It's Genius!

A TV journalist, interviewing me for a piece she was doing on retail design, asked me, “Who gets it?”

Good question. It stopped me for a moment. Which company does get it these days? Who knows
its audience, understands market needs and wants, crafts its service with its customers in mind?

Neiman Marcus. Nordstrom. Crate & Barrel. Lowe's. Whole Foods. Starbucks. And, of course, Apple.

It's more than just design. I'm not talking here about architectural innovation or visual dynamics. Lots of retailers do outstanding jobs of creating powerful store environments. I'm talking about a cultural attention to detail and service. In Apple's case, I'm talking about Genius.

Genius is Apple's service desk, a walk-up assistance program that has been part of the computer maker's retail concept since the first sleek, shopper-friendly Apple store opened in 2001. It makes sense, of course, with a product line that is often beyond many customers' boundaries of knowledge – especially when the products malfunction. But too often, concepts like these fall apart because the Geniuses and their customers live in different worlds and just don't talk the same language. (Who can forget Jimmy Fallon's amazingly right-on no-help computer tech Nick Burns on “Saturday Night Live”?)

Not at Apple. The company provides eight weeks of training, four weeks at the company's headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., and another four weeks at the store. They turn out well-informed people adept at understanding customers' problems, not prototypical computer geeks with poor social skills. These bars have become what Ron Johnson, Apple's senior vp for retailing, calls the “soul of the stores.” “It's the part of the store that people connect to emotionally more than any other,” says the former Target executive who was inspired by Four Seasons, the Ritz-Carlton and other hotels where service is paramount.

This service was a work in progress, though. In the beginning, customers stood four or five deep, broken gadgets in hand, trying to get the attention of an expert. (Think of the mob at any big-city bar most evenings.) Now there is an online system for scheduling free, same-day appointments. And for $100 a year, customers can schedule appointments up to a week in advance.

So, yes, Apple gets it. Who doesn't get it? I'm afraid I have to single out my long-time hometown airline, the keeper of my frequent-flier miles, Delta. Returning from EuroShop in February, I watched the departure board in Düsseldorf airport as my 7 a.m. flight to Paris became increasingly delayed until finally they simply cancelled it. Telling us that Paris' airports were closed due to weather, they unloaded our luggage and placed us in the four-and-a-half-hour line from hell to make alternate arrangements.

Okay, that happens. But as we stood in this interminable queue (I was with Rudy Javosky of Federated, Jim Lazzari and Andrew McQuilken of FRCH and Kevin Roche of RYA), the board suddenly showed that our original flight was leaving for Paris after all (half-full, as it turned out). They just scooped up anyone in the vicinity of the boarding area and took off. “Why,” fumed Roche, “doesn't Delta have someone of authority down here on the floor, finding out where we're trying to go and keeping us informed?”

Why? Good question. Because Delta doesn't seem to get it. Any wonder the once-powerful airline is courting bankruptcy?

As for Apple: Genius!