Today I spent some time in Apple’s latest and largest store in Covent Garden in London. It’s really tastefully done.
I was on the second floor when someone said “I know you, I helped you buy your iPhone” and when I looked up sure enough there was the chap who helped me set up my iPhone after purchase.
On launch day when I bought my iPhone we had got to talking as you do when one of you got up at 4am to stand in a queue for 6 hours and the other was setting up his first iPhone customer on launch day and he didn’t want to make any mistakes and kept asking questions of the ever present first line of support rep (one to each table).
One of the things we were talking about was the reps’ training for the big launch and he said it was quite impressive. He said one message Apple emphasised to the reps was that Apple wanted to make sure that customers questions were answered, that they knew how to use their new phone and in general that customers felt satisfied with their purchase. There was not to be any pressure to move customers through quickly. Apple put 300 staff on that day to make sure things progressed smoothly while making customer care the main emphasis.
I noticed today that Apple had bundles of maybe 100 umbrellas near the door ready to hand out to people queuing for an iPhone should it start to rain. And the chap who sold me my iPhone thought to say hello to me a few months later in a new store.
