In direct contrast to the truly poor service experience at Ruby Tuesday's, Apple has turned its mall stores into a consumer paradise. They offer differentiated and quality customer service options, an inviting retail environment and unique marketing via free courses/classes. Apple has managed to even interest someone like me - who typically dislikes any and all forms of shopping.
Customer Service Options
I went with my future brother-in-law to get his iPod fixed and made an appointment with the "Genius Bar" to talk to customer support. Apple immediately builds trust by not calling its employees customer service reps, but rather "geniuses." The wait at the store in our case was 2 hours plus, so I wondered if
there was a way in the future to make an appointment online. Alas,
there was - you can go online and make the appointment for an hour
window later in the day. For those who want even more priority service, you can pay $99 a year to immediately get the first spot in the queue for the "genius bar."
Inviting Retail Environment
While waiting for service, the store's upbeat music, huge rows of gadgets to demo and overall environment made me "hang out" at the store rather than browse the rest of the mall, not to mention add to next year's holiday gift list. The great Bose stereo systems with a built in iPod dock might have a margin of 50% for Bose and Apple, but they are so visually appealing I convinced myself I need one. Why would I listen to my iPod in the car with regular headphones if, for $100, I could hook the iPod into my car stereo system. Note that the store targets the whole family - a teenager could browse iPods, while dad checks his email on huge monitor and mom plays computer games with their daughter in a special kids area. Of course, all of these activities could very well end in a purchase.
Unique Marketing Via Free Courses/Classes
Every store has free drop-in classes on every piece of Apple related gear and software imaginable. Some stores even have massive auditoriums where these courses take place. What a great way to drive customer loyalty and sales. See a snapshot calendar from an LA store below. My only complaint is that I cannot get an RSS feed of all these events. Instead, I can only download to my desktop a calendar - why should I have to that when other dynamic content I can look at via my Google Reader feed.
| Sunday, January 7th | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 11:00 a.m. - | 12:00 p.m. | Getting Started Workshop Got
a new Mac? Thinking about getting one? Learn how easy it is to use a
Mac at the Getting Started Workshop. We'll show you the basics,
including setting up your new Mac, connecting to the web, sending
email, importing and sharing photos, syncing music to your iPod,
connecting a printer, and searching and organizing files. (Workshop) |
|
| Monday, January 8th | |||
| 2:00 p.m. - | 3:00 p.m. | Aperture Pro-Workshop Designed
from the ground up for professional photographers, Aperture provides
everything you need after the shoot. Featuring a RAW-focused workflow,
it makes RAW as easy as JPEG, letting you import, edit, catalog,
organize, retouch, publish and archive your images more effectively and
efficiently than ever before. (Pro Workshop) |
|
| 3:00 p.m. - | 4:00 p.m. | iPhoto Getting
into digital photography? Learn how to make jumbo prints, edit and
enhance your photos, and publish your photos to the web. We'll also
demonstrate how easy it is to organize and share your photos, by
creating a Photocast album. (Workshop) |
|
| 4:00 p.m. - | 5:00 p.m. | .Mac Workshop | |
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