Call me pissed off, call me disgruntled, call me too demanding but the fact is that my most recent encounter with Apple left a bad taste in my mouth. And, Apple is meant to be one of the best in terms of customer service. What happened and where did it all go so wrong?
I’m not a fanboy but I am an avid Apple user who has, in the past 3 years, owned a 13" MacBook, a 13" MacBook Pro, most recently a 11" MacBook Air, numerous iPods (nano and touch) bought for myself and as gifts for others, I bought my brother an iPad, I’ve owned an original iPhone and now I have an iPhone 4. I have recommended Apple products to anyone who has cared to listen and have been instrumental in the purchase of countless iMacs, Macbook Pros, iPhones and iPads by my friends and family - and I’m not exaggerating in the least. I have even helped said friends and family receive excellent customer service and support from Apple. I don’t pride myself on this at all and only now, putting finger to keyboard, do I realize my impact on Apple’s bottom line.
So why am I pissed?
Put briefly: I feel greatly under-appreciated by Apple in light of my recent customer support experience with my iPhone 4 (which btw I bought on launch day). For months I’ve been having problems with my home button not working intermittently. Until recently, I just made-do and carried on. The other day my sleep/wake button died. And with no multi-touch gestures on the iPhone, getting around without a working sleep button and a dodgy home button isn’t easy nor fun. So I made an appointment at the Genius Bar to see what they could do to help. I heard stories that people’s phones had been replaced with minimal fuss and was humbly hoping for much the same. Instead, I was told that because my phone is out of warranty I would have to pay £120 to have my phone replaced. £120 to simply get basic functionality back on my phone?! (lesson: 1. if there’s anything wrong with your devices report it ASAP and don’t wait around. 2. you get no extra points for being an early adopter). I have always taken good care of my phone; no scratches and good battery-charging habits. In my opinion this was down to faulty hardware.
After pleading my case with the Genius, he wouldn’t budge and informed me that, unfortunately, there is no customer service advantage from customer loyalty. This struck me as being fundamentally WRONG. I felt that somehow an exception should have been made in my favour in return for my loyalty and good ambassadorship. On my ride home I started mulling this over and having been recently privy to even worse customer service elsewhere new thoughts began to emerge.
I know there is ample material out there proselytising the benefits of good customer service but I’m going to take this further: Phenomenal customer service for your influential and regular customers is an absolute must and those customers shouldn’t accept anything less. From a business perspective, your customers are your bread and butter and keeping those that promote your business happy is key - they are part of your team. They’re better than your marketing department because they’re authentic and real and to borrow from The Tipping Point, many of them are connectors who will spread the word and bring in revenue - all good things. Companies and services that embrace this and build close relationships with their core customer-base will flourish. There is too much demand for consumer attention nowadays so the consumers that do buy your products and services and go as far as promoting your business need to be valued and rewarded.
Services like LaunchRock already offer tools that let startups find those customers and brand ambassadors early. I believe we’re on the cusp of a customer service revolution with companies like Zappos leading the way but it’s not enough.