I did a stint in AppleCare for several years. They definitely take customer sat seriously.. or at least the coveted Consumer Reports ranking anyway. But indeed the customer inflation is a major factor. That and the fact that it is difficult to keep knowledgeable techs for any real length of time, so the agent turnover is relatively high. Even the best get worn down by hearing "I should have bought a Dell" for the thousandth time.
I'm curious if this is including business support, if so that would make a huuuge difference in the numbers if you broke them apart. Apple's support for business has suffered big time & Lion was a nightmare for most medium sized businesses who have to support Macs.
In business class support I definitely give Dell double the score I'd give Apple right now. I hate to say that because I really much prefer Apple over Dell. I think the worst was when we took our concerns to Apple we never got a (don't worry, we'll fix this), instead we got a lot of excuses for how Apple's enterprise model works if you just understand how to use it. #FAIL
I did a stint in AppleCare for several years. They definitely take customer sat seriously.. or at least the coveted Consumer Reports ranking anyway. But indeed the customer inflation is a major factor. That and the fact that it is difficult to keep knowledgeable techs for any real length of time, so the agent turnover is relatively high. Even the best get worn down by hearing "I should have bought a Dell" for the thousandth time.
I can definitely see that, and I've known my share of techs who were anything but technical. I've even had Cisco TAC engineers who botched things big time, yet overall I give TAC huge marks.
Fact is Apple is sitting on 100B that they could re-invest at least part of into their support model & make a huge difference. Apple just seems to be having a hard time moving to expand themselves at a rate that matches or exceeds their growth, and that's bad. When you're always playing catchup staffing your organization to meet consumer demand the first things to go are usually quality & customer support. In the last year I've seen this both in how half baked Lion came out for business & in my own customer experiences. Successful as they've been they need to remember they are still on the uphill side of their battle against the PC industry, this is not a time to coast.
In the USA, how do the roaming payment processors handle people just queing up at the counter?
***
Apple Store Experience I gave feedback on:
My experience was alright. But however, for the second time in the past few months, there was a disgruntled customer who was waiting quite a while for just one person at the register.
For Perth Apple Store, I think this needs to be rectified ASAP. In Australia at least, people expect quick and efficient service at the counter when they want to pay for something. Australians prefer to take their time where possible, but also when they need to they expect efficient payment at the counter if they just need to get something and go. Particularly in the CBD where there are pressing work matters.
The "roaming" handheld purchase systems are okay, but they don't seem to be able to cover people waiting at the payment counter. Yet again since my last visit, there was only one or two people at the payment counter busy processing a customer's payment. A gentleman just left an Airport Extreme at the counter and walked off after a few minutes, and someone else waiting had to wait while I got served because a roaming payment processor/ specialist asked me what I wanted.
I hope this clarifies the situation. Please address this issue as I do want to see Apple become more successful in Australia, particularly Western Australia which has the largest opportunitiy for growth in Australia, at least in 2012.
To post back on my experience, the Apple Store I mentioned above called me back in the evening on the same day when I bought the AppleCare for iPad and filled out the online survey form.
What's going on is this:
In Australia, for a few decades now, a little while before the West gorged itself on credit cards, there started a proprietary Australia-wide system called EFTPOS. It's basically a debit-card + ATM card system that all merchant terminals handle. So payment options are always the three in Australia - cash, "credit"(or debit) ie. Visa/MasterCard/etc and EFTPOS.
The Apple Store called me back and the guy (Shane) said that the counters are actually for EFTPOS. This is because the roaming-thingies only take cash and credit card transactions, presumably since they are Apple HQ USA-based. At this stage, the counters are supposedly only for EFTPOS.
This explains it, but it's a bit of a glitch in the Apple Store Australia-wide system.
The people lining up at the counters may not know if you pay by cash or credit anyone can take your order. As per all other non-Apple stores around the world, you line up at the counter if you want to pay and just go.
In the five minutes I was waiting, and with the guy in front of me waiting, and the last time I was waiting at the counter, at no stage did someone actually tell me or the guy in front of me or the guy behind me that you can be processed by anyone if you are paying by cash or credit.
Shane was fairly good, he acknowledged that this should be communicated better and seemed stressed but overall very professional.
I don't recall a sign at the counter, which one would assume a big sign would be helpful eg. "EFTPOS ONLY - For Cash Or Credit, just locate any friendly Apple Retail Staff". Of course, being Apple, even the Store Manager can't just type it up in Word, print it out on A4 and stick it somewhere.
So the counter is a bit of a liability, because it automatically "attracts" anyone to it, also due to its very central location within the Perth Apple Store (and presumably other Apple Stores ~ other aussies please comment) and looking and acting as a cashier counter. A regular joe or jane would just pick up a box and walk to the counter. Macs, iPhones, iPads would be handled separately by a Specialist first, mainly off-the-shelf stuff is the issue.
Now the other thing that's interesting is the statistics:
In the past several years, it appears EFTPOS transactions still outweigh credit card transactions by about 3:2**. However, in value in 2009 EFTPOS transaction amounts were 11.3 billion dollars per month and Credit spending was 17.8 billion dollars per month.
Shane mentioned that most customers to the Apple Store (as one would assume) would use credit cards. He felt that Apple is working on a roaming terminal thingy that does EFTPOS as well.
But again, at the end of the day, I think the first strategy is deflection ~ ie. the counter is way too obvious, customers don't know it's only needed for EFTPOS, and in most cases if you tell them to use a credit card they would whip it out fairly quickly. Because EFTPOS is essentially a direct-debit system for the Apple Store you'd imagine you would use a credit card, though perhaps there has been a backlash against credit... If you pay bills using credit cards for example you can get hit by a $2 or $3 "fee".
OK, end of summary.
