Email to Tim Cook prompted change of Apple's 'on hold' music quality

Posted:
in General Discussion edited July 2014
In a recent thread on Reddit, one Apple customer describes an experience in which he effected change in Apple's daily operations, specifically as it pertains to "on hold" music, after contacting CEO Tim Cook via email.

Tim Cook


Since the days of Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executives have been famously open to customer suggestions, complaints and praise, often engaging with the public via work email accounts. As noted by TUAW, that tradition appears to carry on with current CEO Tim Cook.

According to one account shared on Reddit -- in response to an earlier post on efforts taken by Apple's Maps team to correct erroneous address data -- a customer was reportedly able to induce change in the quality of on hold music used by Apple's call center.
I once sent Tim an email about the quality of music while on hold with Apple. It was super low quality, therefore an upbeat rock song sounded like pure distortion and really aggravated me because I was on hold for 20+ minutes for something so simple (iPhone didn't turn on, needed to set up a repair as in my country no Apple Store = have to send it to another country).

Much to my surprise a lady from Cupertino called me up the next day, saying she'd received a concerning email from Tim about ugly distortion hold music while on the phone, that Tim had tested this himself and agreed that something had to be done. She assured me that the hold music would be tested to make sure it sounded pleasant on all types of phones and connections.

The next time I called Apple, the hold music was indeed very pleasant.
Cook is known to be just as open to criticism . During an interview with NBC's Brian Williams in 2012, Cook admitted he routinely receives hundreds of emails from customers every day.

"I get hundreds, and some days thousands of emails from customers. This is a privilege because they talk to you as if you're sitting at their kitchen table," Cook said at the time. "Because they care so deeply about Apple, they want to make a suggestion, or want to ask for help on something, or want to tell you how much they love the product."
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 45
    pazuzupazuzu Posts: 1,728member
    What's his email address so we can write to him?
  • Reply 2 of 45
    Telling Tim Cook vs. venting on these forums.
    How innovative.

    Concern trolls: take notice. ;)
  • Reply 3 of 45
    pigybankpigybank Posts: 178member
    Awesome. It's been awful for years. Glad they've fixed that.
  • Reply 4 of 45
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by pazuzu View Post



    What's his email address so we can write to him?

    Knock yourself out.

     

    [email protected]

  • Reply 5 of 45
    adonissmuadonissmu Posts: 1,776member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post



    Telling Tim Cook vs. venting on these forums.

    How innovative.



    Concern trolls: take notice. image

    I knew this was coming. I'm going to email him about Safari's lack of Web Components support. 

  • Reply 6 of 45
    I'm going to email him and say Apple should spend its vast fortune on genetically engineered dinosaurs which they can sell as a new product.
  • Reply 7 of 45
    chris_cachris_ca Posts: 2,543member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by pazuzu View Post



    What's his email address so we can write to him?

    [email protected]

  • Reply 8 of 45
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post



    Since the days of Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executives have been famously open to customer suggestions, complaints and praise, often engaging with the public via work email accounts. As noted by TUAW, that tradition carries on with current CEO Tim Cook.

    Exactly how many Apple Chief Executives have there been since the days of Steve Jobs?

  • Reply 9 of 45
    chris_cachris_ca Posts: 2,543member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Apple ][ View Post

     

    Knock yourself out.

     

    [email protected]


    (Yes, I know its not that difficult to get the address but) Tim's gonna send a goon squad after you now...

  • Reply 10 of 45
    blastdoorblastdoor Posts: 3,258member
    Quote:


    "I get hundreds, and some days thousands of emails from customers. This is a privilege because they talk to you as if you're sitting at their kitchen table," Cook said at the time. "Because they care so deeply about Apple, they want to make a suggestion, or want to ask for help on something, or want to tell you how much they love the product."

     



     

    It would be easy to dismiss that kind of statement as pandering, but I think he really means it. There are two reasons why I think that.

     

    First, as this story shows, he actually implements changes based on these types of e-mails.

     

    Second, the statement is actually quite logical -- it really *Is* very valuable to apple that customers take the time to send this feedback. I suspect most CEOs really do want to know what customers think of their companies (think about all the times you are annoyed by customer satisfaction surveys from various companies when you visit their website).  Many companies are so dysfunctional that either the feedback doesn't reach the CEO without going through a "filter", or the CEO isn't able to get people in the company to react to the feedback. For Tim Cook to directly receive useful, unfiltered info from customers is a big deal. And it speaks well of Apple as an organization that they are able to productively use that feedback. 

