Store is fun. It’s entertaining. And that’s the way Steve Jobs wanted it. At any given time you can see Creatives teaching a customer to edit a video, a group of seniors learning to use an iPad, parents and their children learning to make songs together in a youth workshop, teachers taking kids on field trips to learn and create things, children playing games on an iMac in the “family room” section of the store, while others are attending an event in the Apple theater. Apple likes to say that people come to shop but they return to learn. Apple has turned the boring sales floor into a playground for kids and adults. Jobs and Johnson didn’t just “reimagine” the retail experience, they blew it up and started over. According to Johnson, “The retailers that win the future are the ones that start from scratch and figure out how to create fundamentally new types of value for customers.”
⁷

Former Apple Store executives like Tesla vice president George Blankenship are well aware of the power of multisensory emotional experiences. In developing Tesla’s concept stores, Blankenship didn’t just apply some of the Apple Store principles to the car-buying experience, he copied them exactly. The only difference is that Tesla sells cars and Apple sells computers. Among the similarities:

 

• Upscale Location.
  Tesla stores are located in upscale shopping malls in places like Fashion Island in Newport Beach and Santana Row, San Jose, or the Oakbrook Center in Illinois. Just as Steve Jobs didn’t think that people would gamble with twenty minutes of their time to try out new Apple computers in 2001, Tesla’s cars are so different that the store would rather be seen in places where people are spending their time anyway.
  
 

• Open Space.
  Tesla dealerships are sparkling clean, uncluttered, brightly lit, and white.
  
 

• Interactive Displays.
  Large interactive digital displays invite people to create their own cars, choosing colors, interiors, and other accessories. Then with a swipe of their finger, they can “throw” it to a wall-size display on the back wall where an image of the car they built fills the entire screen. Multisensory, hands-on displays and exhibits give the casual shopper a feeling of what it’s like to own a Tesla.
  
 

• Friendly Associates.
  They do not work on commission. They are trained not to “sell cars” but instead to make sure that everyone walks out the door with a smile. The goal is to inform, engage, and excite people who enter the store. Tesla hires people who are enthusiastic about the technology and its opportunity to change the world. When people learn something new in a low-pressure, relaxed setting, they are more likely to feel better—and different—than in any other retail experience they’ve had in the past.
  

Just as Apple is not in the business of selling cars, Tesla is not in the business of selling computers. It’s in the business of teaching people something new, making them feel good, and putting smiles on their faces. Now that’s reinventing the car-buying experience!

An internal discussion took place early in the history of the Apple Retail Store. The original vision was to make Apple the best place to
buy
a computer. Jobs and his retail team realized that it was the wrong approach. Apple, they decided, should be the best place to
own
a computer. The ability to interact with devices, to learn, to get help, to get started, and to acquire knowledge about products and software all enhance the ownership experience.

An executive who had the task of reinventing the Disney Store turned to Disney’s largest shareholder, Steve Jobs, for advice. Jobs offered these two words: dream bigger. No better advice has even been given. “Steve provided us with inspiration and support. He encouraged us to think big,”
⁸
said James Fielding, president of Disney Stores Worldwide.

Fielding says the old stores lacked excitement for a company that represents creativity and wonder. It was a serious problem. Fielding says the new stores “should not just be another place to buy Disney stuff but rather a physical manifestation of what Disney creates.” By 2016, all of Disney’s stores will reflect the new concept model. People can buy Disney products at many retailers, so the Disney Store will become an interactive playground to celebrate the brand. A little girl waving a magic wand in the princess neighborhood can call up Belle from
Beauty and the Beast
or Jasmine from
Aladdin
who suddenly appear. An image of Buzz Lightyear from
Toy Story
might suddenly begin to fly around the store. Meanwhile Disney movies might be shown in the theater, while character-drawing workshops are taking place in another area of the store. “Apple stores revolutionized retail,” said Fielding. “But it’s not like we were the new kids on the block. We wanted to get back to our heritage.”

Disney looks to Apple to regain its “heritage” in creating excitement for its retail store guests. Shouldn’t the rest of us? Ron Johnson once said that there’s no one formula that works for every business or every retailer. Every business must find the unique formula that works best for it. But he does recommend that businesses start from scratch to create a formula that will help them win the future. There is one big lesson that we can all take away from Apple’s success. Stop trying to figure out how to sell something to somebody; figure out how you want your customers to
feel
. That’s the Apple way.

T
he Apple Retail Store does not sell products. It enriches lives and, by doing so, has become the most profitable retailer on the planet. Apple’s customer service scores are the envy of the industry because its employees (Specialists, Creatives, Experts, and Geniuses) strive to make customer experiences memorable and magical. Jobs once told former Apple CEO John Sculley that it’s better to be a pirate than to join the navy. In other words, break away from convention and what’s ordinary. The ordinary is to sell products. The vision behind the Apple Store is to enrich lives. That’s extraordinary.

While I was researching this book, people close to me would ask, “Who are you writing this book for? Retailers?” The answer soon became obvious. This book is for anyone who has a business that deals with people. Sure, it includes retailers in any category. But it also includes small business owners, entrepreneurs, managers, CEOs, lawyers, accountants, doctors, sales professionals, department supervisors, and anyone who sells a service or a product. It’s for anyone who is serious about reimagining the customer experience,
because at its core, this book is not about Apple. It’s about the
soul
of Apple—its people.

Most people don’t know why they feel good in an Apple Store, they just do. But it’s people who elevate the customer experience—people who are inspired, are passionate, and have been given the resources and taught the communication techniques required to turn transactions into experiences. Apple values dynamic and interesting people who are passionate about the brand. Apple offers stimulating work environments designed to enhance careers and develop lifelong skills. Apple values innovation, embraces change, and seeks feedback from its employees and customers. Apple celebrates diversity and gives employees and customers the opportunity to reach their highest form of self-expression. Apple creates a community dedicated to open communication and commitment to its customers every day. Apple inspires and creates a happy place for people to work and for customers to learn. Inspire people and anything can happen.

Seven months before he passed away, Steve Jobs took to the stage to introduce the iPad 2. He was noticeably thin and weaker than usual. But his deteriorating health didn’t stop him from putting a smile on his face and briefly telling the audience what he believed about creating products and experiences. Jobs’s words are worth remembering: