Greetings from the Century City Apple Store!

I made an appointment at the Genius Bar to get my keyboard replaced.  The original white plastic Apple keyboards have a tendency to stick after a while, which is about a year if you’re a mad typist like myself.  I was worried I might be late, there’s a monster protest in front of the Mormon Temple regarding Prop. 8.  Do we need a new California proposition?  No outside agitators?  Turns out Prop. 8 was funded by the Mormons, famously of Utah, and people are coming from all over SoCal to protest today.  The TV trucks and helicopters are out in force.

But I made it.  Would they be on time?  Would they honor my 3 P.M. appointment?

There was a concierge for the Genius Bar!  Who took care of me right away!

We live in a service-oriented nation, where everybody wants to be treated like they’re somebody, but we end up pumping our own gas, going through phone prompts and writing e-mail to deal with the fuck-ups of America’s largest corporations.

But here at the Apple Store, you feel like you count, like they want to be there for you.

And there are a lot of us here.  It’s a Thursday afternoon in the midst of a recession, the public is too scared to spend and the economy is tanking.  But you’d think computers were impulse items for all the people in here.  There’s a pulse.  Akin to a twentieth century record store, but with respect and trust.

What makes the Apple Store so successful?

1. Design

In a nation consumed with fashion, you’ve got to have eye appeal to sell.  Audi’s sales jumped with their new designs.  The fact that they’ve had a slew of engine problems hasn’t seemed to dampen customer appeal.  What looks good counts in America.

2. Service

We all want to pass through the velvet rope, we all want to be an insider, we all want that treatment the rich and famous receive.  At the Apple Store, you feel like you’re staying at the Four Seasons, driving a BMW or Mercedes-Benz, one of life’s winners.  You may get fucked by TicketMaster, but Apple is a haven of reasonability, not a company passing off its problems on someone else!  (Well, WE didn’t cancel the tour, you’ll get face value of the ticket back, but not fees…)

3. Trust

I’ve been fucked over by so many corporations that when I ask for service I expect an adversarial relationship.  I start building my case before I leave my house.  But after demonstrating my problem, the Genius Bar agent asked me for my phone number, so she could call me when my new keyboard came in.  Sans price.  An Apple extended warranty really works!

Business done, I decided to make the rounds at the mall.  Where I encountered empty shop after empty shop.  Sales agents staring into the distance or speaking amongst themselves, their wares lonely on the rack.  I was drawn back to the buzz of the Apple Store.  I was going to write this at home, but why not employ their free Internet?

And once I returned I felt like an attendee at the Whisky, seeing the arena band before it blows up.  I feel like a member of the club.  I can touch everything, I can use everything.  The help is here to help.

And there’s a ton of help.  A consultant would say to downsize, by about three quarters.  People wait everywhere, why shouldn’t they wait here?  But that’s what makes the Apple Store special, the difference between it and the rest of the retail establishments.

You might think I drank the Kool-Aid.  But I’m an evangelist because I love the products.  My BlackBerry is falling apart after only eighteen months of use.  Who am I going to contact?  Who is going to take care of me?  I can wait for half an hour at a Verizon outlet for an uninformed salesman who just started yesterday.  There’s no BlackBerry store, no one to complain to that I just paid $40 to replace the track ball and now one of the keys is stuck.  Shoddy product.  But who runs RIM anyway?  There’s no Steve Jobs of RIM. But there should be.

Give Sprint credit.  They made a guy the face of the company.  He said feel free to complain.  If the connections were better, they’d survive.  First and foremost, you need a great product.

Does all of the foregoing apply to the music business?

Interesting question.

Music retail is on its last legs.  Wal-Mart is reducing floorspace, replacing CDs with DVDs.  Indie shops are selling tchotchkes.  And the front runner IS Apple, with a cleanly designed, efficient iTunes Store.

As for treating your customer right…  If you’ve got a fan club, deliver more than the right to buy a shitty ticket for the membership fee. Give away free tracks.  Delete the FBI logo from your physical product.  Trust your customer.

As for design and looks…  They’re not key in music.  Because music supersedes computers, it trumps every other art form out there, it’s better than TV, movies and video games.  Doesn’t matter if the guy making it has zits or the girl singing is overweight.  Music when done right is about lasting truth.  You don’t want a twenty year old computer, but you might treasure a twenty year old album.

Apple delivers the tools to make that music.  Utilize them to create something magnetic, that draws people in just like the aluminum bezel with the embedded Apple logo makes people lemmings at the mall.  There are no rules in music.  if you think there are, break them, that’s a great avenue to success.

But at the nexus where the music meets the fan, respect the customer.  We need people saying they LOVE the venue.  That TicketMaster is their FRIEND!  That the band gave them something for free.  Treat every fan like he’s Oprah, like he’s someone special.  Because when you do this, your fan will tell everybody they know how great you are, just like I’m telling you about the Century City Apple Store right now.