As I sit here on my speakerphone after 55-minutes of waiting for a support person at Apple (because my iPhone suddenly has decided not to ring – no matter what ring tone or setting I enable), this otherwise brilliant company shows one of their weakest links.
This should be a reminder to every one of us in business that for our company to be exceptional we must be brilliant in ALL respects, leaving nothing out and not caving in to efficiency at the cost of losing a valuable customer:
- Understanding our customer and what they want
- Having passion for what we deliver to the market
- Have the vision and guts to create brilliant products
- Simple, fast and efficient distribution and delivery of products to our customers
- Fast, accurate and passionate support for our products once they are in our customer’s hands
Now I have 5 Apple products myself and certainly I would consider the first 4 criteria met – even exceededing my expectatoins…but my experience today with Apple Canada support is what will stick in my mind next time I choose a product.
Here’s the ugly summary…
- Called Apple Canada support line to report a problem with my Apple 3GS iPhone (the ringer hasn’t worked for days no matter what settings and software updates I use) – that’s where the fun begins…
- You are forced into an automated menu HELL (does anyone ever enjoy using these things – why do companies not know these systems elevate a customer’s blood pressure by at least 10 points IMMEDIATELY!). After several circles – and constant problems with the voice recognition technology I finally hit a dead-end where I was put through to customers support – Yay…on track to talk with a real person…or so I thought.
- 20-minutes later I finally get a voice on the other end that asks me the product that I need support with – seriously! I just entered that into the automated menu hell from which I escaped. I quickly said iPhone 3GS to which she quickly told me I had to be forwarded back through the cue to get to the right support person.
- As I sit and write this I have been on hold another 25-minutes listening to music and the occasional notice that all Apple advisors are busy.Â
- At this point I’m afraid to leave to go to the bathroom…I may miss the advisor and have to start again. Don’t they consider a person’s bladder when they staff these support desks?Â
Come on…I’ve had quicker response from government departments, what’s up Apple?
The lesson for any of us starting and growing our businesses of course is to keep our eye on the complete cusomer life cycle — if a company as brilliant as Apple can let this kind of crap happen, chances are we have also let something slip on our business.Â
Put yourself in the place of your customer and work through your various processes making sure that you are being brilliant in ALL aspects of your business…PLEASE!
