Genius Bar

Talking to customers was the last thing a computer maker wanted, finds Adam Banks – so Apple did it

Personal computers and tech support were never meant to go together. In 1976, when Steve Jobs pitched the Apple I to Paul Terrell, manager of The Byte Shop, the deal was that Jobs and his partner Steve Wozniak would deliver the machines to the store. What happened after that wasn’t any of their concern.

Dealing with customers was the retailer’s job, and that was largely how it would stay in the low-margin, highvolume microcomputer market. Even when direct-sales giants like Dell and Gateway sprang up offering PCs over the phone, the last thing they wanted to invest in was a shop front to which users could bring their problems.

It was only after Jobs returned to Cupertino in 1997 that his legendary control-freakery shifted Apple’s sales focus from working with resellers to building its own stores, where the presentation could get the same attention to detail as the products. As newly hired retail chief Ron Johnson pointed out, that also brought a chance to solve users’ problems face to face.

Jobs’ reaction? As Johnson told Silicon Valley journalist Kara Swisher in March 2017: “He said, ‘I’ve never met someone who knows technology who knows how to connect with people.’” The idea was “so idiotic” that they might as well call it “the Geek Bar.” But the trademark that the company registered – just a day later, in Johnson’s recollection – was Genius Bar. To ensure his “geeks” were both approachable and effective, Johnson created a unique three-week in-house training program covering troubleshooting, repairs, and how to interact with people.

The result was, and still is, service that sets Apple Stores apart. Today, expanded Family Room areas offer advice and tips, and the redesigned Union Square store in San Francisco features a Genius Grove where assistants mingle under a canopy of trees – far from a Geek Bar.