The Apple Experience: Secrets to Building Insanely Great Customer Loyalty (18 page)

If you asked the customer in this scenario how long he had waited for a salesperson, what do you think his answer would be? Ten minutes? Wrong. He would say, “Two or three minutes.” It’s because he was greeted immediately, and the manager, the “owner” of the relationship returned to reset his internal clock. Once the manager tells the customer that he is next in line or he will have to wait three minutes for assistance, the customer perceives that he has waited only a few minutes to be served. He leaves the store thinking,
Great service. Fast and efficient!

This concept of resetting internal clocks is such a critical component of the Apple experience, that it is discussed constantly at Apple stores. Managers are consistently watching and coaching employees to reset clocks.

Failing to reset clocks could cost you business. Most people hate the experience of buying a car because they feel pressured by commissioned salespeople. Instead of resetting clocks, their clocks get overwound! My close friend Tim and his wife, Denise, had the opposite experience at a car dealership, but equally as frustrating.

Tim and Denise ended up buying a new Mercedes because someone at another dealership, Audi, had not followed the Apple
steps of service nor reset their internal clocks. Tim and Denise had no knowledge of the Apple steps of service; all they knew was that their experience at the dealership had been so horrible that they left, went to a competitor, and bought a car that day. But after listening to their story, it was obvious that failing to follow Apple’s five steps, especially the greeting, cost Audi $70,000 in business. Here’s what happened.

My friends had narrowed down their choices for a new car between two brands, Audi and Mercedes. Although they were impressed with the Mercedes, it was a higher price point than the Audi, and having owned an Audi in the past, they appreciated its quality. So they walked into an Audi dealership with a check in hand ready to buy a new car. The receptionist never looked up. They waited for a few minutes clearly in view of the receptionist. The receptionist didn’t make eye contact, didn’t smile, nor even acknowledge their presence. When Tim and Denise finally asked to a see a salesperson, the receptionist said that since they “didn’t have an appointment,” nobody was available at the time. They were told that if they waited, someone “might” be able to help them in forty-five minutes!

Tim and his wife were confused because they had never heard of such a policy at an auto dealer. Perhaps, if the receptionist had offered an explanation, they would have understood. But no explanation was given. They decided to leave, and the receptionist didn’t even say good-bye. Tim and Denise then went directly to the Mercedes dealership down the street where a salesperson, Alan, greeted them with a warm welcome right away. No more than five minutes had elapsed from the moment they walked into the door before they were “sold.” They were so satisfied with the experience that they bought a Mercedes that day, spent more than they would have spent at Audi, and even recommended Alan by name to other friends in the market for a car.

Audi lost a sale because its employee was not trained in the Apple way. Here’s how the conversation would have gone at the Audi dealership with an effectively trained receptionist.

Receptionist
(within a few feet or seconds of the couple walking through the door)
:
Hi, welcome to Audi. How can we help you today?

Customer:
We’re here to look at a new car.

Receptionist:
Great. We’d love to help you. We have started a new “by appointment” program at our store so you can make an appointment to come in at a specific time. However, since you’re here, let me try to find someone who can help you right away.

Customer:
Thanks. (starts looking around)

Receptionist
(two minutes later)
:
Our sales reps are really busy today with customers. “Fred” can see you just as soon as he’s done with his current customer. We want to be respectful of your time, so I have to tell you that he will not be available for forty-five minutes. If you can wait, Fred will help you. But I’ll keep looking, and if someone is available even sooner, I’ll send them over right away. Can I offer you some coffee or something to drink in the meantime?

Customer:
I guess that’s fine. We didn’t want to wait that long, but since we’re here we might as well stay. (The customer is still disappointed and grudgingly accepts the wait time, but at least he has been acknowledged and his clock has been set. He’s in the game.)

Receptionist
(five minutes later)
:
Has anyone helped you yet?

Customer:
No, we’re still waiting.

Receptionist:
Let me check on Fred’s status. I’ll be right back.

Receptionist
(three minutes later)
:
Fred is still with another customer, but Marvin is almost free. He will be with you in less than fifteen minutes. While you wait for Marvin, would you like to see our new sedan? It’s been named car of the year. It’s an amazing experience. Feel free to sit inside and check it out.

Marvin
(ten minutes later)
:
Hi, I’m Marvin. Please accept my apologies for the wait.

Customer:
No problem. We were waiting for only a few minutes.

The customers had not been waiting “a few minutes.” The couple had been waiting close to thirty minutes, but their internal clocks had been reset several times. I ran this “Apple” version of
the scenario by my friends, Tim and Denise, and they agreed that if such a conversation had taken place, they would have stayed and purchased the car they originally intended to buy. The car dealership could have made $70,000 in one transaction simply by resetting a customer’s internal clock. Instead, the dealership lost the sale, and my friends became vocal detractors of the brand to friends and family. Now, if you think about it even more carefully, this sale was lost well before the receptionist failed to follow the Apple steps of service. It was lost in the hiring process, which is why Chapter 2 is critical. The receptionist never smiled. She was unfriendly. In other words, Apple never would have hired her! You can train people to greet, smile, and reset internal clocks, but if they are naturally unfriendly, the five steps mean nothing.

Resetting the clock is not a new concept in other areas of customer service. Apple simply applies it to the communication between the customer and salesperson. But many companies reset the clock, especially in the areas of phone and tech support. Amazon, Symantec, AT&T, and many other brands will let you know what the wait time is when you call for help. AT&T and Amazon phone reps ask customers for permission before putting them on hold and will get back on the phone every minute or two to offer a status update. Visit the support page for Symantec, which makes the popular Norton antivirus suite of products, and the wait time is clearly posted on the website for its 24-7 phone support (Amazon offers this as well). Think about it. What would leave you feeling better about the conversation, sitting on hold for six minutes or being told up front that the wait time will be six minutes? The latter, of course.

