The Apple Effect: A Lesson In Customer Service

The other day, my iPhone went a bit faulty – the earpiece stopped functioning so I couldn’t hear anyone on a call, I either had to use loudspeaker or the handsfree cable. Obviously, not exactly brilliant.

Made an appointment at the Apple Store’s Genius Bar in Birmingham to see what they think the problem is. They said if it was the earpiece, then that could be repaired in store in just a few mins. The guy ran some diagnostics and seemingly there was a problem on the main speaker too, being quieter than normal.

I was at this point just conscious that I needed a working phone, as it’s business critical!

The guy was so helpful, explaining what he was doing as he went along. He then explained that it wouldn’t be repairable in store unfortunately, and said ‘if it’s ok with you, we’d like to replace that for you….’

Great!

So on the spot, he filled out the brief form on his iPad and got a brand spanking new handset out the cupboard. So we swapped the sim over, switched on, signed into iCloud and hey presto, I have a phone again.

Awesome!

Apple really do know how to execute proper customer service. Love them or hate them, they know how to look after a customer, make them feel valued, which in turn, makes customers lifelong ‘fans’. I certainly am.

SO many retailers could learn a lot from Apple and the way they run their stores/organisation in general. All it takes is a bit of care and attention.

I would have been equally as happy if they would have been able to repair my existing phone. I feared they were going to say that it would need to be sent off, meaning me being without a phone; but when he said ‘oh it would be a maximum of half an hour if it’s repairable’, as they repair in store – that was fantastic in itself. But to be handed the new one was great.

Pay attention, retailers – THIS is how to do customer service. Pay attention. Or potentially lose customers.

It’s up to you!

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