iPhone 5 table
Apple sold five million units of the iPhone 5 in its first weekend. No doubt most of those customers were eager to buy the new phone and didn’t need a lot of convincing. But now the real salesmanship begins and Apple Store specialists (salespeople) will educate consumers who are on the fence or simply want more information. For the most part the specialists will do it very well because they have been trained to communicate effectively with their customers.
The Apple Store has developed a brilliant method of training its employees to communicate with customers and to make those customers feel empowered, engaged, happy, and receptive. It’s called the Apple Five Steps of Service and every employee is trained to walk through the five steps in each and every transaction. For an explanation of each step, see my article Apple Store’s Secret Sauce: 5 Steps of Service.
I recently visited one store and played the role of a customer seeking information about the new phone.
Here’s an edited transcript of the conversation I had with Jen, a specialist, along with the steps and my notes.
Step 1: Approach with a personalized, warm welcome.
Jen: Hi, Carmine.
Carmine: Hi. I’d like to learn more about the iPhone 5. I’m trying to figure out if I should upgrade my iPhone 4.
Jen: For starters, it’s thinner and lighter than any other iPhone .
This is part of the script and Jen stuck to it perfectly. Apple employees were given basic messaging prior to hitting the sales floor. Please see my previous article on how Apple creates a “Twitter-friendly headline” for each product. Jen already knew my name because the person who initially greeted me entered my name and description into the iPad he was carrying. Jen read the description and knew exactly who to approach. There’s no shouting, “Carmine? Carmine? Is Carmine here?” The Apple approach is more personal and immediately makes customers feel acknowledged.
Step 2: Probe politely to understand all the customer’s needs.
Jen: Do you travel a lot?
Jen is now beginning a series of closed and open-ended questions to best understand my needs. Jen may have assumed I’m a business traveler because I was carrying a laptop bag. If Jen had been speaking to a mom and her young daughter, she probably would ask something different such as, “Do you take photos of your daughter on your iPhone?”
Carmine: Yes, I do travel a lot for business.
Jen: What airline do you usually take?
Carmine: United
Jen: Let me introduce you to Passbook. We have partnerships with United, Starbucks, Starwood and many other companies. It’s like a digital wallet. Instead of printing a boarding pass, United would send a digital boarding pass to your iPhone.
Jen takes me on a tour of Passbook. By now I can tell Jen is very well-trained and experienced. Apple Store managers have probably placed her at the iPhone table on opening weekend for this reason. Keep in mind if Jen had been speaking to the mom and her daughter, she might show them the new camera and demonstrate its ability to take panoramic pictures. If Jen chose to stay on Passbook with the mom, she might have focused on store coupons, gift cards, and movie tickets. The conversation is personalized through the probing process. It’s these moments that customers remember.
Step 3. Present a solution for the customer to take home today.
Carmine: It looks great. I’m not going to buy it today, but I’ll talk to my wife about it.
Jen: Please do. We have something called personal pickup. You can purchase the iPhone online and pick it up here in the store. We can transfer your data, show you a few cool features, and have you on your way.
This is an important step. Apple Store specialists are not on commission so Jen doesn’t care whether I buy a product or not. She does care about my experience. Her goal is to provide a solution. Apple believes so strongly in the connection between the store experience and its brand, specialists are being told to promote offerings such as personal pickup to encourage customers to come back to the store.
Step 4. Listen for and resolve issues or concerns.
Jen: Carmine, before you go, can I ask how many gigabytes you have on your iPhone 4?
Carmine: 16 gigs
Jen: May I see it?
I know exactly what Jen is doing. She’s going to look at how much capacity I use.
Jen: I see you’re using almost all of your capacity. You might want to consider the 32GB version.
Jen knows that the ‘capacity’ question is very common and I might have the question if I buy it on my own online. In my case, Jen is right. 16GB has been too little for me. However, I’ve seen this conversation go the opposite direction many times. If a customer is considering a 32GB model and has only used 4GB, a specialist might recommend the 16GB model, even though it’s a lower price point. A specialist’s role is to fit you with the right product to meet your needs and managers actually praise specialists who do this. There are many stories of customers who have been talked out of a much higher-priced MacBook Pro with Retina Display because it was too much computer for their needs.
Step 5. End with a fond farewell and invitation to return.
Jen: If you like your iPhone 4, you’ll love the iPhone 5. It’s a great phone. Please come back anytime and bring your wife. We can show her some features she might enjoy. If I’m not here, anyone can help you. I hope to see you again.
Carmine: Thanks, I’ll do that.
Jen closed this conversation brilliantly. She was ‘present’ during our conversation and really listened. She remembered that I make decisions with my wife and invited both of us to return. Nicely done.
I was very impressed with this conversation. Jen made an emotional connection with me and made me feel good about the relationship. I left the store with a smile and actually began considering an iPhone 5, even though my original intention had nothing to do with buying the product. Jen did what she was trained to do—create an emotional experience. I’ve said this before and I’ll repeat it again—these five steps work so well that it is imperative that you train all of your customer-facing employees to walk through the five steps in each and every customer interaction.