     

    So I totally believe him when he says that he feels "privileged" to receive this feedback. It really is a privilege, and he's smart enough to recognize it as such. 

  • Reply 11 of 45
    chris_cachris_ca Posts: 2,543member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Blastdoor View Post

    First, as this story shows, he actually implements changes based on these types of e-mails.


    You mean he checks out what an email suggest.

    He didn't implement the change because of the email.

    He checked out the the issue because of the email then implemented the change because the on-hold music was crap.

  • Reply 12 of 45
    boeyc15boeyc15 Posts: 986member
    Next thing we will see is Tim in 'Undercover Boss'. D'oh! /s
  • Reply 13 of 45
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by boeyc15 View Post



    Next thing we will see is Tim in 'Undercover Boss'. D'oh! /s

     

    That show is so terrible.

     

    There's always these huge companies that have a lot of employees, and a few of them are chosen, and they always have the worst sob stories in the world. My child has a rare sickness, my home was burnt down, my car only has three wheels blah blah blah, and then the CEO comes and gives a few employees at the end of the show thousands of dollars.

     

    I wonder what all of the other employees think about that? In a company that has thousands of employees, why are they only helping two or three of them?

  • Reply 14 of 45
    sflocalsflocal Posts: 6,092member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Chris_CA View Post

     

    You mean he checks out what an email suggest.

    He didn't implement the change because of the email.

    He checked out the the issue because of the email then implemented the change because the on-hold music was crap.




    You must work in management, or in politics that require you to spin everything about great things being all because of you.

    "If things work out great, it's because of your leadership and vision.  If it fails horribly, then it's someone else's fault." - That's what I read from your comment.



    A customer made him aware of a situation (you say "suggest"), he investigated it, found it to be true, and made the necessary changes.  The difference is that someone at Apple contacted the customer about his email, so as far as I'm concerned, that customer should receive the credit from beginning to end.



    Good for Tim Cook for not only taking issues like these seriously, but for seeing them through its conclusion that makes customers feel like Apple actually cares about what they say.



     

  • Reply 15 of 45
    apple ][ wrote: »
    pazuzu wrote: »
    What's his email address so we can write to him?
    Knock yourself out.

    <a href="mailto:[email protected]" style="border-bottom-width:0px;border-left-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-top-width:0px;color:rgb(18,89,166);font:inherit;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-top:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-top:0px;text-decoration:underline;vertical-align:baseline;">[email protected]</a>

    [email protected] still works, only jobs doesn't respond like he used to....
  • Reply 16 of 45
    carthusiacarthusia Posts: 583member

    I'll just need to get Jimmy Iovine's email address. I can email Tim and Cc Jimmy about the lack of universal liner notes for iTunes music albums.

  • Reply 17 of 45
    inoseyinosey Posts: 89member
    pazuzu wrote: »
    What's his email address so we can write to him?
    [email protected] So glad a CEO has time for the customers and takes into consideration what we want.
  • Reply 18 of 45
    ajbdtc826ajbdtc826 Posts: 190member
    U know how u can look up a word's definition on an iphone/ipad by selecting it and having "define" as an option? All me, baby. No lie.
  • Reply 19 of 45

    I can promise you that AT&T does not do this for its customers.  They invented the on hold and layers of control just to keep customer's from bothering them.  AT&T:  we are now offering combined billing for all your customer service needs.  Not mentioned was the billing is combined for charges on your late payment, but it is not combined for rebates to separate types of account credits.  AT&T owes me for overcharging me on my cell bill, but they expect me to still pay them for in full all of the bill while I wait for them to credit my account.  Miss paying your bill one month and they will bill you $105 for being late for 3 bills.  So which is it a combined bill or a separate bill on the same piece of paper?  The answer is which ever makes AT&T more money and makes you wait on hold longer to get your bill corrected.

  • Reply 20 of 45
    boeyc15boeyc15 Posts: 986member
    ajbdtc826 wrote: »
    U know how u can look up a word's definition on an iphone/ipad by selecting it and having "define" as an option? All me, baby. No lie.

    I read somewhere apple would not take(maybe 'acknowledge' is a better word) 'ideas' from non employees because of legal reasons.

    Of course you know the universal answer by any company that uses 'your idea'; against any claim from you (or anyone else's) being unique? Answer- Well it's obvious!
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