On a recent trip to the San Francisco Disney Store a group of employees handed me a large key to open the store and to ‘unlock my imagination.’ This opening ceremony is now standard at all newly designed Disney stores and takes place when the doors open each day. The key ceremony is typically reserved for children waiting in line, but on this day I was the only person at the door so I gladly complied!
Carmine opening Disney Store in San Francisco
In San Francisco the Apple Store is two doors away from the Disney Store. Most Disney customers have no idea that Steve Jobs—the visionary who reimagined the product experience taking place just steps away—had his fingerprints all over the retail experience they are now enjoying.
A recent New York Times article questioned the pay scale of the Apple Retail team of 30,000 employees. Although the article acknowledged that by retail standards, Apple offers above-average pay and benefits, it noted that Apple’s non-commissioned sales specialists make less than some other employees who work on commission elsewhere. But the article fails to examine how Apple’s non-commissioned floor has elevated the customer experience and how its innovations have inspired many other businesses to re-examine how they treat their customers and to improve every aspect of the experience.
After spending nearly one year researching every component of the Apple Store experience—hiring, design, leadership, and communications—my biggest surprise was just how much influence Apple Retail has had on many other brands in a variety of fields, retail and non-retail.
Steve Jobs inspires Disney to dream bigger. An executive who had the task of reimaging the Disney Store once turned to Steve Jobs—Disney’s largest shareholder—for advice. Steve said, “Dream bigger.” No better advice has ever been given. “Steve provided us with inspiration and support. He encouraged us to think big,” according to James Fielding, president of Disney Stores Worldwide. Fielding says the old stores lacked excitement and, for a brand that evokes magic and wonder, it was a problem. The Disney Store has now become an interactive playground to celebrate the brand. A little girl waving a magic wand in the princess neighborhood can call up a princess who suddenly appears in a mirror as you will see in this short clip. Disney movies might be showing in the theater while character-drawing workshops are taking place in another area of the store, much like One-to-One trainings take place on the floor of the Apple Store. “Apple stores revolutionized retail,” said Fielding. But it’s not like we were the new kids on the block. We wanted to get back to our heritage.”
I spoke to Gavin Doyle who runs Disney Dose, a fan site dedicated to all things Disney. Doyle told me that Disney is in a multi-year effort to redesign each of its 340 stores in the U.S and in Europe. According to Doyle, “When Disney re-branded their stores, each was magically transformed into an enchanting wonderland, acting as an extension of the overall Disney brand.” Doyle says the vision behind the Disney Store is to provide “the best 30 minutes of a child’s day.” Imagine how successful your business could become if you provided the best 30 minutes of your customer’s day.
The Disney Store looked to Apple Retail to regain its heritage and to rethink its customer experience. So should you.
Microsoft Store in San Jose, CA
Microsoft. Microsoft has opened about twenty stores around the U.S. and they most certainly took a page or two, or three, from the Apple Retail playbook. Take a look at a photo of a Microsoft Store across from an Apple Store in a San Jose mall. Swap out the Microsoft logo for an Apple logo and it’s hard to tell the difference between the stores. Friendly employees in brightly colored shirts welcome customers into spacious, clean, and uncluttered stores. Expansive windows invite shoppers to see the excitement inside the store and interactive display areas encourage customers to play with Microsoft products. The resemblance to the Apple Store design is more than a coincidence. Microsoft hired an Apple Store designer and at least one former executive to act as a consultant to its new stores.
In many ways the Microsoft store is copying the most profitable retailer in America. So should you.
Tesla Store in San Jose, CA
A Former Apple Exec Reinvents the Car Buying Experience. Tesla electric car ‘dealerships’ are being built where consumers live part of their lives—at the shopping mall, a design philosophy that is not unlike the idea behind locating Apple stores in malls in 2001. Former Apple Retail executive George Blankenship is now Tesla’s vice president of ownership experience (even his title reflects a key learning from Apple, experience trumps selling). In his role, Blankenship is reinventing the car buying experience by making sure people leave the store with a smile. According to Blankenship, “Tesla stores are designed to let people explore and learn about Tesla’s technology for themselves. You’ll never see a ‘don’t touch’ sign in a Tesla store. We want everyone—from kindergartners to grandparents—to come in and see for themselves why driving electric is the future.” If this hands-on philosophy reminds you of the multi-sensory Apple Store experience I wrote about in a previous article, it should. Blankenship worked a few offices away from Steve Jobs at Apple and had a hand in designing the first 150 Apple Stores.
I recall one humorous exchange with Blankenship.
“This looks a lot like an Apple Store,” I observed.“Carmine, it’s exactly like an Apple Store. Instead of computers, we sell cars,” Blankenship responded as we both laughed.“We’re not selling you anything. We want you to feel differently when you leave the store. People start talking about Tesla not because we’re pounding it into them but because they’ve experienced it themselves. The goal is to engage you in a way that you’ve never experienced in any other store.”
Tesla’s engagement philosophy seems to be working. Its first mass-market electric sedan has just hit the road. Apple taught Tesla that people don’t want to be sold anything. They simply want to feel good. Tesla turned to the Apple Store to elevate the customer experience. So should you.
Microsoft, Disney, and Tesla are far from the only brands that copy the Apple Store. Lego, AT&T Retail, BMW, Sony, and others are adopting components of the Apple Store experience. Apple’s influence goes far beyond retail. I recently had a conversation with a Texas physician who is part of a group building a new hospital. He contacted me because he was wanted to learn more about how he could completely re-imagine the patient experience by adopting lessons from the Apple Store. We came up with a relatively low cost and easy-to-implement list.
The Apple Store has inspired brands such as Disney, Microsoft, Tesla and others to reimagine the customer experience. And that’s okay because as I explained in a previous column, Apple copied many aspects of another brand renowned for its legendary customer service—The Ritz Carlton. Go ahead and steal a page from the Apple Store playbook. Others have and so should you.