RSS
STORE
Genius employee communication
Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. I've been busy crisscrossing the country doing some very interesting consulting and in-house seminar work. The good news is that I've had some very cool communication experiences—including sitting down with a real-live CEO for more than an hour!—which I'll be sharing here in the next couple of days.
Last week, I was in San Francisco, and I saw an example of superior employee communication in action.
I was wandering around the city, when I stumbled upon the iPod store down by Union Square. I was killing time until the bar at the Top of the Mark opened, and my iPod had been acting kind of goofy, so I thought what the hell, I'll go in there and see if they can fix it.
The iPod stuff is on the second floor of the massive store, so I walked up, and went to a guy who was sitting at a register.
'Can you help me?' I asked him. 'My iPod won't seem to hold a charge, no matter how long I charge it.'
The kid took my iPod, hit some buttons on it, asked me some questions, then said:
'Yeah, you're going to have to talk to a genius.'
At first I thought he was screwing with me, the little GenX bastard. Then I saw where he was pointing. Across the room was a long counter with five kids working away on iPods. Above the counter was a big sign that read:
'Genius Bar.'
'Just check in with the Genius Concierge,' said the dude at the register. 'They'll take care of you.'
And they did. In fact, I never even had to wait for a real 'Genius.' The Genius Concierge, even though his job was only supposed to be setting up appointments for the various Geniuses, fixed my iPod for me right there on the spot.
What a brilliant stroke by Apple. With just a clever change of a title, they take ordinary tech support people and turn them into Geniuses. And they take a customer support person and turn him into a Genius Concierge.
The workers feel better about what they do, the customers feel like they're in excellent hands . . . and everybody leaves feeling good about themselves.
Pure genius.
Subscribe to this blog's feed
Feels like Total Recall. Er, Philip K Dick?
Actually, with Steve's example it's a bit scary --- standing at the urinal...
Comments (9)
I showed that to my boss. She said "Nice try."
Posted by Meredith | February 4, 2005 12:56 PM
Posted on February 4, 2005 12:56
DATE: 02/03/2005 10:85:0P AM
That's it. I'm requesting a job title change.
Posted by Meredith | October 16, 2006 4:30 PM
Posted on October 16, 2006 16:30
DATE: 02/03/2005 03:73:9P PM
Merideth:
You'll always be a genius in my eyes. Communications Genius, that's what you are.
Steve
Posted by steve crescenzo | October 16, 2006 4:30 PM
Posted on October 16, 2006 16:30
DATE: 02/04/2005 01:75:6P PM
I love this. Very WestJet - esque. I'm not sure if you know of the Canadian airline WestJet but they used this type of idea a few years ago and renamed the Executives the "Big Wigs", the finance department the "Bean Counters" etc. The employees seem to like the informal titles. Anything to build a little community, right?
Posted by Carey Robertson | October 16, 2006 4:30 PM
Posted on October 16, 2006 16:30
DATE: 02/04/2005 22:00:5P PM
This idea can go sour on you as well. 15 years ago when I started at Motorola, our rogue elephant of a general manager got the idea that the terms "supervisor" and "manager" were old and busted, and the new hotness would be "implementors" and "designers". Because that would make everyone feel better apparently.
Yeah, didn't work. There's an old story that goes something like "If you call a dog's tail a leg, how many legs does he have? Answer: Four. Because you call it a leg does not make it a leg."
That said, I like Genius and big wig and beancounter. What would we be? Thesauri? Spel chekers?
Posted by Steve Neruda | October 16, 2006 4:30 PM
Posted on October 16, 2006 16:30
DATE: 02/07/2005 18:20:6P PM
I actually didn't like the whole "genius" thing when I went into the apple store. In fact, I remember thinking "DUH!" which, in retrospect, I am glad I didn't say out loud now that I know it's supposed to be making workers feel better about themselves.
Remember when everyone had "guru" on their business cards? It just seems like another take on that.
It makes mother tired.
Posted by Rebecca | October 16, 2006 4:30 PM
Posted on October 16, 2006 16:30
DATE: 02/08/2005 02:94:4P PM
Rebecca;
You don't like genius because you, too, are an IT genius. So those people are not geniuses to you. But to us poor slobs who can't program a VCR, can't figure out how to reset our iPod, and can barely log onto the Internet from a hotel room, those people ARE geniuses.
And I love them, each and every one.
Steve
Posted by steve | October 16, 2006 4:30 PM
Posted on October 16, 2006 16:30
DATE: 02/10/2005 02:30:4P PM
Hi Steve...that wasn't me. I'm not sure who that Rebecca is. But it's not the martini-drinking, IT geek, friend-of-Julie....
I personally think Apple is a genius company operating on another level than most other IT companies. They say that "Mac users are happy users"...find me an unhappy mac user...they don't exist.
I love them, too...and I have iPod envy. I think that's what I'll ask for for my birthday, and my husband will buy it, because he wants to use it!
Have a great weekend...
R
Posted by Rebecca Crum | October 16, 2006 4:30 PM
Posted on October 16, 2006 16:30
Between you and me, this IPod thing is getting more worth than it actally has. My son didn't step back despite being bribed for many other alternatives.
Posted by Mcgill | June 28, 2007 7:09 AM
Posted on June 28, 2007 07:09