Alex Frankel spent two years working undercover in entry level jobs at UPS, the Gap, the Container Store, Home Depot, Starbucks, and Apple. Frankel’s experiences are detailed in his new book Punching In: The Unauthorized Adventures of a Frontline Employee (Harper Collins, coming later this month).
In an excerpt for Fast Company, Frankel explains why Apple tops all retail operations:
Once on staff, I learned the difference between a gigahertz and a gigabyte, but more important, I saw that, like the iPod’s user interface, training of Apple Store employees has been carefully designed. A series of podcasts I listened to and watched showed that selling was all about the approach. I shadowed other workers as they executed the company’s three-step sales process. They explained to customers that they had some questions to understand their needs, got permission to fire away, and then kept digging to ascertain which products would be best. Position, permission, probe.
All this sets the employee’s on-the-job attitude. At an Apple Store, workers don’t seem to be selling (or working) too hard, just hanging out and dispensing information. And that moves a ridiculous amount of goods: Apple employees help sell $4,000 worth of product per square foot per month. When employees become sharers of information, instead of sellers of products, customers respond.
Full article here.
[Attribution: Fortune. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Too Hot!” for the heads up.]
That’s how to sell things, put the customer first!
I’ve always appreciated that I can walk into the Apple Store at Village Pointe in Omaha and not be hassled. The employees are perfectly fine with me playing around with the goods.
I’ve got a Macbook and one of the new iMacs, but my iPod is showing its age (Gen 4, 20 gig). That’ll be my next purchase, and I don’t need a salesperson to push it on me. I just need the chance to play around with the options, and these Apple Stores allow people to do just that.
The innovative ways of checking out when I do buy something don’t hurt the experience, either. I love those freakin’ stores . . .
being a previous employee of the Peabody, MA apple store he is correct.
Still, try to get help at the Genius Bar at either of the Manhattan locations during lunchtime. Prepare to wait.
@ Hot Carl
Still go shopping on black Friday anywhere, prepare to wait… I think a DUH! is recommended for this comment….
I was at an Apple Store last night. And I cant tell you how true this is. I was free to walk around the store at will and play with everything, even when I zeroed in on a product they let me be. But the second I began looking around like I might need help they were right there to assist.
I walked out of the Apple Store shocked at how comfortable it was.
It is refreshing to go in a store where the employees know the product. Making appointments for the Genius Bar on-line is the best way to avoid waiting.
@Hot Carl: dude, think for a second. Manhattan. Lunch time. Is there any place in New York City that ISN’T crowded at lunch time? An Apple Genius Bar would have to be the length of Long Island to handle all the questions people have in a city the size of New York.
Take my advice, brother: pick another time to see a Genius.
How much do those guys make at Apple stores? Are they minimum wage or commission based?
Apple stores have never been commissioned. It’s hourly, and sadly the rate has gone DOWN as the stores have gotten older, not up. All this ultimately leads to are less experienced less caring workers.
Maybe we do things different in Canada but the Apple stores at the Eaton Centre and Yorkdale are no utopian retail experience. The sales staff are aggressive, misinformed and on several occasions have down right lied! I’ve been embarrassed when I have brought possible new Mac customers in to buy units because of their behaviour and harassment. Just because you worked for GAP at some point or you have some trendy new hairdo doesn’t mean you should work for Apple. SHAME!
Pesky Pathetic Posers
@ SteveJobsAllergy
Whom has “down right lied?” Me thinks you are the one!
MW: toward-the finger points toward you.
Was at the Apple Store in Suburban Square (outside Philly) yesterday at lunch time to buy my two alloted iPhones and pick up a family pack of Leopard. First time I had been in that store (as compared to several times going to King of Prussia).
What a difference, the KofP store is a small footprint store in a LARGE mall complex and it is ALWAYS packed to the gills. The Sub Square store is bigger, maybe 2.5 times the size and alot nicer to shop in. The employee who stepped up to help me was, unfortunately, just moved over from King of Prussia, and didn’t know where precisely where the various accessories were on the shelves…minor hiccup!
In both stores the sales staff has been terrific as have the workers in the 5th Avenue, Soho and Mag Mile stores. Big or small, Apple’s got it down just right.
Anyone notice though the irony in that their hand held bluetooth checkout devices are Windoze?
it’s strange to think that Apple stores are a recent phenomenon. They’ve done such an amazing job of exposing potential customers to their wares. Most of us can probably remember having to go to campus bookstores or very specialized computer shops to see the current Mac offerings.
Any mall you go to, the Apple store is always brighter, less cluttered and more buzzing than any of its neighbours. I’m really looking forward to getting a free standing flagship Apple store here in Boston.
@ Hot Carl:
I don’t bother with the SoHo genius bar any more. I’ve made 7pm appointments at Fifth Ave., gone after work, and been out in less than an hour both times.
SoHo may be better now that Fifth Ave. is open and both will probably be better when the Meatpacking store opens (whenever that will be).
