Apple Customer Service

February 19th, 2016

It has been a very busy weekend and I have neglected my blog. When you have people visiting, it is hard to disappear so you can write a blog. I will always choose people over technology.

Speaking about technology and the need to put people first, I had an interesting experience on Friday. I drove to Bayshore to pick up my mother for the weekend. I needed to buy new chargers so I asked her to meet me at the Apple Store on the main floor.

I walked into the store and asked a man standing in the centre of the store, facing the entrance where I could buy chargers for iPhone 6s. He briskly walked over to a wall and spoke very rapidly. There are two choices, one costs $25 and the other costs $35. The difference is the length if the cord. I stood, facing a wall of cords as he rushed back to his post. My husband had led me to believe they were cheaper than that but we needed a charger as our phone batteries had not been charging properly for nearly a week. I was driving through a snow storm at one point with a dead phone, worried that I would need to call my husband. So I took the charging cord and headed to the back of the store where employees stood behind a desk. There were line ups of customers so I got in line. When it was finally my turn, the employee smiled and said if I wanted to purchase something, one of his colleagues at the front of the store, would be happy to help me.

I turned around and scanned the busy store for someone other than the guy who led me to the wall of cords earlier (he stood at the centre of the store, not at the front). I spotted a line up of clients to the left. There was an employee standing against the wall. Was he the one I could pay for this overpriced item? I decided to text my husband to ask if he wanted me to spend $25 on a charger. As I stood there texting my husband, I could hear the same gentleman in the centre of the store talking to clients. They would ask him for help with their technology. He would look down and say he could help them in one hour and 45 minutes. Some couldn't wait that long so the employee would suggest they book an appointment for another day. To my surprise, most of the clients just accepted the fact that they would need to take what they could get, they booked appointments for one hour and 45 minutes later. Maybe they would buy a snack or shop, read a good book perhaps until it was their turn.

The most frustrating part about it is that there are plenty of employees in the store and they do not appear to be busy. Unfortunately, their role is to sell big items so if you need help working on or fixing items you already own, you'll just need to wait. This is the opposite of everything I have learned about customer service. Here is what should happen:

1-A customer enters your store
2-You greet the customer and offer to help
3-You answer their questions, show them products (even cheap products), explain how it works, tell them the price and any pertinent information
4-If the client decides to buy something, you ring them through and thank them for their business
5-If they don't buy anything, you are still present and helpful and wish them a good day as they leave the store
6-When clients need help with a product they have purchased from your store, you do your best to help them and, if you are lacking information, you contact someone else who might have an answer or you provide that contact information to your client

In my opinion, the store should be organized in a way that makes it easy for clients to find what they are looking for and, the staff should be trained to ensure the client's experience is pleasant, that way the client will want to return and perhaps bring more clients with them next time they visit your store.  In this day and age when there is so much competition in the business world, you have got to take care of your clients. The Apple Store at Bayshore failed, big time to meet the minimal standards of customer service.

By the way, I was able to purchase a charging cord at the Dollar Store for $3 just a few hours later. I walked over to the clearly identified cash register, was served by a friendly employee and my phone is now fully charged.

Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org