- Choice Hacking
- Posts
- Why Steve Jobs stole from a hotel to build the first Apple store (and a free download)
Why Steve Jobs stole from a hotel to build the first Apple store (and a free download)
Hi there - Jen here :)
Did you know that Steve Jobs actually stole from a hotel to build the very first Apple store?
He wanted them to be the best shopping experience in the world, so he knew that meant he had to find some killer inspiration.
So he and Ron Johnson - Appleās then Head of Retail - started asking employees at Apple:
āWhat's the best customer experience you've ever had?ā
They heard the same answer over and over again.
But it wasnāt another retailer like Walmart, Target, or Circuit City.
It was a hotel ā the Ritz-Carlton.
So Jobs and Johnson sent their future store managers āundercoverā at the Ritz, and hereās what they foundā¦
Today Iām sharing:
How the famous Ritz ācredo cardā inspired Apple
The psychology behind the Ritzā success
A free worksheet to help you āstealā from other industries
10 examples of famous brands - like Toyota, McDonalds, and Netflix - who borrowed brilliant ideas from other industries (premium subscribers only)
Todayās newsletter is brought to you by my new Skill Session:
šPsychology of High-Converting Landing Pages
In the 2023 Choice Hacking Reader Survey, I asked you to vote for the Skill Session topic you most wanted me to create.
āThe Psychology of High-Converting Landing Pagesā was our winner!
After hundreds of hours of research and experimentation, Iām sharing everything I know about creating high-converting landing pages with marketing psychology and behavioral science in a tightly-focused 60-minute video Skill Session.
Hereās what youāll learn:
ā Research-backed strategies to create a landing page that converts up to 2x - 5x higher than industry average
ā The 3 things you must have in any high-converting landing page
ā A 7-step formula that even a total beginner can use to design a landing page better than 99.5% of experts
š The Skill Session launches on February 1st, 2024 but you can save 30% if you pre-order the session today for $50.
After February 1st, the price will go up to $65 and stay there.
PS Choice Hacking Pro Plan members will automatically get access to this and all future Skill Sessions and courses. Click to learn more about the Pro plan.
š§ Behind the Ritzās āGold Standardsā
The Ritz-Carltonās customer experience is led by its āGold Standards,ā which are taught to every team member and strictly enforced. They are:
Credo
Motto
Employee Promise
Three Steps of Service
These principles are printed on Credo Cards (see below) and are considered a part of every employeeās uniform - they must be on their person at all times:
Letās break them down (and the psychology behind why they work):
1. The Credo
āThe Ritz-Carlton is a place where the genuine care and comfort of our guests is our highest mission.
We pledge to provide the finest personal service and facilities for our guests, who will always enjoy a warm, relaxed, yet refined ambience.
The Ritz-Carlton experience enlivens the senses, instills well-being, and fulfills even the unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests.ā
This Credo could also be considered the brand promise, and itās obvious how much they care about the experience of guests staying at their hotels.
The last line couldāve easily inspired the Apple Storeās ambition to be an immersive and inspiring customer experience that āenlivens the sensesā and āinstills well-beingā in its customers.
2. The Motto
āWe are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemenā reads almost like the Ritz-Carltonās version of the Golden Rule, āTreat others as youād like to be treated.ā
Not only does this motto help set a standard of care for guests, but it also reminds Ritz-Carlton employees that their employer sees them as equals.
The Motto helps set the culture of the Ritz-Carlton as something that empowers employees rather than distrusting or restricting them.
Itās easy to see how Apple couldāve been inspired by this Motto when naming their employees Geniuses ā giving them a title that empowers and inspires their work.
3. The Employee Promise
The Ritz-Carltonās Employee Promise makes it clear that their staff are to be valued, empowered, and respected as the most valuable part of its brand:
āAt The Ritz-Carlton, our Ladies and Gentlemen are the most important resource in our service commitment to our guests.
By applying the principles of trust, honesty, respect, integrity and commitment, we nurture and maximize talent to the benefit of each individual and the company.
The Ritz-Carlton fosters a work environment where diversity is valued, quality of life is enhanced, individual aspirations are fulfilled, and The Ritz-Carlton Mystique is strengthened.ā
The brand doesnāt just pay lip service to investing in its employees ā it makes sure that theyāre highly trained and coached. In their first year on the job, employees go through 250 hours of training.
That training caters to different learning styles and can be taken as one-on-one coaching, online training, in-person seminars, and other types of learning formats.
