Steve Jobs had a philosophy for building customer relationships described as “brand bank.”
The idea is explained in the book Insanely Simple by Ken Segall.
“He (Steve Jobs) believes that a company’s brand works like a bank account. When the company does good things, such as launch a hit product or a great campaign, it makes deposits in the brand bank. When a company experiences setbacks like an embarrassing mouse or an overpriced computer, it’s making a withdrawal. When there’s a healthy balance in the brand bank, customers are more willing to ride out the tough times. With a low balance, they might be more tempted to cut and run.”
Interbrand ranks Apple first in its Best Global Brands 2023 report clearly showing the company built a healthy balance in their customers’ brand bank accounts.
How can Customer Success Managers follow cues from Apple to maintain a healthy brand bank account with our customers? Let’s review.
Be Our Own Genius Bar
- Apple’s Approach: According to Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs, Apple’s head of retail stores Ron Johnson had an idea to emulate the Ritz Carlton customer experience and developed the Apple Store Genius Bar. Johnson’s thinking was “What if we staffed the bar with the smartest Mac people.”
- What CSMs Can Do: CSMs can act like the Genius Bar for our customers. We can be our customer’s go-to place for knowledge, tips and problem-solving with our products.
Have Intuition
- Apple’s Approach: Apple’s founding marketing philosophy was to show empathy with the customer as defined in the statement “we will truly understand their needs better than any other company,” recounted in Steve Job’s biography.
- What CSMs Can Do: CSMs can be intuitive with our customers. We can be a partner that’s easy to work with and someone our customer feels easily understands them.
Create an Experience
- Apple’s Approach: Steve Jobs said that “when you open the box of an iPhone or iPad we want that tactical experience to set the tone for how you perceive the product,” according to Isaacson.
- What CSMs Can Do: We can think about the experiences our customer has with our company and how we can create a good experience throughout the journey.
Show Theater
- Apple’s Approach: According to Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs, author Carmine Gallo described Jobs’ presentations as “…unlike anything you’d ever seen. It informed, educated and entertained. It illuminated and inspired.”
- What CSMs Can Do: CSMs are often responsible for demoing our customers. We can add elements of entertainment and inspiration to our presentations.
Provide Innovative Solutions
- Apple’s Approach: Isaacson recalls Steve Jobs’ views on market research “when Jobs said when asked if he wanted to do market research, he said “no, because customers don’t know what they want until we’ve shown them.”
- What CSMs Can Do: We can take listening and customer feedback further and show customers what we feel they need. As experts in our product we may know the perfect solution that our customer isn’t aware of.
Make Things Right
- Apple’s Approach: According to Steve Jobs’ biography, when the iPhone 4 was released users could experience dropped calls due to the way Apple engineered the phone. Steve Jobs called a press event saying “We’re not perfect. Phones are not perfect. We all know that. But we want to make our users happy.” Customers were offered the chance to return the phone or get a free bumper case from Apple.
- What CSMs Can Do: We can be honest with our customers in challenging situations. We can let customers know where things stand and our plan to make things right.
Deliver Creativity
- Apple’s Approach: According to Ken Segall, in Insanely Simple, Apple’s Think Different campaign was launched to describe the essence of Apple. The theme of the campaign was about honoring people who think different and who move this world forward. The campaign communicated the message that Apple was for those who valued creative thinking.
- What CSM’s Can Do: We can bring creative thinking to our customers. We can provide ideas on how our product can help our customer achieve their outcomes.
Apple shows that they care for customers by taking steps to provide good experiences. CSMs can can take similar steps with our customers build a trusted relationship with our clients.