Yeah, whenever a girl asks me why I work at a minimum wage job, I tell her I’m undercover, too.
the nda he signed meant nothing then lol
“Let me sell you something”
becomes
“Let me tell you something”…
Ching ching!
@SteveJobsAllergy
Yeah, we do things different in Canada. We don’t have the service standard that the US has, and Toronto is a snotty town.
Every time I go to the US, I’m struck by how much better service is on average.
@SteveJobsAllergy
The reasons why I disbelieve your account is that I know that Apple employs ‘phantom’ shoppers to do spot checks from the customer experience. They do this on a world wide basis and every shop gets at least 1 visit per month in each of the main periods (first open, off peak day, lunch time rush, evening rush). In addition the genius and ipod bars get similar covert inspections as well. Any person who does not comply with Apple’s code of practice for customer interactions is subject to the usual internal procedures to improve their attitude and service or in the worst cases shown the door.
There have even been cases where an authorised Apple dealer has been hauled over the coals when they have failed such a check (admittedly at less frequent intervals and less strictly enforced).
If your complaint is genuine, did you pass it on to Apple?
Position, permission, probe.
This sounds like a good way to spend a night in jail if she’s under 18….
MSFT approach to selling? Here’s your Vista whether you like it or not!
I think that the Apple Store experience is usally perfect. I have, unfortunately had a couple bad encounters though. The worst was probably when i was buying iWork and asked a question about it to the cashier. he said, “you konw, I’ve only been here for two weeks, I have absolutely no idea was iWork is or does.” Besides that I love going! Especially to the one in Ginza. Just counting down the days until my 18th bday when i can apply!
MDN word – single. Barely a single thing wrong with the stores!
Jon – LOL!
Then there’s Ballmer’s technique:
Assume the position.
We don’t need your stinking permission.
You might feel a little pressure at first. Here’s a shot of whiskey and you may want to bite down on this to help ignore the pain. Stop squirming. It will only make it worse.
bob, I could be wrong – nothing unusual there – but I doubt the “position, permission, probe” content was covered by the NDA. However, IF I’m wrong, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that is the strategy – though, I guess, it may have taken a genius to formulate it. $4,000 per square foot? Wow! The Chestnut Hill Apple Store isn’t particularly large, but that’s still a lot of money.
Dave
magic word : “think”
@ Bill H. –
Been to both stores (to apply for a job, shot down both times – DAMN!!) and I coudn’t agree more. KOP is always crowded (and HOT thanks to that), Suburban Square is spacious and comfy. Both stores have a great staff!!
@ Mauritius,
Sounds like the voice of experience, if you ask me.
What are you doing this weekend?
“What are you doing this weekend?”
If I wanted that kind of action, I’d upgrade to Vista.
Has any one ever noticed the ventilation at an Apple Store? It would seem that the room is a pristine, oxygen enriched atmosphere, primed for enhanced synapse poppin’.
I’m serious here. All the Apple Stores I’ve ever had the pleasure to be in, share this unique quality that appears transparent to the customer.
I guess it may be kinda like Las Vegas casinos, in that they purportedly pump oxygen into the room to keep people more stimulated to play.
It’s a shame that Apple doesn’t treat its prospective employees as well as its customers. With 20 years Mac experience behind me, I had attended the recruitment seminar for an Apple Stores’s new opening. When I hadn’t heard anything about being selected, and sought the answer why, they hadn’t realised that I had attended the recruitment seminar – even though I had took an active part. Subsequently, all the positions had gone (rant over).
Magic word:somewhat (as in somewhat disappointed)
“t would seem that the room is a pristine, oxygen enriched atmosphere, primed for enhanced synapse poppin’.”
Actually, it’s a patented mixture of miniscule, non-lethal amounts of Radon, Deuterium and Fluorine.
spinaltap:
Are you sure it wasn’t something more obvious like eye watering body odor? Or that salmon and onion sandwich?
I live in Toronto. 4 minutes from the Apple Store at Sherway.
It’s different then you describe, however, I see your point and have noticed some employee’s as mentioned in the Yorkdale Apple store. I agree that to work in the Apple Retail store should require better knowledge about the items sold then, say the Gap store.
Perhaps you simply know better then some of these sales represenatives… I suggest going in with those you are advising; of time permits.
Other then that… I agree with the author of this article.
Applestore Birmingham UK = 11/10 for general helpfulness.
Thanks guys!!
While I like Apple Stores in general, I was a bit surprised at my recent visit on Saturday to the NH Apple Store when buying a Macbook for my mom. Since I’ve been to lots of Apple Stores, including this one in the past, and since I’ve been a Mac user since 1987, and since I knew exactly what I wanted, it seemed to me that I should be able to buy a Macbook in 5 to 10 minutes, certainly no longer than it took me to buy an iPhone. Instead, it took what seemed like half an hour, as the salesperson interrogated me whether I needed .mac, sorry, but no, I already ordered it from Amazon. She proceeded to pester me that I could just piggyback it on my Amazon order, so that I’d have 24 months of dotmac. I told her, Google might have a better offering in a year, so NO! Did I want the free printer, did I want to add Applecare, and did I want One2one, etc. After the first few questions, she knew enough to know why I was buying the computer and that I knew more about it than she did, and yet she still pestered me to buy the Applecare, even after I told her I had up to a year to decide, didn’t I?
