When I set out to write this book I did so with a slightly perverse determination that I would not use Apple as an example for anything. I felt it was lazy, or boring even; there are plenty of other businesses which offer fantastic customer experiences that we can learn from, yet don’t receive anywhere near the same level of coverage.

As a designer Apple are as much a curse as a blessing, owing to their inescapable influence. Design and client meetings are dominated by them, even if the industry itself has nothing to do with consumer electronics. When Apple released their ‘coverflow’ system for swishing through music artwork on the iPod every client I worked with started demanding ‘coverflow’ interfaces on their websites. It didn’t matter that it never worked especially well in the web context (Apple themselves didn’t use it on their website for example), it’s what they wanted. In a recent client discussion about providing a better in-store experience, the designer assigned to the project spent most of the briefing meeting talking about Apple’s ‘Genius bar’ and how fantastic it was. There is less user-centered design than there is Apple-centered design these days. If I had my way I would ban their mention from any design discussion on projects in an effort to expand people’s horizons.

And yet, in the context of this book, to ignore them on these grounds would be to do them a great disservice. Put simply there is no business that better embodies the principles that I advocate, and none which illustrates so well the success that can come from a relentless focus on the customer experience. At the time of writing Apple are the most valuable company in the world.¹

It is no surprise that the world’s most valuable company also have the world’s most valuable brand.² Apple have developed a following that is often described as cult-like. At the launch of a new product many fans travel from far and wide, camping overnight to be the first to get their hands on the new release. Apple products are seen by consumers as fresh, modern, high-tech and cool. They are seen as the leaders rather than the followers. Few in consumer electronics can compete with this. As one commentator put it, ‘We don’t see anyone getting a Samsung tattoo.’³

Although their marketing is often as lauded as their products, their brand value has been achieved through consistently creating products and services that work better than those of their immediate competitors, rather than the cultivation of a particular image. I do not see one particular demographic for whom the iPod or iPhone have an appeal: these are universal products.

Whereas many businesses are keener than ever to include their customers in product development, Apple remain staunchly inner-directed, something I believe is key to their success. When asked in an interview how Apple know their consumers will want their products, design chief Sir Jonathan Ive replied, ‘We don’t do focus groups – that is the job of the designer. It’s unfair to ask people who don’t have a sense of the opportunities of tomorrow from the context of today to design.’⁴ This is one area where competitors certainly could do better by following Apple’s example. They are just as famous for saying no to things and ignoring customer requests as they are for advancing the state of the art, as was the case when they refused to support Adobe Flash on their mobile devices.⁵ This is not the only area in which Apple have taken control away from the customer: the iPod was famously crippled to only allow content to flow into the device from one computer, and every app that is submitted to the app store is checked against rigorous guidelines before being offered for sale. Now that Apple is such a dominant player in content, no doubt we will see heated debate about their role as arbiter of what material we can or cannot view on their devices.

Apple’s attention to detail is fastidious, my personal favourite being the small heartbeat light on the front of my laptop that makes it look like it’s sleeping when the lid is closed. It’s such a small touch but it really gives the laptop some personality. This attention extends along the whole customer journey from the retail experience, through un-boxing, using their products and onto any after-sales service.

Few other businesses have gone to the lengths that Apple have to make their products and services as effortless and stress free as possible to use, much of which has been possible by viewing the customer journey as a continuum rather than as individual features. When the iTunes store was launched it became all but effortless to buy music online, organise it into playlists and sync that content onto your iPod. Likewise, the well thought out back-up and restore function on the iPhone means that if you lose or upgrade your phone, you just plug it in and a few minutes later you have your new phone exactly as your old one was. Before Apple entered the market, most people moved their contacts from one device to another by copying them to the SIM card or re-typing them manually.

Comparing the range of Apple products to those of their competitors shows the value of having smaller product ranges: it becomes far easier to choose the product that best meets your needs. At the time of writing, there are two basic laptop models: the MacBook Air – small and light; and the MacBook Pro – the workhorse. There are two screen sizes available for each. Perhaps more impressive is that there is only one model of phone, yet at the time of writing their share of the US smart-phone market is 44.9 per cent.⁶

Apple tend to receive the most praise for the sensory experience of their products: from the original colourful iMac through to the studied minimalism of its latest incarnation, Apple have designed products that delight the senses. Unlike the ugly, beige boxes of their competitors, a Mac could take pride of place in the living room. With the introduction of the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, Apple moved gestural touch-based interfaces from sci-fi into mainstream reality, but where they perhaps deserve more praise is for how they have made these devices accessible to those with sensory impairments. Their phone is completely usable by blind people, using a feature called ‘VoiceOver’, which reads out the labels of any navigation items that the user touches. They have even extended this functionality to the camera application: if you switch VoiceOver on, then launch the camera and point it at a person it will tell you when they are in the frame. I tried this and it said, ‘One face. Large face. Centre. Autofocused.’ I then double tapped to take the picture.

A few years ago, a friend of mine, Andy, sent me a message about an incident he’d had with some software on his Mac. After failing to rectify the fault, he decided to take a punt and e-mailed Steve Jobs with his problem. The following day he received a reply from the director of the product division asking for his location so he could fly one of the developers of the software out from California to his home (in Liverpool) to help rectify the problem. This is an extreme example, and yet when I asked friends for examples of outstanding customer service, Apple are mentioned more than any other brand. In a world where most seem to want to quibble over every penny, it seems that Apple employees want their customers to leave the Genius Bar with their product working as it should, feeling well looked after.

Speaking to the BBC after receiving his knighthood, Sir Jonathan Ive’s comments about their goals as a company were revealing: ‘It’s to try to design the very best products that we possibly can … We’re very disciplined, very focused, and very clear, across the company – that is our goal … If we manage to do that then there are a number of consequences. People will like the product, hopefully they’ll buy the product, and then we will make some money … The goal isn’t to make money, the goal is to try to develop the very best products that we can.’⁷ This is something we can all aspire to do.