Apple store guru Ron Johnson launches concierge service for tech devices

MENLO PARK, Calif. – In a nondescript low-rise not far from a highway, Ron Johnson is rallying his troops.

"How many days until launch?" he shouts with boyish enthusiasm.

An employee points to a large number pinned up behind the company founder and yells back: "The writing's on the wall, Ron."

Indeed it is. Today, Enjoy goes live, a simply named start-up with an equally simple premise.

Residents of San Francisco and, come May 13, New York can order high-end electronics such as an Apple iPhone or Microsoft Surface tablet or GoPro camera off the Enjoy website, and the product will be hand-delivered sometimes within hours by a tech-savvy employee who will spend up to an hour explaining how the device works.

The tech products are priced the same as on other sites, but not having retail real estate allows Enjoy to funnel the built-in profits from high-margin gear into staff salaries.

What Johnson is banking on is the growing ubiquity and interconnectivity of at-home devices – say, your iPhone connecting to your Sonos music system connecting to your Nest thermostat – and solving for the inevitable consumer headache at no extra charge.

"First there were stores, then e-commerce, and now we think we're the next paradigm shift in shopping," says Johnson. "Our product is the person."

Johnson, 55, has had a pretty good knack for knowing what people want.

The Minnesota native made Target hip in the 1990s by associating it with trendy designers such as Michael Graves. In the 2000s, he pioneered the Apple Store and its Genius Bar, a huge success - Apple generates a segment-leading $4,800 per square foot in its gleaming stores - and seminal experience that still finds him quoting Steve Jobs.

Then came the fall from retail Olympus. Johnson took over as CEO of JC Penney in 2011, but great expectations turned to dashed hopes as Johnson's plans for a hipper, more upscale chain ultimately landed flat with its older-skewing customer base.

In particular, Johnson's misreading of consumer favorites such as coupons and sales events, neither of which are Apple staples, contributed to JC Penney losing $1 billion in fiscal year 2012. In 2013, Johnson was replaced by his predecessor.

"It was just a bad fit," Johnson says with a shrug. "They should have known it, and I should have known it. I spent a few months afterwards just being of service to others, but I soon realized I was excited by the start-up culture."

HIRING 'PEOPLE WHO JUST LOVE TO HELP PEOPLE'

Thanks to Johnson's largely hit-filled résumé, he had little trouble attracting top talent (including former Apple creative director Tom Suiter) and solid funding ($30 million rolled in last fall from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Oak Investment Partners and other top VC firms). The staff now stands at 127 employees, more than half of them young delivery experts split between San Francisco and New York, Enjoy's initial markets.

"The key was hiring people who just love to help people," says Johnson. "From here, we'll just take it one customer at a time."

So isn't Enjoy just bringing Apple's Genius Bar into people's homes?

"Well, yes and no," says Johnson with a laugh. "Most of the people at the Genius Bar are getting help with a product they've owned for a while. We're here to try and eliminate that trip by teaching you up front how to set up Sonos or how to edit a GoPro movie."

In fact, the endless lines at Genius Bars around the world inspired Enjoy.

"Apple makes things that are simple to use, yet if people ultimately need help with those kinds of products, then our service should be needed," he says.

Initially, Enjoy's site will sell around 50 items, ranging from iPhone (through a partnership with AT&T, which on May 19 will offer buyers the option of Enjoy service) to drones to powered skateboards.

"This is a game changer, although (Enjoy) is just learning how to change the game," says John McFarlane, CEO of Sonos. "There will be scaling and logistical issues for them, but if the demand is there those are nice problems to have."

McFarlane says Enjoy can bring the valued-added proposition of a store – "a human being who understands your needs" – into the home, where the expert can be the make-or-break difference between a sour first experience and a home run.

"What if the person's router isn't working, or what if they can't remember their Spotify password?" he says. "Enjoy can get your through that hurdle of doubt."

In fact, retail experts say technology is increasing the burden of customer satisfaction on manufacturers. Today, Web-enabled shoppers expect to get what they want, when they want it, and it needs to work. In their book The New Rules of Retail, Robin Lewis and Michael Dart note that the more a company can own every step of that retail value chain, the better its chances of success (cue Apple again).

MAIN HURDLE TO SUCCESS IS 'TRUST'

Enjoy's mission amounts to serving as a third-party liaison between tech manufacturers and their customers, and Johnson is the first to admit that "winning people's trust" will be integral to Enjoy's success.

That's why ordering options include meeting Enjoy experts at a location of your choosing, and requesting the same expert for future visits if the experience goes well.

Staff experts have spent the past six months doing demo product visits, and one key seems to be coming across as human.

"Typically I don't even talk about tech for the first 10 minutes" of a visit, says Chris Mai, 30, a former dance instructor and Apple Store employee who is part of Enjoy's New York delivery crew. "What's really satisfying, especially in a place like New York where people have their guard up, is to be able to connect and help."

Enjoy's head of marketing and communications Ari Bloom says the company's customers should span the gamut from "Millennials who might want a new phone delivered to them at a coffee shop to middle-aged people for whom time is very important."

He adds that for $99, adult children can order an hour of Enjoy tech support for a parent, "a way to get away from being the family IT support for a bit."

For the moment, Enjoy remains little more than a radical vision of how shopping could be transformed, a true fusion of the benefits of e-commerce giant like Amazon with the personal touch of a brick-and-mortar pro like Nordstrom.

If it's a hit, Johnson gets more than just a chance to wipe away the miscue of his last corporate experience. He gets to live out a maxim of his old boss at Apple.

"After (JC Penney), I was thinking a lot about Steve's speech at Stanford (2005 commencement address), and that's when I knew I had to do this," he says.

What Jobs said was simply that "to be truly satisfied in life "is to do what you believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do."

Follow Marco della Cava on Twitter @marcodellacava