Honestly, the process annoyed me, especially after she told me the manager would have to ask me some more, while she rummaged in the back to look for it. Thankfully, the manager didn’t ask me any more questions, but I felt more like a 16-yr old trying to buy some beer, the way I was interrogated. This is AFTER I told her I was driving on my way home from North Carolina to Maine, and had already been on the road for 12 hours!
I’m still angry about this annoying experience.
My 6 yo doesn’t live with me, and has no access to macs. Guess what his favorite place to hang out is? The way we are treated as pure looky-loos is astounding. (Of course unlike the teenagers they used to have on myspace I absolutely make sure we are not hogging the last available machine.) I’ve even had a manager come over and setup an iChat with my kid. Despite being incredibly productive in terms of actual sales, they’re doing a lot of brand building as well.
While I’m sure not every exprerience with Apple retail is excellent… consider for a moment what the retail experience is like in general.
And as Carl Howe (http://www.blackfriarsinc.com) has stated, Apple has almost no retail presence in europe. As far as the company has come there is still a LOT of room for growth: market share, international, unannounced handheld devices… oh and I think there’s this phone thing that might add a few dollars to the bottom line.
In fact, the only real negative is the inevitable backlash due to their success.
“I’m still angry about this annoying experience.’
Don’t be angry. Life’s too short. And patience can be tough.
Personalities vary widely. She probably had no idea that her questions were annoying you. She might have been doing her best?
@SteveJobsAllergy
You just described a metaphor for Toronto….come to Montreal. We are nicer (and so is our Apple store)…
This is because, unlike the rest of corporate America, Apple respects the customer. Just go to Best Buy or most other retial outlets and you get the exact opposite experience: they harass you with the hard sell, then when you ask a question, you get a lot of verbiage, and looks at other employees, and then you learn these people know nothing about what they are selling. Apple Rules!
Buster: You just described a metaphor for Toronto….come to Montreal. We are nicer (and so is our Apple store)…
how does one describe something as a metaphor? They’re both ways of talking about something. I suppose the one could modify the other, like a metaphorical description as a opposed to a literal description. Or, maybe one could use a metaphor descriptively, as opposed to prescriptively. However, none of this is describing something as a metaphor. Maybe that’s a Montreal thing too …
In Toronto people tend to obey things like the rules of a language, or the rules of a road, or the rules of a constitution, or the norms of basic hygiene. Those things aren’t so important in Montreal. But the people sure are nice.
/that being said, Montreal gave us The Arcade Fire …
// … and Celine Dion
This technique is generally known as “consultative selling.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consultative_selling
They explained to customers that they had some questions to understand their needs, got permission to fire away, and then kept digging to ascertain which products would be best.
But they don’t ask for the sale, they don’t close the deal.
Take for instance what happened to KenC above, this is a typical company trained monkey salesperson who is NOT reading the customer at all.
This is what happens when you pay people cheap, they just are concerned about touting the company line and getting their weekly paycheck instead of developing their sales technique to close sales motivated by commission.
All this sets the employee’s on-the-job attitude. At an Apple Store, workers don’t seem to be selling (or working) too hard, just hanging out and dispensing information.
Hanging out and collecting a paycheck which is the same regardless if they sell something or not. Nothing motivating them to develop their sales trade skills.
And that moves a ridiculous amount of goods: Apple employees help sell $4,000 worth of product per square foot per month.
Wrong, it’s head office cult marketing, superior new products, lousy competition, sweet deals, free media advertising and Steve Jobs “reality distortion field” that contributes to Apple sales.
Look at a Sony Store, same flashy hip design, great products same exact brainless salespeople as Apple Stores. But they are almost dead in the water. So it’s not the salespeople at all.
What Apple could do better is hire more seasoned sales professionals working on commission who know the computer buisness.
The older and wiser will rub off on the younger and dumber. Their experience and sales techniques move more hardware and is more profitable for the company overall, despite their commission.
Naturally you get bad pro salespeople as one would get bad retail salespeople, so they door and a pink slip is always available.
Apple has a real chance to out sell Dell and HP, but they are not taking it because they don’t hire closers.
Pro Salesperson – re: lack of “closers” is exactly the first thing Apple avoided when prepping these stores. I avoid stores whose salespeople are pushy like that. Notice that Apple is cleaning the clocks of other retailers who do employ such people.
Now that’s not to say they don’t teach some of that “closing” to employees (speaking from 1st hand knowledge here), but it is a credit to the employees they hire that they know when to use those tactics appropriately… and not come off like one of those guys waving brochures from the mall cell phone kiosks. Those are your “Pro Salespeople.” And Apple doesn’t want ’em. They have respectability and an relaxed, classy image to maintain. Build and maintain a personal relationship, and people will come in, time and time again, write on the web like we’ve seen in these comments, and all of this is good for business.