Apple Store Genius Bars may be secret to customer loyalty

Sanlitun Apple store in Beijing

/ Apple

(CBS News) Apple product owners are some of the most loyal customers and now a new study suggests that the company's in-store Genius Bar may be a large factor in attracting repeat customers.

According to Tech Crunch, a new study by NPD Group says that nine out of every ten Apple product owners are "somewhat or much more likely" to purchase another Apple product after a visit to the Genius Bar.

Genius Bars are a section of Apple Stores where customers can resolve technical issues.

Apple Genius Bar ready for service

/ Apple

The NPD study says that 40 percent of people who own Apple products have paid a visit to the Genius Bar. Ninety percent of those people reported being extremely or very satisfied. It could all come down to dollars and cents, however. About 88 percent of Apple customers noted that the Genius Bar is a free service, perhaps adding to their overall satisfaction.

Although, it was not part of the NPD study, customer satisfaction at the Genius Bar could also be part of the extensive training an Apple "Genius" must undergo.

The tech blog Gizmodo recently obtained and published details of a Genius Bar training manual. The Genius Training Student Workbook covers topics like empathy, how to read non-verbal gestures and the vocabulary tweaks.

According to the manual published by Gizmodo, empathy is drilled into the heads of Apple Store employees. Geniuses are trained to use phrases like "I can see how you'd feel that way" and "I can appreciate how you feel."

Some of the non-verbal gestures highlighted by the training manual include "head in hands," which translates to being bored, or "sideways glance," which is considered suspicious and secretive behavior.

Language is a subtle way to manage the mood of a conversation. Apple Store employees are reportedly not allowed to use negative language. Instead of a word like "incompatible," employees are told to use the gentler phrase "does not work with."

While none of these methods are particularly surprising, it does give additional insight into just how thought Apple puts into every detail. Would we expect anything less?

[ShepHyken]

When it comes to taking care of customers, Apple gets it, and they always have. The Genius Bar is actually...genius!

[Scimajor]

".....says that 40 percent of people who own Apple products have paid a visit to the Genius Bar. "

Doesn't that mean that 40% of people owning Apple products have had serious enough issues with their products to have to visit the store? That's no very impressive. I own an iPhone and iPod touch and I've had to visit the store once to resolve an issue with the iPod not charging.

[Vig_]

Customer loyalty?

Are you kidding me? I spent 4 hrs at the Genius Bar, with my 3 yr old daughter.

My phone passed through 3 techs who each tried the same thing before passing it onto someone else. Which was the same thing I had done over the phone with Apple support just before they said I needed to go in and have the phone replaced and set me up with an appointment. "All of this is in the notes all you need to do is hand them the phone and they will replace it".

Ultimately they told me what I already knew before I walked in and what each one knew before they went through the long procedures that they knew would fail. The worst part is they wouldn't let me leave and pick it up later. They kept stringing me along while they helped other people and ignored the prompts on the screen in their failed attempts to revive my phone.

What was worse, was after sitting there for 30min I got to listen to what kind of stuff they tell customers and how they talk them into things they don't really need. I was pretty amazed at how bold and abrasive they could be and how people didn't really seem to mind.