Kevin Dietsch
- It's not everyday you see a CEO take a customer service call.
- Apple's Tim Cook helped a caller with an iPhone decision during a "CBS Sunday Morning" interview.
- You guys thought I'd screw it up," he jokingly told onlooking Apple employees after the call.
It's not everyday that the CEO of a Fortune 500 company works the customer service line — even if it is just for a PR stunt.
On the most recent episode of "CBS Sunday Morning," Apple chief executive Tim Cook tried his hand at taking a sales call on a visit to Apple's Austin, Texas, campus.
"I was hoping you had a moment to chat with a very special guest," an employee told a customer over the phone before Cook, donning a headset, joined in, repeating the customer's request: "You want a larger display."
After he got off, the room of onlooking employees burst into cheers and applauded Cook, who shook a few employees' hands.
"You guys thought I'd screw it up," he joked.
The caller "wanted to upgrade their iPhone," Cook told CBS anchor John Dickerson.
During the interview, which was scheduled around the release of the iPhone 15, as well as the new Apple Watch, Cook also discussed Apple's Vision Pro, which he said is on track for an early 2024 release. Cook said he uses the mixed-reality headset frequently, even to watch the whole third season of "Ted Lasso."
Though Cook probably isn't answering customers' calls everyday, he's said before that he starts his days by reading emails from users sharing feedback about Apple's devices.
"If you're in the business, like we are, of creating technology that really enriches people's lives – you want to know what it's doing," he told GQ in. "You want to know how people are feeling about it."
Another CEO recently spent some time interacting directly with customers.
Last year, Uber's Dara Khosrowshahi moonlit as an Uber driver, which he said was an eye-opening experience.
"It showed me, literally, that we as a company culturally were very much focused on the rider and the eater product because we used them ourselves — we took a lot of pride in it all the time," Khosrowshahi said at a conference hosted by GE earlier this month. "But we didn't take pride in the driver product because very few of us drove."
Watch the full "CBS Sunday Morning" interview here.