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NYT - Apple Store's good customer experience
The Apple Store now generates 20% of Apple's overall revenues. That's one successful customer experience.
In contrast, a New York Times article describes competitor "experiences":
[T]he Sony flagship store on West 56th Street, a few blocks from Apple's Fifth Avenue store, has the hush of a mausoleum. And being inside the long and narrow blue-toned Nokia store on 57th Street feels a bit like being inside an aquarium.
The high-end Samsung Experience showroom, its nuevo tech music on full blast one recent morning, was nearly empty. And although that store professes to encourage hands-on exploration of its products, the showroom has a clinical, forbidding feel. (Nothing is actually sold there; it's just for display.)
"Whenever we ask consumers to cite a great retail experience, the Apple store is the first store they mention," said Jane Buckingham, president of the Intelligence Group, a market research firm in Los Angeles. "Basically, everything about it works. The people who work there are cool and knowledgeable. They have the answers you want, and can sell you what you need. Customers appreciate that. Even the fact that they'll e-mail you a receipt makes you feel like you're in a store just a little bit further ahead of everyone else."
As I say in Uncle Mark 2008, Samsung and Nokia and the rest have to be extra-concerned with good experience in coming quarters... the iPhone and the Apple Store have nailed it - the numbers prove it.
I generally agree with this, but I have to say the spiral staircase leading down to the 5th Ave Apple store produces a terrible experience. The spiral nature of staircase makes for steps that taper. If I walk up on the side closer to the center, my feet are larger than the steps and slip in-between them. This happens to other customers as well and results in a giant clump of people trying to go up and down the stairs.
It sounds ridiculous, but go there on a busy Saturday afternoon and you'll see what I mean.
I've generally had positive experiences at Apple stores, but their success can also cause problems. Need an answer from the Genius Bar, or want to return a gift that doesn't have a receipt? You have to make an appointment online earlier in the day. Want to hear the sound on a new speaker system? You'll compete with 10 other stereos booming nearby. Want to testdrive a 24" iMac? You might have to wait half-an-hour behind a visitor checking their email remotely, or a teenager meticulously updating their MySpace profile.
On the other hand, personal shoppers - employees who will spend up to one hour helping you make your purchase - and the wireless cashiers who walk around the store and ring you up (sending the receipt to your email account) are pretty fantastic.
(Regarding Matt's point, while I don't mind the usability of the spiral staircases, nearly every time I visit one of the stores, they are cleaning the staircase. The glass gets dirty so quickly that one of the employees said they have to clean it several times a day. That seems like an example of putting aesthetics ahead of function.)
Found it in the linked article. It's all Apple stores combined accounting for 20% of their overall revenue. Thanks for sharing.
I think that these "showroom storefronts" like the Samsung Experience are silly and pointless. When I go to a store and I find something I want to buy, I want to buy it now. If I wanted it to arrive a week later by UPS, I would have just ordered it online.
I think that the prime example of this pointlessness was the Gateway Country Store. Although one could order a computer or other electronics there, the fact that I couldn't walk in and walk out with a computer was a deal-killer for me at the time. The staff was completely useless, too (at least in my experience).
One of the best experiences I had recently was at a Garmin store. The staff was highly knowledgeable of the products and were able to make suggestions and recommendations. They were also able to sell me the device I wanted. Even so, they weren't pushy and even recommended other places where I could buy their products.
Mark, I look forward to good experiences in 2008. Happy New Year!
Apple's by far better than the competition, but the stores as they are now are not as nice as they used to be, and pretty much anyone who's been to one pre-iPhone/intel mac/iPod popularity can tell you so (including myself).
I'd have to say popularity has made quality suffer. It's a shame, because I really used to like going to apple stores. Nowadays I try to make a point of avoiding it until necessary. Waiting a week for a concierge appointment only to meet with a barely trained dimwit with no imagination or technical ability...yeahhh not my idea of fun.
At an Apple Store in Portland, OR, I ran in shortly before closing on Black Friday to buy a battery for my 17" PowerBook G4, not expecting them to have it. Not only did they have it, they were cheerful about vending it five minutes after closing, and someone rang me up in the middle of the store using those wireless thingies and then e-mailed me a receipt. Best of all, when I asked, "so, did you do your part to raise Apple stock today?" the girl whipped out her iPhone, checked her stock widget, and said "well, it went up $3..." The entire experience was just, well, cool. But if they hadn't had my battery in stock, it wouldn't have been nearly as great.