I was a tech in a store and covered a fee on a replacement device because it was the second time the guy had to come to us. I gave a young woman (student) a free laptop because she’d had a super long repair history during my last week in that role. Apple conditions their retail employees to treat customers well and it’s something I missed getting to do for people forever after.

When I moved to the mothership, the only mantra was always about doing right by our customers. When I was interviewing for that gig, I asked one of the interviewers what he considered challenging about the job and he said that (coming from Microsoft to Apple) the company had an “insane” focus on its customers. It really is a top-down attitude. The company may be high sniffing their own farts, but they believe they’re uniquely focused on doing the right thing.