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So how will Apple maintain that golden rep for customer service?

Posted by: Peter Burrows on October 12

In recent weeks, we’ve been picking up more and more anecdotal evidence of people who were frustrated with Apple’s customer service. That, together with some recent customer satisfaction surveys showing a decline in Apple’s industry-leading scores, led us to ask the question: can Apple maintain its hard-won reputation, as it expands far beyond its traditional base to become a mainstream powerhouse. The result was this story in this week’s magazine.

The day before we closed the story, Apple made chief operating officer Tim Cook and Ron Johnson, the senior vice president and mastermind of Apple’s retail stores, available. Their message was clear: Apple has been planning for the current huge volumes right along. Having made investments of “hundreds of millions” a year, they feel the company has the situation well in hand. In fact, Cook said the company’s internal customer sat ratings are up two to three points from last year (He wouldn’t give the absolute number).

More after the break:

That's particulary remarkable, since Apple's interactions with customers (and chances to frustrate them) is increasing even faster than the company's torrid unit sales growth. For example, the company has sold more than one billion songs so far this year via iTunes, and some 25 million people walked through its 190-plus stores last quarter. Johnson pointed out that 300,000 people have paid the $99 fee to become a member of Apple's One to One program, enabling them to take courses on music, movie-making and such. Guess how many of these sessions occur each week? Try 25,000. I don't know about you, but I never would have guessed that high.

To hear Cook and Johnson tell it, Apple is executing on many of its service ideas, almost as crisply as it does in coming out with new products. For example, more than half of transactions at the stores are now handled through wireless checkout (stores have 20 of these handheld devices on hand, on average), says Johnson. (I'm assuming most consumers think that's a good thing; let me know if it's not as idyllic as it sounds).

The company says it has also figured out ways to reduce traffic jams at its Genius Bars through its online reservation system. Most appointments are reserved in advance, and Johnson says that well over 90% of them start on time. "The challenge is the walk-ins," says Johnson. (Again, would love to hear from you about your experiences with the Genius bar).

Another improvement: while Apple used to send broken Macs to repair depots, they know do more than 70% of repairs in in-store repair shops. Even more impressive, 50% of them are fixed and returned to the customer on the same day, and 75% are back home on the second day.

Listening to Cook and Johnson, it's clear that Apple has some unique advantages to avoid becoming as maddeningly mediocre as most big companies are at doing customer service. Here's a couple:

-- Apple only sells eleven products, really. That's not a lot of products for customer service reps and geniuses to master. And to the extent that Apple keeps expanding the use of core technologies into more of its products (for example, the Mac OS is now used in the iPhone, as well as the Mac), that also helps these geniuses live up to their name.

-- Apple "controls the whole widget", in that it does the industrial design, the hardware engineering and creates most of the software in its products. This gives the company far more control to make sure its products work properly, compared to other companies that are more about integrating and outsourcing.

Of course, none of this means scaling its customer service operation to meet the demand is going to be easy. For example, one thing we also learned is that Apple does in fact rely on third-party call-centers, just like most of its rivals. It's got two big call centers in the US, but much of the capacity its adding is not manned by Apple employees. So far, there have been no rash of complaints (in too many cases, non-badged tech reps seem far less motivated and informed). But if the company keeps growing as it has, maintaining that quality of service is going to be tough.

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Reader Comments

doog

October 12, 2007 06:58 PM

As for wireless transactions, I definitely think that it is not all that idyllic. When I bought both my MacBook and then some iPod accessories in two different stores earlier this year, both salesmen used the handheld checkouts (Symbol devices running, ironically, Windows Mobile).

But, here's the thing: both transactions were done standing at a regular cash register. In both cases there was quite a bit of text entry to do - e-mail address, phone number, a few other things. It definitely took a lot longer than it would have had the transaction been done at a regular POS terminal, with a real keyboard rather than a poke your stylus at the screen soft keyboard.

And since my credit card was being scanned by the handheld, with a wireless connection? Here was me hoping that they encrypt the transactions on the Symbol before they are uploaded ...

Phred Marx

October 12, 2007 08:32 PM

Apple so far has kept their quality up very well, but as they grow larger it will be impossible to give the same amount of devotion. Luckily for us, they still work better than Windows.

