Is there a crack showing in the shiny Mac Apple?

No one would disagree that Apple is a company that get a lot of things right.

  • In 2011 over half of their revenue will come from products that did not exist four years ago. We can safely say that ticks the innovation box.
  • Any company about whom people tweet the following ‘Glad I helped Steve Jobs reach sales targets this month. Feeling quite proud’ has definitely ticked ‘the army of fanatics supporting them’ box!
  • An organisation that successfully launches a new product (iPad) and an upgrade to a core product (iPhone 4) within months of each other gets a tick next to the commercial box.
  • And as for differentiation, there are more ticks than I can mention here!

So why was I feeling uneasy as I left the Mac store on Regent Street this Saturday? My experience there raised some key questions to which I don’t have an answer, but  that does make me wonder if there is a crack starting to show in that shiny little Mac Apple?!

Let me tell you what I mean.

Saturday 2 AM my computer dies and at 9 AM I’m at the Mac store on Regent Street only to be told that the next appointment in the Genius bar for technical support is on Friday at 18.00.

One week to get technical support! ‘This is wrong on so many levels, and it also shows some structural problems. Below are my top line observations.

  • If you’re a life style brand, promoting a way for people to live their lives, then you can’t at the same time turn around and say that it’s OK to be without you for one week.
  • This is even more the case if your product provides some form of utility. I run this fluid world with my business partner and i can safely tell you none of our clients would be happy with me being out of action for a week.
  • Customer service that offers technical support one week later is just not good enough for a premium priced product – it’s not actually good enough for any priced product in this category!
  • Not one member of staff I spoke to disagreed with me, a one week wait is just unreasonable. If your own staff can’t support your customer service level, then as an organisation you do have a problem!
  • It’s clear when you’re in the store that Apple is an organisation that prioritises sales and marketing. The look and feel of the store as you know is great, there are more sales people walking around than I have ever seen anywhere else, and they are happy letting people be on facebook all day long because ‘we’re nurturing future customers’. The problem is that ONLY a handful of people working in the Genius bar, and a sales force that can’t handle even basic trouble shooting, does nothing to nurture your present customers with a pressing problem!
  • And finally, when your staff speaks less than gloriously about you as an organisation to customers, in this case I had to listen to comments like ‘we’re becoming an IBM’, then you really should sit up and listen! Not to mention that the staff also seems totally unaware of the risk taken when speaking so honestly to a stranger (I mean really have they never heard of journalists, bloggers, facebook fans twitterers?!)

I did end up getting help though. One of the young men I spoke to squeezed me in. I had to wait three hours for it all to be sorted out, but it did get sorted (these chairs are really not that comfortable by the way)!

The issue is that the reason my trip to the Apple store was a success had nothing to do with Apple as an organisation, and everything to do with one person breaking a rule. Not a sustainable solution to what I think could be a major problem – a focus on product development and launches on the possible expense of customer service and staff motivation.

I propose Steve Jobs takes a trip down to one of his Mac stores, accompanied by a broken computer and a pressing dead line. I think it would do him some good, but then I suspect they would make an even bigger exception for him than for me :)

[del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [LinkedIn] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Email] More »
2010
06/21
CATEGORY
Branding
Customer Experience
Organisational Behaviour
Strategy
Thoughts
this fluid world
3 comments

  1. Un ver dans la pomme (“a worm in the apple” would Frenchies say), comme diraient les Français? Oui, vous avez raison!
    Une fois encore, et l’exemple est particulièrement cruel, nous vivons l’énorme distorsion entre le souci apporté à la communication sur la marque et le peu de cas fait des besoins réels du client.
    Si j’ai 3 voitures de course et 4 ordinateurs, peut-être vais-je accepter ce traitement décalé quand la technique montre une défaillance. Mais je crains surtout que le jour où nous n’accepterons plus ce manque de prise en compte des exigences du client, ce service que nous pensons naturel ne soit modulé en fonction du temps que nous acceptons de perdre.
    Cela existe déjà pour une marque américaine de cartes de visites , calendriers etc qui affiche des gratuités et des prix d’appel. Sauf que… les prix ne sont intéressants qu’à condition d’accepter d’attendre plusieurs semaines un produit pourtant fabriqué en une petite heure.
    C’est déjà le cas pour l’acheminement postal qui alors que les transports sont devenus très rapides facture , quelle que soit l’entreprise, des prix explosifs pour transporter à une vitesse en rapport avec les moyens de transport moderne nos précieux envois, certaines lettres et certains colis pouvant donner l’impression qu’un postier bon marcheur mais sans plus a répondu à notre demande.
    Notre belle pomme saura-t-elle garder le sens du service bien fait, de l’intelligence du client? C’est avec raison que vous vous interrogez.

    • Dan
    • July 4th, 2010

    Hey Liri

    This is indeed a common problem but one that is skewed by people’s love of the Regent Street store…

    There are tens of stores in London, Apple and Authorised Resellers whom carry out “Genius” problem solving… Go in to any of these and they will be instant while you wait…

    When resident in Bath I used our local Authorised Reseller who could fix right there with expert knowledge and great supply of components… Recently Bath opened an official Apple Store… The reseller still goes strong…

    I agree from a process point of view Regent Street has a supply demand issue… I would say actually this applies to Sales and Marketing too these days (another time for that discussion)… It is though specific to Regent Street…

    I think though it’s the exception not the rule as take out key stores like Regent Street and I believe actually while you wait instant fix service is being delivered to Apple customers the world over…

    Just my two cents… As with all currencies the value of which fluctuates ;)

  3. @Dan
    Hi Dan,

    In my case I would not say it is so much the love for the Apple Store as the complete ignorance of there being any other options. At no point when i bought the computer, or when i battled to get the computer fixed, was i ever informed of any other options. Trust me when I say that a shiny store is of very little pleasure to me when i am facing a client crisis :) I am delighted though, that because of you, I am now faced with other option should i be in a similar situation again! So for that Dan, I thank you. And to Apple I say, I wish your customer service communication was a as good as your marketing communications!

    X

  1. No trackbacks yet.