Gizmodo has a history of getting its hands on things that Apple doesn’t want the public to see. They’ve managed to do it again by finding the most updated copy of “The Genius Training Student Workbook” – the guide for those employed as Apple’s “geniuses” at its stores. Highlights from Sam Biddle’s article include:

• The core theme of the book is that an Apple genius must get into the customer’s head through empathy, and then sell them new products.
• While empathy is important, Geniuses are told that it is different from sympathy. Geniuses should never sympathize or feel sorry for the customer because that would suggest that there is something wrong with the Apple product, and a Genius must never “apologize for the business [or] the technology.”
• To that end the manual bans the use of certain words. Geniuses cannot say that an Apple device has “crashed” instead they must say that it “unexpectedly quit.” Apple products do not have “problems” they have “conditions.”
• The five step method to selling products is: Approach, Probe, Present, Listen, End.
• The Geniuses are told that a blank stare is a sign of boredom, and are given other tips about human behaviour.
• Apple advocates for a system of “Fearless Feedback” among its employees. The sample guide includes ways to tell “Genius J [that he] needs a shower.”

You can find other excerpts from the guide, and Biddle’s entertaining reactions to them over here.

Source: Gizmodo