**This could be because in convenience stores and petrol stations you can get "cash out" during an EFTPOS transaction, saving ATM trips and fees
Comments
In business class support I definitely give Dell double the score I'd give Apple right now. I hate to say that because I really much prefer Apple over Dell. I think the worst was when we took our concerns to Apple we never got a (don't worry, we'll fix this), instead we got a lot of excuses for how Apple's enterprise model works if you just understand how to use it. #FAIL
I did a stint in AppleCare for several years. They definitely take customer sat seriously.. or at least the coveted Consumer Reports ranking anyway. But indeed the customer inflation is a major factor. That and the fact that it is difficult to keep knowledgeable techs for any real length of time, so the agent turnover is relatively high. Even the best get worn down by hearing "I should have bought a Dell" for the thousandth time.
I can definitely see that, and I've known my share of techs who were anything but technical. I've even had Cisco TAC engineers who botched things big time, yet overall I give TAC huge marks.
Fact is Apple is sitting on 100B that they could re-invest at least part of into their support model & make a huge difference. Apple just seems to be having a hard time moving to expand themselves at a rate that matches or exceeds their growth, and that's bad. When you're always playing catchup staffing your organization to meet consumer demand the first things to go are usually quality & customer support. In the last year I've seen this both in how half baked Lion came out for business & in my own customer experiences. Successful as they've been they need to remember they are still on the uphill side of their battle against the PC industry, this is not a time to coast.
There was this one particular troll that really got my goat. Can't remember the name now, though.
How many different aliases does Teckstud actually have?
Willy?
Willy?
Nah, not that one.
***
In the USA, how do the roaming payment processors handle people just queing up at the counter?
***
Apple Store Experience I gave feedback on:
My experience was alright. But however, for the second time in the past few months, there was a disgruntled customer who was waiting quite a while for just one person at the register.
For Perth Apple Store, I think this needs to be rectified ASAP. In Australia at least, people expect quick and efficient service at the counter when they want to pay for something. Australians prefer to take their time where possible, but also when they need to they expect efficient payment at the counter if they just need to get something and go. Particularly in the CBD where there are pressing work matters.
The "roaming" handheld purchase systems are okay, but they don't seem to be able to cover people waiting at the payment counter. Yet again since my last visit, there was only one or two people at the payment counter busy processing a customer's payment. A gentleman just left an Airport Extreme at the counter and walked off after a few minutes, and someone else waiting had to wait while I got served because a roaming payment processor/ specialist asked me what I wanted.
I hope this clarifies the situation. Please address this issue as I do want to see Apple become more successful in Australia, particularly Western Australia which has the largest opportunitiy for growth in Australia, at least in 2012.
To post back on my experience, the Apple Store I mentioned above called me back in the evening on the same day when I bought the AppleCare for iPad and filled out the online survey form.
What's going on is this:
In Australia, for a few decades now, a little while before the West gorged itself on credit cards, there started a proprietary Australia-wide system called EFTPOS. It's basically a debit-card + ATM card system that all merchant terminals handle. So payment options are always the three in Australia - cash, "credit"(or debit) ie. Visa/MasterCard/etc and EFTPOS.
The Apple Store called me back and the guy (Shane) said that the counters are actually for EFTPOS. This is because the roaming-thingies only take cash and credit card transactions, presumably since they are Apple HQ USA-based. At this stage, the counters are supposedly only for EFTPOS.
This explains it, but it's a bit of a glitch in the Apple Store Australia-wide system.
The people lining up at the counters may not know if you pay by cash or credit anyone can take your order. As per all other non-Apple stores around the world, you line up at the counter if you want to pay and just go.
In the five minutes I was waiting, and with the guy in front of me waiting, and the last time I was waiting at the counter, at no stage did someone actually tell me or the guy in front of me or the guy behind me that you can be processed by anyone if you are paying by cash or credit.
Shane was fairly good, he acknowledged that this should be communicated better and seemed stressed but overall very professional.
I don't recall a sign at the counter, which one would assume a big sign would be helpful eg. "EFTPOS ONLY - For Cash Or Credit, just locate any friendly Apple Retail Staff". Of course, being Apple, even the Store Manager can't just type it up in Word, print it out on A4 and stick it somewhere.
So the counter is a bit of a liability, because it automatically "attracts" anyone to it, also due to its very central location within the Perth Apple Store (and presumably other Apple Stores ~ other aussies please comment) and looking and acting as a cashier counter. A regular joe or jane would just pick up a box and walk to the counter. Macs, iPhones, iPads would be handled separately by a Specialist first, mainly off-the-shelf stuff is the issue.
Now the other thing that's interesting is the statistics:
http://www.apca.com.au/Public/apca01...ats_CardVolume
http://www.creditcardfinder.com.au/p...tatistics.html
In the past several years, it appears EFTPOS transactions still outweigh credit card transactions by about 3:2**. However, in value in 2009 EFTPOS transaction amounts were 11.3 billion dollars per month and Credit spending was 17.8 billion dollars per month.
Shane mentioned that most customers to the Apple Store (as one would assume) would use credit cards. He felt that Apple is working on a roaming terminal thingy that does EFTPOS as well.
But again, at the end of the day, I think the first strategy is deflection ~ ie. the counter is way too obvious, customers don't know it's only needed for EFTPOS, and in most cases if you tell them to use a credit card they would whip it out fairly quickly. Because EFTPOS is essentially a direct-debit system for the Apple Store you'd imagine you would use a credit card, though perhaps there has been a backlash against credit... If you pay bills using credit cards for example you can get hit by a $2 or $3 "fee".
OK, end of summary.
**This could be because in convenience stores and petrol stations you can get "cash out" during an EFTPOS transaction, saving ATM trips and fees