Apple to start surveying 'Today at Apple' participants next month

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in General Discussion
Beginning in January, Apple will start collecting feedback from everyone who attends one of the company's free "Today at Apple" sessions at its retail stores.




"We'll focus both on their immediate experience and on their perceptions about the long-term value," Apple retail head Angela Ahrendts said in a LinkedIn post. "We want to be as rigorous in measuring our human impact as we are in every other part of our business."

Ahrendts avoided any specific details, but in the rest of her piece suggested that Today at Apple is geared toward "enriching lives," and that the company realized it needs "a new set of measurements" to gauge effectiveness and "human return on investment."

The Today at Apple program is a rebranding and expansion of the events long held at Apple stores. While most of these are small-scale workshops, like Photo Walks and the Kids Hour, sessions at bigger locations can include professional artists, authors, filmmakers, photographers, and musicians.

Since taking over retail Ahrendts has engaged in a massive revamp campaign, introducing not just Today at Apple but a modernized store design modeled after fashion boutiques. The executive has also tried to rechristen shops as "town squares."

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    mrarfarfmrarfarf Posts: 5member
    This is so insane, to think people would want to just hang out in Apple stores without buying anything, by making them SO COOL, you'd rather skip a coffee meeting at Starbucks, and just loiter around at the apple store shows someone who does not have a grasp on reality. The concerning part is that while Apple has made some great stuff this year, I worry they might be getting so big, that the pressure to do EVEN MORE is pushing them into strange areas like this, instead of just making more great products.
    sunwukong
  • Reply 2 of 10
    Ecky-ThumpEcky-Thump Posts: 65member
    People attend "Today at Apple" workshops?
    sunwukong
  • Reply 3 of 10
    gregg thurmangregg thurman Posts: 456member
    mrarfarf said:
    This is so insane, to think people would want to just hang out in Apple stores without buying anything, by making them SO COOL, you'd rather skip a coffee meeting at Starbucks, and just loiter around at the apple store shows someone who does not have a grasp on reality. The concerning part is that while Apple has made some great stuff this year, I worry they might be getting so big, that the pressure to do EVEN MORE is pushing them into strange areas like this, instead of just making more great products.
    You can sure tell who has a vision and who doesn't.  All you have to do is read posts here and on other Apple centric sites, they're chock full of them.

    I'm not claiming to be privy to Apple's vision, or how good that vision is, but not knowing doesn't mean Apple doesn't have one, and I'm not going to question a firm that has grown 940% since FY2007, and in doing so became the world's richest, most valuable (by market cap) firm in the world.

    Mrarfarf, I'm very glad you aren't running Apple.
    jony0
  • Reply 4 of 10
    pslicepslice Posts: 151member
    Ecky-Thump said:
    People attend "Today at Apple" workshops?
    I’ve gone to a couple. One was in China where we had a Chinese instructor teach us some tricks with a Walking iPhone tour. They even made sure we had a translator. It was loads of fun going down Wangfujing street and shooting cool time lapse movies and some photos with special effects. At home our closest Apple Store is 4 hours away so we enjoy it when we go to Minneapolis to visit the kids. The Beijing stores were the most fun. I really think getting to an Apple Store is always a fun experience. Those that don’t utilize them and live close are missing out.
    GeorgeBMacsunwukongjony0
  • Reply 5 of 10
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    People attend "Today at Apple" workshops?
    Yup. 

    My local store has large school parties show up for sessions during the week. Robotics programming by the looks of it. 

    Which reminds me: I must learn Lua. 
    edited December 2017
  • Reply 6 of 10
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    mrarfarf said:
    This is so insane, to think people would want to just hang out in Apple stores without buying anything, by making them SO COOL, you'd rather skip a coffee meeting at Starbucks, and just loiter around at the apple store shows someone who does not have a grasp on reality. The concerning part is that while Apple has made some great stuff this year, I worry they might be getting so big, that the pressure to do EVEN MORE is pushing them into strange areas like this, instead of just making more great products.
    Well to be fair, Ahrendts might not have realised this because she doesn’t have your years of experience building successful brands, running one of the world’s most profitable retail chains and building a global customer … what’s that? You don’t have her years of experience and you haven’t run one of the world’s most successful retail chains?

