Rohan Jain's answer: This is an interesting question, and the truth is that any company can turn its users into Apple-like evangelists. If you were to ask an Apple user, “Why do you love Apple so much?,” you will usually get a response of “It’s greatly designed, sleek, and overall just beautiful.” Contrary to popular belief, this is not why people love Apple. Sure, their designs are beautiful and their products are well-built, but so are many other products in the world. Why is it that Apple users are so much more extreme? Design and beauty don’t justify why Apple users stand outside overnight in the freezing cold just to be first in line for a new product.
Apple users are evangelists because they truly believe in the values of the company. They feel that the company's motto ("Think Different") is a reflection of who they are as individuals. Apple evangelists feel inspired and connected when they see Apple commercials, as these advertisements show people who share Apple’s beliefs, messages that challenge the status quo, and people who actually “Think Different.” Most importantly, all of Apple's products are a reflection of this belief. The company has always innovated products that actually do “Think Different” from what the mainstream version of that product is.
It’s not a coincidence that the leader of Apple held the same beliefs as the company. Steve Jobs was a misfit. Everything he did in life followed the mantra “Think Different.” In fact, you can even argue that one of the reasons he died is because of this belief. He never agreed with society’s way of doing things, and as a result did not want regular medical treatment for his cancer; he foolishly believed that things like a vegan diet would help cure him. Everything that Jobs did in his life challenged the status quo, and everyone knew this. As a result, every Apple employee knew what Jobs stood for, and made sure that every Apple product did indeed challenge the status quo. He was the epitome of the "Think Different" motto.
If you, as a leader, live a life that embodies your company’s meaning, and you make sure that all company decisions are a reflection of this mantra, your users will slowly begin to join you. Your users will start to advocate for you, and truly believe that your company is a representation of who they are. They will start to feel that your company always has their best interests, without even questioning you. This kind of loyalty has nothing to do with design or features; this is about the innate need of social creatures to join groups that represents their values.
The easiest way to take a further look into this concept is to examine some other companies that are turning its users into evangelists:
Y-Combinator: Everything that Paul Graham does is a reflection of his beliefs. His company is based around helping startups succeed. His blog gives advice on how to help startups. Shit, even his wife is an advocate for the startup community. Paul Graham eats, breathes, and sleeps his belief in helping startups change this world. It doesn’t matter what product he creates, his belief is always the same. Do you know what would happen if Y-Combinator released a DVD tomorrow about helping startups scale? Thousands of startup founders would buy it in a heartbeat. Why? Because they trust that Paul has the best intentions, simply because he has shown us time and time again that his life is a reflection of this mantra.
Does this mean that the DVD he creates will have more valuable information to startups than any other DVD in the world? No. But that doesn’t matter to startup founders. Once again, they trust Paul has the best of intentions. So even if some random person was to create the most amazing DVD on helping startups grow, people would still recommend Paul’s DVD over random Joe’s because they know what Paul stands for.
Quora: I would say that I am a Quora evangelist. Whenever someone asks me “How do I do X?” or “What should I do when Y happens?” I almost always say, “Check out Quora.” In fact, I will even tell people who aren’t asking me questions to go check out Quora for valuable insight. Does this mean that Quora always has the best answers to every question possible? Absolutely not. But to me, that doesn’t matter. I trust Quora because everything that this company does is in alignment with its beliefs. Quora forces bogus answers to collapse, has strict policies on what kinds of questions can be asked, and even has moderators constantly editing questions. These are all just different outputs with the same purpose: to help create the most intelligent discussion and responses for its users. Having your question edited by one of the Quora mods can be irritating at times, but the company is doing it in order to make sure everything aligns with its bigger goal of creating an arena with the most intelligent information.
Even though I don’t work at Quora, I am 100% certain that Adam D'Angelo &Charlie Cheever constantly reiterate to their team what the purpose of this company is. That’s where it starts with. You need to first communicate to your team what you're striving for, so that employees will know what decisions to make even without you being there. I’m sure Quora mods can look at a question and say, “Man, Adam would never approve of this” just the way that Apple designers can look at a product and say “Man, Steve would never approve of this.”
Amazon: This company has created millions of evangelists (me included). How did they do it? In Amazon's early days, people heavily criticized Jeff Bezos for allowing users to leave negative reviews on books. People told Bezos that he was crazy for allowing all this negative feedback on the site; critics stated that no one would ever buy anything off Amazon if he allowed people to leave poor reviews of books. That didn't matter to Bezos though, because he was not concerned with the easiest way to make the most sales; he was concerned with providing accurate and honest details to help customers make the most-informed decision. And guess what happened? Users slowly began to trust Amazon. They started to realize that Bezos was behind all of their best interests; he wasn't some money-hungry CEO trying to con his way into making sales. This trust was critical for Amazon to be able to succeed in all of the other services that the company later went on to offer (EC2, Mechanical Turk, Payments,etc). The reason why they have been able to excel with so many different products is because their users continue to trust that the company still has their best interests. All of the features that Amazon has implemented are a reflection of the company's commitment to creating the smoothest purchasing experience (Recommendation Engine, Amazon Prime, Honest Reviews, 1C, etc).
In the eight years that I have ordered stuff from Amazon, I have never had even one delayed or missing package. The excellent pricing and fantastic customer service put this company at the top of many people's lists. In terms of execution, Bezos has been absolutely flawless. No matter what feature he is about to implement, he always makes sure that benefiting the customer is the heart of each new service. I trust Amazon more than I trust any other company in the world, and this is only because Bezos has proven to me time and time again that his only concern is to create the safest and simplest online shopping experience.
How To Turn Your Users into Evangelists
Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, and Adam D'Angelo all have great minds, but they can’t build a successful company with loyal customers alone. In order to turn your customers into evangelists, you first have to turn your employees into ones.
If you are creating a startup, here are the steps to follow:
1) Figure out what the purpose of your company is (If your purpose is to make as much money as possible, your users will never become evangelists). What cause is your startup fighting for? Give your users a crusade to join.
2) Eat, breathe, and sleep your purpose. Every product you create, every decision you make, and every service you provide should be in alignment with upholding the purpose of your company. It doesn’t matter if you are creating a blog for the company, or if you are creating an electronic product for the company… your purpose should still be the same.
3) Constantly communicate your purpose to everyone. Co-founders, employees, users. Let everyone know what you stand for, and what the big picture of your company is. The CEO's life should be a walking symbol of the company's purpose.
4) Never, ever betray your employees or users. You must lead by example. Once trust is lost, it is extremely difficult (if not impossible) to regain. Why does Groupon get so much more hate than LivingSocial, when in reality both companies essentially provide the same service? This is due to the fact that no one believes Groupon actually helps small businesses because their actions are not in sync with their purpose (contracting aggressive salesmen to hassle small businesses, poor customer service after the Groupon is done, taking money off IPO, etc).
Turning users into evangelists is not an easy task. It usually takes years of consistently making the right decision before users will open up and truly trust a company. As your startup grows and adds more team members, it gets harder and harder to uphold all of the same values that the company was originally founded upon. But everything starts with your leader. The leader must live a life that aligns with the company’s purpose, and also make decisions for the company that are absolutely in sync with its meaning. The leader must then constantly communicate to everyone what the company is striving for.
If your life becomes a symbol of your company's purpose, and you constantly reiterate to your co-founders and employees what you're fighting for, your team will slowly be able to make the right decisions without you even being there. This is how a company grows to thousands and still holds the same values. This is how Apple employees can make high level decisions without Steve Jobs guiding them each step of the way. This is how your customers slowly begin to join your crusade and start advocating for your cause. This is how you turn your users into evangelists.
