Posted on 02/21/2015 1:17:41 PM PST by Star Traveler
Apple is the fastest growing retailer in history and has dominated the holy covet of retail metrics, sales per square foot, almost since its inception, which currently sits at $4,551.
Pair that with rampant expansion plans that puts the technology giant at 420+ stores around the world, and we're talking some serious revenue numbers, approximately $170 billion worth (2013).
Keeping all that in mind, more and more retailers are trying to figure out Apple's "secret sauce" when it comes to its retail experience, specifically when it comes to customer service, hoping to inspire the same degree of customer loyalty or "cult following" that Apple has.
In this post, I'll dissect some of the core elements that Apples uses to train its retail staff when it comes to delivering a great customer experience so that you as a small business retailer can walk away with some gems of how you can rethink customer service in your own store to inspire greater brand loyalty.
(Excerpt) Read more at shopify.com ...
I can testify to that... I messed up my Mac Mini and it was inaccessible... I took it to the Apple Store in Colorado Springs - they fixed it for me free of charge!
I was quite impressed. Apple stands behind its products and its customers. It deserves their loyalty.
Whatever. The card wanted to argue with me despite the fact that I had never charged anything to Apple. The local LE wouldn’t lift a finger other than verify the location of the thief’s computer at HP in California.
The locals couldn’t bother to get charges against a building contractor who screwed over two separate homeowners. Heck, they couldn’t get charges against a restaurant cook who spit in their own food. But they sure could harass a guy over trumped up charges (not related to my so called lies) until he committed suicide. Believe what you will but life isn’t always happy, happy or follow the rules.
In the almost 30 yeRs of using Apple products I have NEVER seen any employee with facial hair. You state goatees.
This renders your story as use tonal to false.
Star Traveler, my local Apple stores hire grey haired people.
I am even considering for my post retirement.
Hmmm ... interesting.
Apple leads in national customer satisfaction surveys of ALL products ... Not just computers.
They really are responsive and helpful.
Well then go visit the one on W. Bell in Phoenix. You are in a for a real treat.
Yes, lots of old people
I am considering even going to their computer classes to repair Macs professionally.
Apple has a grade point average for their employees.
There are not even tattoos.
apple is clearly not for you, but no need to besmirch them.
Exceed the buyers expections = Customers for Life.
You're right. I worked in traditional retail sales for years and thus expect a retailer to assist me when I come in with a defective device, so Apple is not for me. Telling customers to come back later when it's convenient for you is something alien to the American retail customer service industry. I promise to never besmirch them or anyone else. I'm just just reporting what I've observed -- and that includes rude twenty-somethings with goatees.
Next time, make an appointment. You'll be seen within ten minutes of your scheduled time.
You people are sheep. No other retailer anywhere forces you to make an appointment to deal with issues surrounding their products.
They'll see you without an appointment but people with appointments will be seen first, just like any other service oriented business. Walk-ins served in order of time available.
Yeah, I’m calling BS.
Just my opinion.
Then we have Sony, at the other end of the spectrum. I purchased a Sony alarm clock directly from Sony that was clearly defective from the get-go. I purchased the same model from a local Best Buy, and it worked correctly at once. Therefore, I knew the one purchased from Sony was defective. Sony told me to send it to their repair shop. Then they refused to refund the purchase price to me. They made me jump through so many hoops ("What is the serial number of your unit?" "What are the problems with your unit?" "When did you purchase your unit?" "When did you send back your unit?" "Where did you mail your unit back from?" "We have no record of having received your unit" "We finally located your unit" etc. etc. etc.), taking up hours of my time and FINALLY sent me back my refund (after I threatened legal action) about 5 months later. No SONY item will EVER be in my house again. They absolutely stink at the parody of customer service they reluctantly perform.
The Apple Store in Sacramento, about twelve miles north of Elk Grove, is staffed with men and women from late teens to early sixties. I cannot recall any with Tatoos or beards or mustaches, or girls with facial studs or too short hair. There were a couple of younger women with unnatural tints in their hair. But, then so do both of my quite conservative mid-thirties daughters.
Regarding your nice comments, including, “I think you’re seeing a “purpose” that does not really exist in Apple’s corporate policy”:
I actually agree with everything you wrote except for the above, because I am even with you on that. We really are saying the same thing in different ways. (I do not see where you get that I think there is a purpose other than just what you wrote, selling their products, which is easier in high population areas. Sorry if I wrote unclearly.)
And I agree with you, really I was saying it myself, that Apple’s focus on large cities with their stores (etc) it is incidental: Cities are where the money is at! Big cities are also the liberal mothership.
So ... it kind of results in liberals being able to like and use Apple stuff more easily, when proportioned out, than us good guys.
Apple is going to target that big city demographic too. And they are going to look and seem “blue” — maybe bluer than they really are. I know a lot of Apple people who are are anything but liberal. As a corporation when you add it all up they still skew solidly liberal, but they do business pragmatically. It would help their corporate appearance if they had to really address flyover America better. However us hicks are too easily entranced by the big city stuff, so they sell to us enough without any special effort.
I am of course being tongue in check about them avoiding smaller cities because they would have to hire us orthodox Americans. They tend pragmatic. (Plus even here there are far too many liberals.)
I am in one of the two largest cities in Oklahoma ... and BOTH of those cities are “red” ... :-) ... it doesn’t always work out that they’re “blue”
Those two cities are ranked 27th largest and 47th largest cities in the USA. I’ve also lived in the 4th largest, 9th largest and 29th largest cities.
http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/nycdata/world_cities/largest_cities-usa.htm
A Democrat operative once asked Steve Jobs why Apple did not make political donations to Democrats or even to the Democratic National Committee. . . or even "In Kind" donations. Steve Jobs replied "Because around half of Apple's customers are Republicans. I would not want to make half of our customers, of either party, angry with us, so Apple does not get involved." Apple has stuck to that policy over the years and does not make political donations.
Apple's Board of Directors has both Democrats and Republican members. if I had to guess, I would think the Republicans would be solidly Establishment Republicans and not true conservative Republicans. However, some is better than none.
The industry Apple is involved in is skewed solidly liberal. It is hard to find a company that is not. Why? I have no idea. Probably because the people involved in it are relatively young and had their ideas warped by participation in public schooling.
Apple's independent Employees' Political Action Committee, like all labor oriented organizations, makes political donations. Individual Apple employees can make donations on their own. . . however Steve Jobs, in the last 14 years of his life made very few political donations and compared to others of his wealth, the ones he did make were very small.
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