An Afternoon at the Apple Store

I wonder what Steve Jobs would have thought of this customer experience. I also wonder what Tim Cook would think.

We decided to buy an iPad for my mother-in-law and I decided to buy an iPod Touch for myself at the same time. When we were at the Apple Store to ask questions a couple times recently, the experience wasn’t too bad. Skyrocketing sales of iPhones, iPods, and iMacs have caused these stores to become much busier than they used to be, but we were able to obtain sound information from people who were attentive and competent. Our day of purchase was a little different.

After you make a purchase, someone helps you get started with it. I’ll admit we made a couple errors. The young lady who helped us suggested that we do both at once; my wife could work the iPad while I worked the iPod. This was probably unwise. My wife had left home without her reading glasses and neither of us was experienced working with the touch screen.

They created a new gmail account and a new Apple Id for mother-in-law. I don’t know what was done because I was fighting my own little battle with fat fingers. The gmail account was immediately unusable; the iPad could not connect to it. When the original helper could not resolve this, she called for a wizard; eventually, they did something to reset the account; I’m not quite sure what this meant they did but it did start working. Meanwhile,  I created a couple problems for myself by mistyping on the tiny keypad and needed some help as well.

The thing about this is that the store was very busy and noisy and the folks who were helping us were helping other people at the same time. They would do something, say do such and such and then run off to someone else. Then we’d try whatever they said and wait for them to come back. What they said to do didn’t always work and the whole affair was extremely confusing and disrupting; it’s difficult to convey what it was like. A couple tasks that should have taken a half hour or so took a couple hours. I’m sure that we’d have gotten through the whole business much more quickly and with greater ease if we’d worked on one device at a time and if we’d had a helper who stuck with us. I also suspect the folks on setup duty would be more productive if they took care of one customer at a time.

I’ve been reading in the new biography of Steve Jobs about his passion for detail and his concern for the customer experience. I do wonder what he’d have thought of this. Sure, he might have considered my wife and me idiots, but I don’t think he’d have liked the way the system handled us.

© Charlie Wertz, January 2012

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