PXLated

October 13, 2007 01:01 AM

The handheld is great for new credit card sales. Where it falls apart is when several customers are paying by check, cash, or returning/exchanging products. In my local store (Ridgedale/MN), there is only one station they use for those other transactions and it's at the end of the Genius Bar. Took me over 30 minutes to buy something as simple as a computer case.
As far as scheduling a Genius, in the last 3 months, I've never been waited upon at my scheduled time. Average has be 15-20 minutes late and the last time it was dang near 45 minutes.
They remodeled/rearranged the store layout and it's been downhill ever since.
Now, all that said, once I did get waited on, the service was excelent.

As to the One-One service, everyone I know that has bought a new Mac has also signed up for the training. Every time I stop by one of the Apple stores, there's a full compliment of people partaking so I can believe they do 25,000 sessions. It's one of the best deals in training I've ever heard of. I can see where scheduling your sessions could become a problem though. The average mall stores just aren't big enough. At my local store they had to remove the old Genius Bar, combine it with the old checkout counter just to make room for the training tables. It's totally hosed and contributes to the problem above.

Jerry Joslyn

October 13, 2007 08:48 PM

We were in California and our iPhone wouldn't recharge. We stopped by an Apple Store on our way to the beach and someone waited on us within 5 minutes, even though the store was jammed. He took our iPhone and recharger and came back in 10 minutes. He said the recharger was broken. He plugged it in to show us the new recharger worked and we were on our way. No charge, no hassles. Could you image getting this kind of service in other consumer electronics stores? Apple is amazing...

michael

October 14, 2007 08:01 PM

So Apple has answered its quality issues by hiring more customer service people? Their action is similar to buying more band aids while the patient bleeds out.

These new customer service reps can say no just as quickly and easily as the current group of customer service reps.

If Apple wants to improve its customer care woes, then design a laptop that is an actual working laptop and not a broken down table top machine.

The crApple table top blows chunks and now amount of customer care represents will change that fact.

taojones

October 15, 2007 07:09 AM

Apple has gone through a catharsis on the issue of customer care in the last year or so. The policy used to be "blame the victim" and geniuses used to point out any minor blemish and refuse to cover the damage under basic warrantee unless you had purchased extended warrantee coverage. Somewhere there was a sea change in the companies thinking and they decided the good will was worth more than the hardware and they no longer make you have to go through a long complaint process to get resolution (Apple always fixed my problems but i usually had to go to corporate to get resolution in the past. Not the case today ). Kudos for Apple !

PsychoPink

October 15, 2007 02:46 PM

I converted from a PC to Mac about a year ago, and in general, have been very pleased. I have been to the Genius bar on three occasions. I was able to schedule same day visits all three times, and on only one occasion had to wait, and then only ~ 10 minutes. The "Geniuses" were extremely helpful, patient, and on one occasion solved all 11 of my questions/problems without any hassle at all. The difference between making an appointment at the Apple Store and getting one-on-one attention versus calling a phone # and being on hold for 30-45 minutes and then being told (falsely) "it's not your pc, it's your internet provider", or "it's your internet security program that's causing the problem" is immense. I would buy another Mac in a heartbeat.

Benoît Octave

October 15, 2007 07:29 PM

Well, I just got a strange problem with my MacBookPro not booting anymore because of an inserted (bad) blank CD. Since I was in Orlando, FL, I stopped by one of the two local Apple stores. Any usual trick to eject didn't work, so the Genius Bar person took my laptop to the back of the store and came back with the ejected CD 15 minutes later, while someone was replacing the (dirty) cover surrounding the keyboard... At no charge and I didn't subscribe to any preferred plan. I am quite happy with that level of service, but looks to me more and more people seem to be never happy, what ever the reason. That's their problem, indeed.

GregB

December 4, 2007 11:58 PM

I am a recent Mac convert, and I love OSX, but my experience with Apple customer service has been the worst of any computer company I have ever dealt with. It seems they will go to any length to avoid taking action -- blame the customer, deny there's a problem, refuse to act until you make so much noise they have no choice. In my experience it is a chore to get them to honor their obligations and fix problems. It does seem they do so at all willingly, and it is incredibly frustrating. As much as I love the OS right now I would not recommend Apple to anyone.

Seth Entwistle

February 20, 2008 12:24 AM

I was wondering how I might find the manager of customer service's address and name, I just need it for a school project. Thank you!
Seth

marshell

March 5, 2008 07:29 PM

customer service

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A blog on the daily doings of Apple and the many companies in its orbit, with insight and analysis by two longtime Apple-watchers BusinessWeek Senior Writer Peter Burrows and BusinessWeek.com Senior Technology Writer Arik Hesseldahl.

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