While Apple is one of the richest and most known brands in the entire industry, many people doubt its expertise and the ways the company chooses when it comes to approaching customers.

It’s a well-established fact that Apple provides the best quality service for its client and most of the time people leave a store with a kind of device in their hand. Therefore, it’s crucial to dig deeper in order to understand how a company can be so glamouring that there is no bad review found on the web about an Apple appointment.

As a matter of fact, the company uses a very smart approach to dealing with ratings. It usually excludes them from product reviews like this in order to eliminate the possibility of having its ratings spoiled by unwanted opinions. However, Apple’s customer service is still highly evaluated and deserves a credit. Here, there is a list of main myths and their debunking that can change your perspective on the operation of Apple as a global innovation leader.

#1 The Apple staff mostly consists of people who are good at convincing, for this reason, it’s impossible to leave a store empty-handed.

While most of the staff is highly qualified in communication and sales, the company devotes a great share of time, efforts and financial resources to training their personnel.

Being a people’s person is definitely not enough to get a place at an Apple store. The main requirements for working for the technology giant are friendliness, a good command of a language, resourceful knowledge of the product and dispute-settlement skills. When already hired, a person undergoes a special training that is aimed at refining the skills and supplementing a set of other qualities to be a decent representative of the Apple identity.

Such preparation doesn’t only include a basic list of what an employee should or shouldn’t do, but also specific approaches and methods of dealing with different kinds of customers. For instance, they are taught a certain vocabulary that is to be used at a specific context, i.e. what words should or shouldn’t be engaged in a conversation and which are meant to attract a customer’s intention or even bounce.

Moreover, Apple’s training comprises quite a few tips on psychology and how to properly manipulate one’s emotions. Also, from the very moment when one enters a store till the moment of their leave, everything that one can see is a well-organized and predicted environment.

They say that APPLE stands for an algorithm used by employees when a new customer arrives. It’s decoded as:

  • A – Appear before a customer with a nice and friendly greeting.
  • P – Prospect for all their preferences and needs.
  • P – Produce an answer for the customer that they will take along when they leave.
  • L – Look for and relieve the customer from any issue.
  • E – Evoke a pleasant experience and wish them to return.

#2 Apple seems to be indifferent to people and it treats everybody the same because of profits.

While most of the retail stores aim at people who can afford to buy a much of its product as possible, the fruit corporation is a unique subject to investigate. The reason hidden behind their equalizing attitude is not their goal of selling as much product as possible or their indifference but, again, their training.

The staff is highly aware of difficult people. In fact, it’s a mantra they repeat daily. In order to minimize the chances of receiving a bad reputation they have substituted ‘difficult’ with ’normal’ and made it their credo.

In addition to this, Apple has adopted a so-called ‘F-word policy’, which implies that such expressions are regularly used:

  • I believe that you feel uncomfortable about this…
  • It’s horrible. You must have felt really undermined…
  • We will do our best to find a solution…
  • When I’ve updated to the new iOS version, I found valuable features in my own iPhone like…

All in all, the staff will do anything to make you feel sympathized and take care of.

#3 Nonetheless, all Apple cares about is profit and they will do anything to shove that iDevice in your hands.

Even though profits are, obviously, a goal of Apple, the company doesn’t find it a priority. It’s well-known that Apple actually cares about their reputation. Instead of becoming another merchandiser, it has chosen a direction of turning its brand into a lifestyle.

Now, when people walk into a store they feel a special attitude towards the product. An opinion has been established that an iPhone or iPad can not only become a fashionable accessory but also change the way people feel about themselves.

While some merchandisers ask a question of ‘how do we sell it?’, Apple puts a different perspective on it and asks ‘how do we show people that our product makes their lives better?’. With this in mind, it’s important to realize that Apple doesn’t want to use any means necessary to sell their product but to sell ‘happiness’ in a form of their merchandise.

Therefore, here is a list of six quality customer service rules used by the giant:

  1. Be attentive to customers, most of the time they know what they are talking about.
  2. In order to sell well, you need to know well how to run a business; be a businessman.
  3. Everything matters: the way you speak, carry a conversation, move and, most of all, look at the people.
  4. Being a professional doesn’t mean being a snob; be open to people.
  5. As long as you’re satisfied, they are satisfied; and vice versa.
  6. Working in a team means having your back covered; share and care.

#4 The showcase of Apple products in a store is the bait that is used to take advantage of people’s naivety.

This myth doesn’t need debunking since it’s true, partially. Unlike many merchandisers, the company presents their products to people fully. When a customer walks into a store, the first thing that catches their attention is a vast range of devices laid on counters. Mostly, every product that is for purchase is fully accessible for people and everybody can try it out on the spot.

It’s completely normal to:

  • Hold a device.
  • Take a selfie or film a video.
  • Play a game or put some music.
  • Try out the fingerprint unlock function, etc.

The company’s policy allows people to probe devices not in vain. It’s done in order to assure them that everything they can see is what they get. This kind of attitude pays back fully since a customer is fully aware of the product functions, difficulties and benefits before actually purchasing it. It’s a good way for customer service to avoid later complaints about a device’s unsuitability for a child or an older person.

In addition to this, everybody who has bought at least something from an Apple store must have heard this phrase ‘Good, then let me grab one from the back and we will have you all set up.’ The expressing ‘from the back’ is a means of psychological programming that, again, assures a customer of the proximity of their wanted product and that it’s actually going to be what they have just held in their hand.

After all, Apple may have some shady conceptions that very few understand, however, no one can argue a fact that the approaches to training its staff, dealing with customers and, more essentially, representing its brand are innovative. Such enthusiasm and courage applied in order to demolish an old merchandising system and substitute it with a completely unproven by expertise one take courage. And at least for this, we should be grateful to the big ‘A’.