Employees in the Apple Store receive guidelines for contact with customers. Certain words should not be used in conversation.
“People go to an Apple Store for the experience and they’re willing to pay for it,” Ron Johnson, who developed the concept behind the Apple Stores, told the Apple Store Harvard Business Review. Apple’s store was created more as a brand ambassador than as a source of technology. As a result, the employees in the stores are also on the road as Apple ambassadors. So it’s no wonder that the company trains them in detail and gives them strict instructions.
But an instruction from the company with the apple seems to sound a bit like a conspiracy theory. Namely, in Apple’s business, there are some terms that employees are not allowed to use, such as The Guardian reports. The British newspaper refers to the instructions that the company prescribes for its employees.
Training manual for employees
In the Apple Store, customers expect employees, the so-called “Genius”, to be Apple consummate professionals with technical acumen. But their real function is to use a kind of emotional guide to sell products in the store. The technical support staff training book contains the instructions to the staff. This teaches them how to use empathetic communication to control the customer’s purchasing decision, thereby relieving tension. The aim is to make customers happy and to increase their willingness to spend money.
The Guardian cites the following as an example of this guide line:
Customer: “This Mac is just too expensive.”
Genius: “I can understand why you feel this way. I felt the price was a little high, but it’s a good price given the built-in software and performance.”
This strategy is designed to prevent customers from feeling bad. It also shows employees empathy. A kind of problem-free brand philosophy, you could say.
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Taboo words in the Apple Store
In this context, some words are on a taboo list. “Crash, hang, error, or problem” is not allowed to be mentioned by employees to customers in the Apple Store. As a substitute, employees should use neutral words, such as a device no longer responding or words such as situation or condition. Incidentally, some employees would complain about this embellishment rule. It would therefore lead to absurd discussions. Accordingly, it would be better to call the problem by its name.
Incidentally, the code of conduct for employees in the Apple Store also states that they should try to bring additional services to customers.