Customer Service - Example 1 - Apple

UPDATED April 24, 2009 with New York Times article link at bottom.

I have worked in customer service and customer facing roles all my life.  I think that this is why I am very picky when it comes to service.  I expect good service from people and I expect them to suck it up if they are having a bad day and to fake it - likely because I have faked it on crappy days so that I could still provide the best service I could to my customers.  I therefore expect that of people that serve me and I expect that of employees as well.

Today I bought an Airport Express form the Apple store in Vancouver (ever since I bought my MacBook, ripped all my CDs to it and have taken to buying music from iTunes I have wanted to be able to listen to all the tunes on my stereo - now I can).  Anyhow...Apple gets consumer marketing and service like no other company that I have come across.  Their products are beautiful, their packaging looks good and is minimalist and their IT systems work.  So I picked up my Airport Express today and went looking for the cash register.  I couldn't find one so I asked a lady by the Genius Bar, dressed in an orange t-shirt.  She said that any of the people in blue t-shirts could help and she led me to one of them......she could have led me to any of ten or more blue-shirt employees hovering around the store.  The dude had a handheld device.  He scanned the barcodes of the products, swiped my credit card and told me that they would email me the receipt.  How?  Well, they had my email address based on the credit card I used.  See I use the same card when I purchase music off of iTunes and I used it when I bought the MacBook online last year.  It was great...they knew who I was and it gave me a warm fuzzy.  In all it took me about five minutes to pick out my stuff, pay and get on my way.

Apple gets customer service and as a result will have my business even though it may cost more.


Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

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