    Oh. 

    So it’s probably fair to say that you don’t really know what you’re talking about then isn’t it. 

    Yup. That’s what I thought. 

    jony0
  • Reply 7 of 10
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member

    gregg thurman said:
    mrarfarf said:
    This is so insane, to think people would want to just hang out in Apple stores without buying anything, by making them SO COOL, you'd rather skip a coffee meeting at Starbucks, and just loiter around at the apple store shows someone who does not have a grasp on reality. The concerning part is that while Apple has made some great stuff this year, I worry they might be getting so big, that the pressure to do EVEN MORE is pushing them into strange areas like this, instead of just making more great products.
    You can sure tell who has a vision and who doesn't.  All you have to do is read posts here and on other Apple centric sites, they're chock full of them.

    I'm not claiming to be privy to Apple's vision, or how good that vision is, but not knowing doesn't mean Apple doesn't have one, and I'm not going to question a firm that has grown 940% since FY2007, and in doing so became the world's richest, most valuable (by market cap) firm in the world.

    Mrarfarf, I'm very glad you aren't running Apple.
    Remember, the ignore list is your friend. 
    jony0
  • Reply 8 of 10
    bluefire1bluefire1 Posts: 1,302member
    People attend "Today at Apple" workshops?
    I have attended a number of them. Usually the max allowed per workshop is around a half dozen, but the  leaders provide excellent information for beginners and intermediate level users. I do wish they offered advanced workshops as well, but the concept is well worth the time, especially for beginners.
    edited December 2017 pslice
  • Reply 9 of 10
    GeorgeBMacGeorgeBMac Posts: 11,421member
    pslice said:
    Ecky-Thump said:
    People attend "Today at Apple" workshops?
    I’ve gone to a couple. One was in China where we had a Chinese instructor teach us some tricks with a Walking iPhone tour. They even made sure we had a translator. It was loads of fun going down Wangfujing street and shooting cool time lapse movies and some photos with special effects. At home our closest Apple Store is 4 hours away so we enjoy it when we go to Minneapolis to visit the kids. The Beijing stores were the most fun. I really think getting to an Apple Store is always a fun experience. Those that don’t utilize them and live close are missing out.
    I took my grandson to one before Christmas to look at iPhones, etc...    He totally agrees with you!  (And so do I)
    jony0
  • Reply 10 of 10
    pentaepentae Posts: 36member
    gregg thurman said:
    You can sure tell who has a vision and who doesn't.  All you have to do is read posts here and on other Apple centric sites, they're chock full of them.


    I'm not claiming to be privy to Apple's vision, or how good that vision is, but not knowing doesn't mean Apple doesn't have one, and I'm not going to question a firm that has grown 940% since FY2007, and in doing so became the world's richest, most valuable (by market cap) firm in the world.

    Mrarfarf, I'm very glad you aren't running Apple.
    They are the largest market cap company in the world from the cumulative wins and incredible decision making that has snowballed from the last 10 years. The decisions and product launches made this year do not reflect that. Considering the missteps recently: killing the headphone jack, a weak as piss Macbook Pro that was too little too late and too expensive with a touchbar nobody wanted, botched MacOS/iOS11 rollouts, BatteryGate, a lukewarm reception to the latest iPhone8/iPhoneX and a recent iOS date bug that completely bricked about half the population of iPhones in the wild, Apple have made a TON of fuck ups lately. We'll see how the "Market Cap" looks if they continue in this fashion, particularly if the incumbent competitors start to come out with better alternatives. Many of us are jaded that their once beloved Apple, formerly a great computer company, has now turned into an iPhone company and give no fucks about the customer base that made them who they are today, and the software quality is starting to slip to Microsoft levels.
    edited December 2017 sunwukong
Sign In or Register to comment.