Apple’s customer service secrets have been leaked via a Genius handbook that bans employees from saying words that will alarm customers, according to a news report.
The handbook, leaked by technology blog Gizmodo, instructs Apple employees on how to act and speak when dealing with customers and includes a list of banned words such as ‘crash’, ‘bug’ and ‘freeze’.
If proven to be legitimate, the handbook provides unprecedented insight into one of the most successful customer service strategies in the world. Apple stores have the highest sales per square foot of any retail space in the UK by a wide margin, and Apple is perceived as one of the best brands in the world.
The Genius Training Student Workbook is about how salespeople can sync their good vibes with customers, detecting their core emotions and ambitions to drive purchases. Full chapters are dedicated to detecting their moods through body language, how to serve a customer through empathy and how to read their body language.
In one example, trainees are encouraged to use the Three Fs: Feel, Felt, and Found.
Here’s the example provided in the manual:
• Customer: This Mac is just too expensive.
• Genius: I can see how you’d feel this way. I felt the price was a little high, but I found it’s a real value because of all the built-in software and capabilities.
In one quick exchange, the Apple Genius manages to put himself in the customer’s shoes, share his pain at the high price, then explain how he got over his own misgivings about the price once he realized the “real value” of the product.
Banned words
The workbook includes a list of terms that Apple genius bar employees are forbidden to say to customers.
Among them are ‘bug,’ ‘crash,’ ‘incompatible’ and ‘problem.’ Instead, terms like ‘condition,’ ‘does not respond,’ ‘does not work’ and ‘issue’ are preferable.
Here’s a partial list:
• Do not use bomb, crash or hang. Avoid freeze. Instead, use unexpectedly quits, does not respond, stops responding.
• Do not use bug or problem. Instead, say condition, issues or situation.
• Avoid supported. Replace it with compatible or works with.
• Steer clear of incompatible and not compatible. Try: does not work with.
According to Gizmodo, the Apple sales model is summed up in the letters that make up the company name: (A)pproach, (P)robe, (P)resent, (L)isten, (E)nd.
And one should never be so blunt as to tell a customer they are wrong. Instead, staff are trained to explain in a more roundabout way that the customer is, well, incorrect.
Here’s an example from the manual:
• Customer: The OS isn’t supported
• Genius: You’d think not, wouldn’t you. Turns out it is supported in this version.
Here’s another scenario:
• Customer: I want an iPad, but I need a mouse. I can’t deal with all this touching.
• Genius: I may know how you feel. I’m a mouse fan and I felt as if I’d never get used (to a touch screen) but I found it becomes very easy with a little practice.
The manual also includes a list of maxims designed to guide the Genius’s thinking on almost every level.
For example:
• “We guide every interaction.”
• “We deepen and restore relationships.”
• “We help them discover.”
• “We enrich their lives.”
The manual lets its employees know that the company’s employees ‘deepens and restore relationships, help [customers] discover and enrich their lives.’
Any forceful behaviour on a salesperson’s part is strongly prohibited.
Body language
Another page in the book lists a number of body language actions, split into whether they are ‘positive’ or ‘negative.’
Among the physiological training Apple store employee receive is a crash-course in reading body language.
Cooperation: Sitting on edge of chair, hand-on-face gestures, unbuttoned coat, head tilted
Expectancy: Hand-rubbing, crossed fingers
Evaluation: Hand-to-cheek gestures, head tilted, stroking chin, gestures with glasses, pacing
Acceptance: Hand-to-chest, touching, moving in closer
Confidence: Steepling hands, hands joined at back
Frustration: Short breaths, ‘Tsk!’, tightly clenched hands, wringing hands, fist-like gestures, pointing index finger, palm to back of neck, kicking ground or imaginary object
Boredom: Drumming on table, head in hand, blank stare
Suspicion and secretiveness: Sideways glance, feet or body pointing towards the door, rubbing nose, rubbing eye
Nervousness: Clearing throat
For example, ‘touching’ and ‘moving in closer’ indicate acceptance, while ‘fist-like gestures’ and ‘pointing index finger’ are listed as acts of frustration.
Gizmodo reports that the Genius Training Student Workbook they obtained is the most up-to-date version of the manual.
Read the Gizmondo report in full here