Apple in The Big Apple

Company: Apple

Date: June 30^th 2015

Nature of encounter: Fix MacBook Pro speakers

Level of satisfaction: Satisfied

I was listening to music on my computer and realized that no sound was coming from one of my speakers. I thought this was weird because they had been working earlier in the day. I figured I would make an appointment at the closest Apple Store to me for that weekend when I had time to see what the problem was. It turns out that the 5^th Avenue location was the closest.  This is the biggest Apple Store in New York as well as the most congested. I arrived at the address to find a big glass cube entrance with stairs that led underground. As I descended down the glass staircase an Apple representative immediately greeted me. She asked what the purpose of my visit was. I explained to her that I had an appointment. She directed me to another gentlemen that I could check-in with for my appointment. The gentleman checked me in and directed my to the “Genius Bar” where I could sit and wait for someone to come and assist me. I was waiting about five minutes when someone came over to me and greeted me by my last time. They asked me to explain in detail the issue that I was having.  I explained the situation to him. He then asked if he could take my computer to the back to run a diagnostic test on it. A few minutes later he returned with a big smile on his face. He stated that the problem was due to some settings on my computer. He said I probably ran a program that altered the settings.

I was extremely embarrassed when he informed me about what had happened.

 I immediately apologized for wasting his time. I was at ease when he said, “This actually happens a lot, don’t worry about it, I was happy to help”. He could have easily blamed me for the problem and further embarrassed me by accusing me of wasting his time. He then showed me how to change the settings incase it happened again in the future.

Apple is known for its excellent products and customer service. They know that the customer drives their profits that increase their market share. The company definitely embraces “the customer is always right” slogan. No doubt about it, OSA should embrace this motto. It would make for less hostile conversations between OSA employees and customers.  Too many times in our research did we find students saying, “OSA said it was my fault”. This is not the way to treat a customer.