In recent years, Apple is a very successful enterprise. Its products are very popular with customers and have been selling well. Let's see how Apple is successful.

Jobs used high-tech products such as iPad and iPhone to make Apple the most valuable technology company in the world. But one pillar of Apple's success is surprisingly low technology: physical retail chain.

Looking through the confidential training manual, the minutes of a store meeting, and interviewing more than a dozen current and former clerks, we can see some secrets of the Apple Store. These secrets include: strictly controlling the interaction between employees and customers, standardizing the language training for on-site technical support personnel, considering every detail of the store, and carefully loading pictures and music on the prototype.

According to the data of Apple and Entertainment Association, Walter Disney's four largest theme parks had 60 million visitors last year, and the number of customers visiting Apple's 326 stores exceeded this figure in one quarter. According to the statistics of investment bank, the annual sales per square foot of Apple Store has climbed to $4,406, excluding online sales. Online sales, including iTunes, average sales per square foot reached $5,965,438 +04.

It is estimated that this is much higher than the physical store sales and online sales per square foot of jeweler Tiffany Company, luxury retailer Coach Company and electronic retailer Best Buy Company, with sales of $3,070, 1.776 and $880 respectively.

The Apple Store is spacious and fresh, with beautiful light, showing a relaxed and casual atmosphere. However, Apple is tight-lipped about how these stores operate. According to current and former Apple employees, employees are told not to discuss rumors about products, technicians should not admit common faults prematurely, and anyone found writing about Apple online will be fired.

The man behind the Apple Store is 52-year-old Johnson. Penny confirmed on Tuesday that Johnson will become its new CEO on June 1 1.

The success of Apple's retail is largely due to the demand for the company's products. Retail analysts say that many of Apple's advantages over competitors such as Best Buy are technical: Apple sells far fewer single-brand products, with only a few hundred stores, while Best Buy has more than 4,000 stores.

As Apple continues to expand, some analysts expect that Apple will face more pressure to continue to provide good customer service. Some former employees said that with the expansion of the retail network and the reduction of the number of fanatical Apple products that Apple can choose when recruiting employees, they have seen the quality of Apple retail employees decline.

An Apple spokesperson declined to comment.

However, Apple is regarded as a pioneer in many aspects of customer service and store design. According to the descriptions of several employees and the contents of the training manual, the sales specialist was taught an unusual sales philosophy: not to sell, but to solve problems for customers. One of the training manuals says that your job is to understand all the needs of customers, and some needs may not be realized by customers themselves. In view of this, employees have no sales commission and no sales quota.

Apros, 26, worked in an Apple store in Arlington, Virginia until 2007. He said that you never want to finalize a sales transaction, but to find solutions for customers and find their pain points.

According to a 2007 employee training manual read by The Wall Street Journal, Apple wrote? Service steps? Condensed into? Apple? , each letter represents a step. This manual is still in use at present.

Greet customers with personalized warm welcome words? ,? Politely ask to know all the needs of customers? ,? Provide customers with a solution that they can take home today? ,? Listen and solve any problems or concerns? ,? End with a gentle goodbye and invite customers to come again? .

Apple's control over the customer experience extends to the smallest details. Apple Store's confidential training manual instructs technicians how to say emotionally to customers: Listen and limit your response to simply making sure you are doing this. ? UH huh? ,? I understand, okay? , and so on.

If Apple employees are more than six minutes late for three shifts within six months, they may be fired. According to former Apple employees, although there is no sales quota, employees must sell service packages with products. Depending on the specific store, employees with insufficient sales will be retrained or assigned to other positions.

Analysts say that many retailers strive to provide excellent customer service and attractive store design, but few companies arrange every detail as carefully as Apple. For example, Nordstrom Inc, a chain department store, has almost no customer service training, but wants sales staff to learn on the job. As for store design, most retailers will choose a model and launch it in large quantities, said Dai Chesai, president of the retail design society, an industry organization. In contrast, Apple often changes the appearance and atmosphere of its stores.

When many retailers are struggling to operate, Apple's success in the store makes it stand out. Although the retail sales in 2009 decreased by 2.4%, the retail sales of Apple increased by about 7%. According to the data of customer growth partners, retail sales in 2009 fell for the first time in decades. In 20 10, Apple's retail sales excluding online sales soared by 70%, reaching11700 million US dollars, accounting for about 15% of its revenue (76.3 billion US dollars), easily exceeding the overall retail sales growth of 4.5%.

Other retailers have been trying to copy everything from Apple's internal technical support to store layout. From June 5438 to 2002 10, the year after Apple opened its first store, Best Buy acquired Geek Squad, a computer maintenance service company, but failed to revive the company's business. According to the estimation of customer growth partners, the pre-tax profit margin of Best Buy hovers around 1%. In contrast, Needham & Co. estimated that the profit margin of Apple Store was 26.9%.

When Microsoft opened its first store in Arizona in 2009, many architectural and customer service concepts came from Apple, including hardwood floors, spacious space, free courses and one-on-one training. Although Microsoft rarely discloses the details of its retail business, analysts say that Microsoft's profit margin is low, in part because Microsoft basically resells computers made by other companies, while Apple sells its own products.

Best Buy didn't respond to requests for comment. Microsoft declined to comment.

Although the store is now one of Apple's offensive weapons, the original intention of opening the store is to defend. 1When Jobs was expelled in 1996 1 1 years later, Apple was in a difficult situation. Apple Macintosh computers can hardly be seen in large retailers such as CompUSA.

At that time, Jobs' first task was to adjust Apple's retail strategy, because Apple's brand was already very fragile and large retailers refused to stock Macintosh computers. According to people familiar with the situation at the time, although Apple was still developing new products, Jobs knew that it was useless to launch new products if customers had nowhere to buy them.

Apple soon tried to set up its own exhibition hall in large retail stores such as CompUSA. People familiar with the matter said, but Jobs realized that Apple could not control the personal experience of consumers in retail stores. At this time, it is a natural choice to set up your own retail store.