Anyone who’s been to an Apple Store, especially the one in Tysons Corner, VA, knows that Apple is experiencing some serious growth pains. Yes, as predicted, more and more people are starting to adopt Apple hardware and software and the cost/benefit factor becomes more apparent. The hardware is not that much more expensive, and if you take in to account all the stuff you get and all the stuff you don’t need to buy, it’s actually a pretty sweet deal for the total cost of ownership. Vista didn’t win any favors, Windows 7 is invoking similar fear, and Apple’s forth coming Snow Leopard looks like it’s going to be dealing a death blow. Meanwhile the number of ways to run Windows applications on a Mac, even the graphically intensive ones, are climbing — that a Mac won’t run Windows software is just not true.
Where Apple dropped the ball was the in-store support. If you walked into the store, all appointments were filled. Even if you registered in advance, you couldn’t be seen before hand. And turns were taken in the ordered registered — which meant if you had the identical problem as the person at the counter, and someone required 45 minutes of training in front of you, you had to wait. In short, it was awful and you had resort to gaming the system to get seen when scheduled.
As it turned out, my iPhone started wonking out on me when it came to WiFi. My connections would drop, and with the last firmware update, my WiFi connection would drop seconds after being established. Manually cycling WiFi, power cycling, rebooting, and even firmware reloading did not solve the problem. All I could use was Edge, even when someone next to me could see the network access point at full strength on their iPhone.
I loathed the idea of going in to the Apple Store with a real hardware problem, which would require seeing a Genius, especially a shopping day or so before Christmas Eve.
Unbeknownst to me, Apple had made substantial improvements in customer service, the likes of which exceeded all my hopes and expectations. Check this out!
The moment I crossed the store threshold, I was greeted with “Welcome to the Apple Store, is there anything I can help you with?”
“Uh, no, I’m here for a Genius Bar appointment, and I’m an hour ahead of schedule.”
“No problem sir, I’ll register you’re in-store, so head on over to the bar now, and we’ll see if they can take you early.”
Huh? Normally the Genius Bar has a crowd around it with very frustrated people, and four to six gurus working madly. However, as I looked over there were only two, and tons of empty stools, and zero crowd waiting. Meanwhile, the store looked busier than I have ever seen it.
I go over and take a seat. Again, I’m greeted, they ask my name, and they say they see me as appointment number 9. Usually that means that I can expect an hour and a half wait.
However, I’m watching as the two people there are taking cases, and the moment they require some hardware restore or check, they start the automated job and immediately start taking the next person. They’re working concurrently, and they are cranking through the list.
Less than five minutes later, it’s my turn.
“What seems to be the problem?”
As I’m describing it, I notice he’s typing. So I pause and ask what he’s doing.
He tells me, “I’m setting up an order in the computer to replace your phone with a new one. I’m going to flash the firmware, and if that solves it, I’ll press cancel and give you your phone back. If it doesn’t, I’ll hit submit. Either way, you’ll have a working phone in five minutes or less.”
My mouth drops.
“While I do this, do you mind if I take another customer?”
“Uh, no, of course not.” And he calls the next person in line. I’m shocked. I’m impressed. I’m please. And everyone at the Genius Bar starts socializing with one another. It’s turning into a little party.
As he’s talking to the other customer, he’s pulled out a box, moved the SIM card from my phone into the new one, and pushes the new phone and the paper work my direction. I sign it, and he says to me, “You’re all set. And 15 minutes before your appointment was supposed to start.”
That couldn’t be right, I was there an hour early. Looks like they bumped me up in line a few times when “Last call for Mr. Noshow” was hollered out.
I did get to talk with the Genius, and he stated that Apple now allowed them to take people early, as well as work concurrently, and group similar cases together. It was clear that this removed all congestion and put them ahead of the game.
For as I was talking with him, a floor person came over and said “I have a woman on hold, she was wondering if you could do a walk-in.” The Genius spread his arms and said, “absolutely, I have nothing but real-estate” and gestured at the empty bar.
The service was friendly, prompt, and I’d give it six stars on a five star scale.
Walt gives the new Apple policies and procedures at the Genius Bar two thumbs up!