irvinesinglemom_IHB
New member
I went into the Apple Store at the Spectrum yesterday afternoon because my little guy had dropped a heavy object on my iBook keyboard and in order to type a "t" I was having to slam down hard on the loosened key. I had no idea how many words use the letter "t" until it was damaged.
So I football-style tackled my way to the Genius bar at the back of the store. Holy cow, there is no foot-traffic slowdown in this store! I had not been inside the store in about six months and I was amazed and impressed by the reengineering of their customer service approach. First of all, they had moved the Genius bar from the side of the store to the back, where the registers used to be. Looking around, it occurred to me that there were, in fact, no registers! No line, no place designated to pay. Huh.
I was quickly approached by one of the incredibly plentiful employees (all required to be under 25, apparently!) and asked if I could use any help. So, I explained my need and she told me she could put me in the queue for tech service but it might be a long wait (no kidding, I thought to myself as the throngs continued to bump into me near the Genius bar.) Then I mentioned to her that I had a ProCare membership but didn't have my card. She proceeded to look up my ProCare number and then snagged a Genius to help me out. This took less than 5 minutes. The Genius politely took my iBook into the back and I scanned the retail merchandise. Yet another friendly, young, helpful employee came over and chatted with me about the screen chamois cleaning kit that I had in my hand. Then, the Genius came back with my iBook, no charge, less than 5 minutes later. All better!
I thanked her and looked around for a few more minutes and then realized that I had no idea how to pay for my cleaning kit. So I approached another employee and asked. She immediately took me over to Craig Underwood, who greeted me and asked if I was paying with a credit card. I gave him my card and he gave me his business card and a "personal shopping" card and as he processed my purchase, he explained to me that I was welcome to schedule an appointment with him at any time for a personal shopping experience. No waiting, and all my questions answered for as long as I like. And if I couldn't make the appointment, no worries, I wouldn't even have to call to cancel! And there was no pressure to buy he said - it's called personal shopping, not personal buying.
He asked me if I wanted him to email my receipt to me and so I gave him my email address. Then he asked if I wanted a paper receipt and a bag and I declined both. Not sure where he'd have gotten the bag from as we were just standing in the middle of the store. Maybe I'll find out another time.
Apple is at the front of the pack with respect to both product innovation and quality, and innovative and responsive customer service. As an MBA with a professional interest in management systems, let me just say that this is really, really rare.
Wow. What a great case study for the vast majority of other retail businesses out there! Thank you Craig Underwood and all the other employees who interacted with me yesterday. I'll definitely be back!
So I football-style tackled my way to the Genius bar at the back of the store. Holy cow, there is no foot-traffic slowdown in this store! I had not been inside the store in about six months and I was amazed and impressed by the reengineering of their customer service approach. First of all, they had moved the Genius bar from the side of the store to the back, where the registers used to be. Looking around, it occurred to me that there were, in fact, no registers! No line, no place designated to pay. Huh.
I was quickly approached by one of the incredibly plentiful employees (all required to be under 25, apparently!) and asked if I could use any help. So, I explained my need and she told me she could put me in the queue for tech service but it might be a long wait (no kidding, I thought to myself as the throngs continued to bump into me near the Genius bar.) Then I mentioned to her that I had a ProCare membership but didn't have my card. She proceeded to look up my ProCare number and then snagged a Genius to help me out. This took less than 5 minutes. The Genius politely took my iBook into the back and I scanned the retail merchandise. Yet another friendly, young, helpful employee came over and chatted with me about the screen chamois cleaning kit that I had in my hand. Then, the Genius came back with my iBook, no charge, less than 5 minutes later. All better!
I thanked her and looked around for a few more minutes and then realized that I had no idea how to pay for my cleaning kit. So I approached another employee and asked. She immediately took me over to Craig Underwood, who greeted me and asked if I was paying with a credit card. I gave him my card and he gave me his business card and a "personal shopping" card and as he processed my purchase, he explained to me that I was welcome to schedule an appointment with him at any time for a personal shopping experience. No waiting, and all my questions answered for as long as I like. And if I couldn't make the appointment, no worries, I wouldn't even have to call to cancel! And there was no pressure to buy he said - it's called personal shopping, not personal buying.
He asked me if I wanted him to email my receipt to me and so I gave him my email address. Then he asked if I wanted a paper receipt and a bag and I declined both. Not sure where he'd have gotten the bag from as we were just standing in the middle of the store. Maybe I'll find out another time.
Apple is at the front of the pack with respect to both product innovation and quality, and innovative and responsive customer service. As an MBA with a professional interest in management systems, let me just say that this is really, really rare.
Wow. What a great case study for the vast majority of other retail businesses out there! Thank you Craig Underwood and all the other employees who interacted with me yesterday. I'll definitely be back!
