My first bite of Apple

I took my first trip to an Apple store this week. I wanted to share with you some of my experiences.

From the look of the place I was intrigued, I mean it just looked cool. The glass store front, the two humans waiting out front for you to walk in and be greeted, it just looked they were just waiting for me to walk in and ask some questions.

As I entered the lady at the front warmly greeted me and asked how she could help. I told her there was a small problem with my charger. She walked me to the back where another person waited with another apple product in his hand.

From this point, instead of just walking off the lady said, this gentleman will take care of you, and at any point you have a question or a problem with anything just ask to speak to a manager and a manager will come speak you. As she walked away I was kind of like, ok. I don't think I'll need a manager for my charger, but ok.

The gentleman who I was now talking to needed to know the reason I was there. I need to take a second and mention that this guy was not fixing any problems himself but mainly just directing traffic. And did I mention he was sweating. He was in an air conditioned room, working his tail off, sweating just getting people where they needed to be.

Once he realized it was a hardware problem he pointed. Another gentleman made eye contact with him and me and waved me over. He said that man will take care of you today. When I walked back to the fella I told him it was my first time in an Apple store. He commented briefly and started to take a look at my phone. He fixed the problem, handed me a charger and told me to have a good day.

I asked how much I owed him, and he told me nothing. Thanks for coming in today.

What? Chargers don't grow on trees. They cost money.

I told him that and he said, don't worry about it.

I was blown away. He is this international company with a small store inside a mall in the US and for a first time visitor bent over backwards just to make me feel good about being there.

Did I mention that I went on a Wednesday afternoon and it was packed? There was about 60 people in a small space?

That is the level of hospitality I expect from a hotel or restaurant, not a tech company. But Apple's isn't just a tech company, obviously. They are something different.

How many opportunities do we have on the other side of the coin like this? How many times, if we just look, could we surprise and delight someone is a special way? What type of company knocks your socks off like this?