Disney has more experience than any brand in creating smiles. But as many of the 30 million visitors a year to Walt Disney World can tell you, the “happiest place on earth” experience can be compromised by standing in long, long lines. The smartphone era has bred a generation of impatient guests, and Disney is constantly working on its customer service to stay relevant and to improve the overall experience.

Disney technicians and Imagineers (the folks who come up with ideas for new rides and attractions) have had to develop ways to keep people informed and entertained during their wait. Although Disney doesn’t use the phrase “reset internal clocks,” it’s exactly what they do when they dispatch Captain Jack Sparrow to entertain people when a line gets too long. Yes, there is actually a nerve center under Cinderella’s Castle with flat screen TVs showing wait times at all the attractions. Technicians will even launch miniparades to keep guests occupied or to siphon people to a less-congested part of the park. If a restaurant is too busy, technicians will dispatch “greeters” to hand out menus to people in line. They are even experimenting with offering short video games (about 90 seconds in length) to keep people occupied while they are waiting. The goal at Disney, of course, is to make its guests happy, and Disney has found that the less time you
perceive
waiting in line, the happier you’ll be.

If you study the great customer service brands of our time, including The Ritz Carlton, Four Seasons Hotels, Zappos, Nordstrom, Starbucks, FedEx, and Apple, you will find a common theme. Each brand has learned that customers or guests want three things—smart staff, a friendly face, and fast service.

 

• Smart.
  Smart means that the staff is knowledgeable. Everyone on the Apple floor knows about the products. Some are more specialized than others and focus on certain areas or product categories, but they can all explain the products. In Part III you’ll learn about a soap company called Lush that sends a sample of all new products to every employee so each one can speak about each new product from personal experience.
  
 

• Friendly.
  Friendly people greet you with a smile, offer their name, ask for yours in return, use your name during the conversation, give their undivided attention, have a positive attitude, and walk you to the door as though you were a guest in their home.
  
 

• Fast.
  Fast service should not be interpreted as getting a customer in and out as fast as possible. Fast is as fast as the customer wants the experience to be! If an Apple customer walks into a store and says, “I’m on my lunch break, and I don’t have that much time,” an Apple employee will serve that person as promptly as possible. But if another customer wants to spend a leisurely amount of time to learn about a MacBook and it takes an hour to answer all his questions, that’s OK as well. Remember, Apple Store employees are told constantly that their goal is not to sell stuff. The goal is to make people’s lives better. It is to enrich a customer’s life and have her walk out with a smile. For some folks, a smile means in and out in five minutes. For others, a smile takes an hour.
  

My daughters love to bring their prized possessions in the car whenever we travel. The problem: they often drop things in the cracks of their seats and then scream at the driver (usually me or my wife) because they can’t reach the Polly Pocket shoe, the skirt to their Zhu Zhu Pet, or whatever else they decided to lug in the car that day. It’s not our fault when they lose their trinkets, but we get the anger, blame, and frustration.

These childish behaviors (defensiveness, blame, dismissive expressions or gestures, and little effort to remedy the mishap) are expected in a four-year-old, but unfortunately, they have become all too common in the way employees often deal with customers who have legitimate questions about the service. Have you ever heard one of these comments in response to a customer service question?

 

• “That’s our policy, and I can’t do anything about it.”
  
 

• “I don’t work in that department and can’t help you with that.”
  
 

• “I just got back from break and know nothing about this.”
  
 

• “He’s new and doesn’t know what he’s doing yet.”
  
 

• “You can’t use that coupon because it expired yesterday.”
  
 

• “No one has ever had an issue with this before.”
  
 

• “I’m helping someone else right now.”
  

Customer service blunders are inevitable. Customers complain, and there will be times they have to wait, no matter where they are. Resetting your customer’s clock is even more important in these delicate situations. Salespeople need to be smart, friendly, and fast. They also need to be skilled at smoothing things over for disgruntled customers. The process works much better if employees are trained to go on the offense instead of playing defense.

My wife writes a customer service column on our site, and she receives great customer service stories from people around the country. Here’s one story of how an Outback Steakhouse in Louisville, Colorado, played offense and hit a home run.

My wife and I entered an Outback Steakhouse one evening for a quick dinner. The hostess took our name and the need for a table for two. As we sat there, additional parties came in and then we noticed a trend. Numerous parties of three and four were being seated but we were not—the bypassing of us for larger parties continued past the time when we should have been given a larger table. Once I addressed the issue with the manager on duty, we were quickly seated, with a sincere apology and an appetizer “on the house.” At that point, we were satisfied with the quick response and enjoyed our free appetizer.

As it turns out, the owner of this and several other Outback locations was in the building and came over to our table, offered a sincere apology, and indicated that the hostess was new and that he had replaced her for the evening and would provide her with additional training. He took the blame, placing it on himself as a training failure instead of the typical “blame it on the employee” response. He then asked if he could talk to us again after our meal and offered to buy our desserts.

He spent twenty minutes talking to us, gathering our opinion on a number of topics related to his restaurant and our overall observations and experience. This was a great way to handle such a simple service failure, well beyond what we expected. We were happy after the free appetizer and even more so after the free desserts and the personal attention from the owner.

But the purpose of this tale is what happened next—the owner picked up the tab for our entire meal, asking only that we tip the waitperson on the total bill. This was a fantastic response for having us wait a bit longer than we should have for a table and a great example of dealing with a customer service failure. Then he totally blew us away … he handed us a card and offered to buy us another complete meal, an appetizer, two entrées, two drinks, and two desserts, if we would come back two weeks from that night, give them another try, and give our comments to the duty manager that evening.
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