Apple was inspired by the Ritzās commitment to its employees and its focus on managing guestsā emotions.
In 2012, the secret Apple employee manual, called the Genius Training Student Workbook, was leaked to tech blog Gizmodo.
Gizmodo described the contents of Appleās employee handbook this way:
āThe manual could easily serve as the Humanity 101 textbook for a robot university, but at Apple, itās an exhaustive manual to understanding customers and making them happy.
Sales, it turns out, take a backseat to good vibes ā almost the entire volume is dedicated to empathizing, consoling, cheering up, and correcting various Genius Bar confrontations.ā
4. Three Steps of Service
The Ritz-Carltonās Three Steps of Service are simple but powerful ways to ensure guests leave with positive feelings and memories:
āA warm and sincere greeting. Use the guestās name.
Anticipation and fulfillment of each guestās needs.
Fond farewell. Give a warm goodbye and use the guestās name.ā
These principles might seem simple at first, but there is some powerful psychology underlying why theyāre so effective.
š§ The Secret Psychology of the Ritz
Behavioral Science and psychology tell us that emotions power our opinions and memories of an experience.
And these emotions also help drive our decision-making (like, whether to buy a Mac instead of a PC, or what hotel to stay in).
Underlying this idea is the Peak-end Rule.
It says that our opinions, judgments, and memories of an experience arenāt built on the average of every moment but on the emotional peak (positive or negative) and the end of the experience.
The approach to customer experience that Apple and the Ritz-Carlton share are built ā knowingly or not ā on the Peak-end Rule in action.
When we manage customers' emotions and endings, our customer experiences will go from good to great.
How Walmart & Kmart Stole From This Retail Innovator (Forgotten to History)
This little-known Rhode Island department store was the inspiration for both Walmart AND Kmart š
Founded by Martin Chase in 1946, Ann & Hope was a pioneer in the discount retailer format:
ā Ann & Hope was one of the first stores where customers could shop on their own, without a sales person's help.
ā It was one of the first stores to use shopping carts.
ā Ann & Hope also created features like a central checkout area, cafeterias and subleases, a parking lot for customers, and even the store return policy.
When Sam Walton was thinking about opening his own store, he was inspired by a visit to Ann & Hope to create Walmart.
And Harry Cunningham, retail legend and creator of Kmart visited Ann & Hope in 1961, incorporating their innovations into the design for the first Kmart stores.
Both brands took Ann & Hope's ideas, put on their own spins on the format, and created two of the three big box retailers that would dominate the next 70+ years of American retail.
š§ The lesson?
The best ideas don't always hit you like lightning - they're shaped and perfected over time.
The creative process in business is often more about trial and error, and adopting proven strategies to your own context.
Not a single ah-ha moment.
PS. I think it goes without saying Iām using the word āstealā a little tongue-in-cheek in this newsletter. Please donāt plagiarise or literally steal.
Want more inspiring case studies?
š Premium subscribers get 10 more examples of brands like Toyota, McDonalds, and Netflix that borrowed ideas from other brands to create industry-leading innovations.
(Just scroll to the end of the email to find them)
A Free Worksheet to Help You āStealā Great Ideas
S.C.A.M.P.E.R. is a framework that helps us manipulate existing ideas to create new ones.
The underlying premise of S.C.A.M.P.E.R. is the idea of combinational creativityāāāthat is, we can solve problems by transforming existing ideas instead of starting from scratch every time.
As Michael Michalko, author of Thinkertoys, put it:
āManipulation is the brother of creativity.ā
S.C.A.M.P.E.R. is a framework that helps us work through the many ways we can reshape an existing idea or product.
It stands for:
To read more about SCAMPER and how to use it, click here.
To download a free SCAMPER worksheet, click here.
3 Second Survey:Would you be interested in a set of 80+ printed cards to help you better run workshops, brainstorm, etc. that cover common behavioral biases, motivators, customer barriers, nudges, and mindsets? I'm just gauging interest at this time :) |
Read, Watch, Listen
[Read] Designing for trust in the Airbnb age [Read how]
[Watch] The BILLION DOLLAR marketing secrets of ALDI [Watch now]
[Listen] Season 5 of the Choice Hacking podcast is now LIVE. Listen to latest episode, āHow Coca-Cola Became the Worldās Most Memorable Brand.ā [Check it out]
Subscribe to Choice Hacking Premium to read the rest.
Become a paying subscriber of Choice Hacking Premium to get access to this post and other subscriber-only content.
Already a paying subscriber? Sign In
Reply