The Apple Experience: Secrets to Building Insanely Great Customer Loyalty Read Free Page A

an enthusiastic Apple employee. “Even people who walk in here upset leave happy,” he said. “It’s a rewarding experience, improving people’s lives for the better. That’s pretty special.” It sure is, and that’s why we need to study and emulate the experience.

CHAPTER 1
     

Dream Bigger
     
    We attract a different type of person, someone who really wants to get in a little over his head and make a dent in the universe.
     
    —Steve Jobs
     
    A s the world mourned the passing of Steve Jobs in October 2011, commentators were discussing the principles that made Apple a success. During an interview with the ABC News program
20/20
, correspondent Deborah Roberts asked me about the role vision played in Steve Jobs’s success. “Vision is everything,” I said. “A bold dream attracts evangelists, and no lasting brand can be built without a team of dedicated people who share the vision. Passion fuels the rocket; vision directs the rocket to its ultimate destination.” You simply cannot build an organization that delivers an extraordinary customer experience unless you have a clear vision of the type of experience you plan to offer.
    How did Steve Jobs start a company in the garage of his parents’ house and grow it into one of the most valuable companies on the planet? Did it take passion? You bet. Hard work? Creativity? Ingenuity? Yes, yes, and yes. But it all started with a vision that could not be contained withinthe small confines of the garage: to put a computer in the hands of everyday people. Once the vision was established, everything else fell into place. Vision was everything. Steve Jobs’s vision was not to make a load of money and retire on a yacht. (In fact with the exception of a corporate jet, Jobs lived a humble lifestyle. Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates once visited Jobs at his home and wondered how so many people could fit in such a modest dwelling.) Jobs’s vision was to make tools that would help people unleash their personal creativity. He wanted to build a company that would outlast him. He wanted to build a legacy. “Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me,” Steve Jobs once said. “Going to bed at night saying, ‘We’ve done something wonderful,’ that’s what matters to me.”
    A vision helps you see things that others might have missed. For example, when Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started Apple on April 1, 1976, “Woz” shared Jobs’s vision to build “personal” computers that average people could use and enjoy. The Apple II became the most popular personal computer of its time, but it was still not ready to enter the homes of everyday people. In 1979 Jobs was given a tour of the Xerox research facility in Palo Alto, California. There, for the first time, he saw a crude “graphical user interface” where a user would interact with a computer via colorful icons on the screen and a gadget called a “mouse.” Jobs instantly saw the potential of the technology for satisfying his vision of bringing a computer into the homes of everyday people. Jobs once said Xerox could have dominated the entire computer industry but did not because the Xerox vision was limited to building another copy machine. In other words, two people can see the same thing but interpret it differently based on their vision.

The Real Beginning of the Apple Store
     
    Steve Jobs had a lot in common with country music superstar Garth Brooks. Both artists were inspired by innovators who paved the road ahead of them. I saw Brooks perform a one-man show at the Wynn hotel in Las Vegas in which he captivated the audience for morethan two hours. When Brooks walked on stage, he told the audience that for them to really understand his music, he would have to start from the beginning. Brooks explained that his musical career did not begin with his first single. Instead his inspiration started in the 1960s, when his parents would bring home new albums in both country and contemporary styles.