So whilst on my short trip around the world I visited an Apple store whenever I could, in the end it turned out to be pretty much everywhere.
First off Washington followed by London Covent Garden and the new one at Stanford city Westfield end to end with Hong Kong IFC mall (Pictured).
The first thing you should know is I didn’t actually going to buy anything, I simply went into experience the service and style that is the Apple store as I work in retail.
The Apple stores are now known worldwide for their amazing designs, friendly staff and not to mention the crazy YouTube videos of people dancing, proposing and there is even one of someone getting married in a store. So what makes an Apple store and Apple store?
Simple answer: The Staff! Yup that’s right the top reason people go to an Apple store is the staff and one off the secret to the staff is they follow five steps A-P-P-L-E
A: "Approach with a personalised warm welcome" on all my visits to their stores I got this, generally a nice comment about what I’m wearing.
P: "Probe politely to understand the customer’s needs"
P: "Present a solution that customers can take home today"
L: "Listen the fall and resolve issues or concerns"
E: "End with a fond farewell and an invitation to return" This one is clever I mentioned I was returning to Hong Kong in August so when I left he remembered this and said "look forward to seeing you in August"
Those five steps I discovered are actually printed on the back of the lanyard that staff wear.
Other thing I noticed standing and observing, the staff position all the MacBook’s screens in a certain angle and not for best viewing either they do this so when you go up to the machine you have to touch it! Also I guess the staff are allowed to have personalised conversations with you and also other staff members as I came across this in most of the stores I visited.
Discussing with one of the managers in the Hong Kong store about working for Apple in a retail store, I discovered that they would prefer to employ someone with personality or as he put "very approachable people" then someone who knows how to build a computer from scratch.
Everything is connected so not only can you go in and use the Internet, you don’t have to do it secretly, because you can even ask a staff member to show you to an available Mac to do your browsing on as someone did whilst I was standing next to them.
Just one other thing to add, Steve Jobs and his designers team based the Apple store around a Four Seasons Hotel, hence the reason why you do not see any point of sale units and there is a bar at the back of every store, obviously they don’t sell alcohol but there are a great place to get help with your product.