The Apple Store Guide to Insanely Great Customer Service

Shopify ^ | Thursday, September 25, 2014 | Humayun Khan

[Star Traveler]

Apple is the fastest growing retailer in history and has dominated the holy covet of retail metrics, sales per square foot, almost since its inception, which currently sits at $4,551.

Pair that with rampant expansion plans that puts the technology giant at 420+ stores around the world, and we're talking some serious revenue numbers, approximately $170 billion worth (2013).

Keeping all that in mind, more and more retailers are trying to figure out Apple's "secret sauce" when it comes to its retail experience, specifically when it comes to customer service, hoping to inspire the same degree of customer loyalty or "cult following" that Apple has.

In this post, I'll dissect some of the core elements that Apples uses to train its retail staff when it comes to delivering a great customer experience so that you as a small business retailer can walk away with some gems of how you can rethink customer service in your own store to inspire greater brand loyalty.

[Swordmaker]

I haven’t done a lot of testing with it in the last year or so, so it might have gotten some recent improvements.

It has. My girlfriend and I used it yesterday to navigate to a dinner invitation at a friends apartment. There was heavy traffic on the primary route which it showed and automatically routed us around the traffic to save us about 20 minutes on the trip.

It still has trouble with closed stores, but so does Google Maps. I have done comparisons and it's about 50-50 which gets it right. Google Maps showed a bank I was looking for as being open and the building was not even there anymore. . . while Apple Maps showed the correctly located new bank several blocks away, and the newly built fast-food restaurant where the old bank had been located. Other times Google maps will show the correct data and Apple Maps will miss, showing a restaurant that closed years ago as still open and the attached Yelp data still containing rave reviews and no indication that the place closed down and is now a Laundromat. It can be frustrating either way.

[Swordmaker]

But Apple does need more stores in my opinion, and those stores in the smaller cities could be SMALLER in size than the giant size you quote, if there were more of them.

Apple just discontinued their mini Apple store concept. They found that the small stores quickly got overwhelmed with customers and became too crowded to work. The small Apple stores were only about 1/4 the size of normal stores. They closed the last one a couple of weeks ago in favor of a full size store in the same mall.

[Svartalfiar]

if you are connecting them to a non-Mac Monitor,

Why do you assume everyone stuck using a Mac is also going to have an Apple monitor? Apple doesn't make any kind of monitor we would use. Usually we're connected to the Barco ScreenPro II, ImagePro, PresPro, or Analog Way's Pulse 300. For some small rooms they go straight to the projector, usually NECs or Panasonics. Most of our gear has VGA inputs, limited DVI, and is only starting to be more upgraded to HDSDI or fully-capable DVI.

you need only one of two possible adaptors for the past five year... either MiniDisplayPort to SVGA or MiniDisplayPort to DVI depending on what monitor you want to connect. That's it. The Macs that come without built-in Monitors ship with the two adaptors included. So there's another lie.

Really? Because I've seen larger MacBooks with dvi out (usually needed to adapt to VGA), newer ones with miniDPort, some with full DPort, and some with miniVGA (that's the one with the squared U-shape inside the connector). And from my experience with presenters, most never got the Macdaptor with their laptop, it's an extra purchase. Either that, or they were too dumb to know what it was, in which case there is quite a lot of not-so-bright people buying Macs.

What Macs are you talking about that needed "MacDongles?"

Every single Mac laptop. The ONE exception being the older 17" (19?) big ones, that had DVI. Back then, however, you usually still had to adapt it to VGA, because most gear wasn't equipped with a fully useable DVI input.

The Mac will auto detect the best resolution the monitor is designed for and adjust best color settings for that model. So you are LYING through your teeth. They also work if you want to add a second monitor to an iMac or Macbook Air or Pro. So exactly WHAT are you blithering about?

EVERY laptop does that, it's called EDID and it only works if your monitor or switcher supports it. Also, if you have a longer run so you're converting VGA to 5wire, you lose any EDID capability. So now the Mac knows nothing about what it's sending video to. Then I'm not even sure if DVI-over-CAT5 or DVI-fiber passes EDID through. Also, for some of our gear, you have to know a decent bit (and it's extra steps) to set up EDID on the inputs, and most of our techs don't know how (or why) to do this. Most Macs refuse to do 1280x720 naturally, you can ONLY get that resolution if your EDID forces it. (And even then, sometimes it doesn't work.) But like I said, you don't always have EDID, and the only 16:9 resolution a Mac can do is 1080. Which is outside the boundaries of a lot of gear, making it somewhat useless since you don't always have a scaler to change the Mac's 1080 to a 720 signal, and doing so also degrades your video quality more than if the source is natively 720. And while I agree that 16:10 is a much better aspect ratio, Every basic screen owned by every AV company is built as 16:9 (or 4:3). So to do everything properly, you need to have that 16:9 signal flowing through from the source.

both adaptors are only $29 each. . . not $40-$50 as you exaggerated, showing again, you don't know what you are talking about.

My bad, I've never had to buy one, so I don't know the actual price, just that they are ridiculously expensive for what they are. Monoprice sells cheap crappy ones for $7, So multiply that by 5 to get an actual price. $35. Then include Apple's 20% overcharge cause it's Apple, I just assumed they were in the $40-50 range. But even $30 is a huge oversell compared to $7. The quality's not that much better.

May I suggest you stop doing any work at all on Macs?

Unfortunately, PlaybackPro Plus only runs on Macs, and is the industry standard for video playback. VLC just doesn't do professional production quite as well. Also, when the client brings in their own Mac, I can't really tell them we simply don't support/allow that. Customer service is somewhat important to some of us. I'd be perfectly happy if I didn't have to use Macs. The metal body is nice, but the user interface isn't friendly, the file system architecture is a pain to navigate, and their stupid mice didn't even come with two buttons! (Obviously, the last point is a joke. They have more than one button. Now.)

Why do you anti-Apple trolls have to lie? SHEESH!

I swear, you Apple fanatics are even more rabidly fanboi than those idiots who think Glock is better than sliced bread. Maybe you should understand that not everyone is only using their computers to go home, plug in to their Apple TV, relax on their iCouch, drink a cold iBeer, and then watch movies on iTunes. I'm not anti-Apple, I just don't agree with how many people buy their overpriced products for no reason other than "it's a Mac!", and I have no reason to like them more so than any other computer manufacturer.

[Swordmaker]

EVERY laptop does that, it's called EDID and it only works if your monitor or switcher supports it. Also, if you have a longer run so you're converting VGA to 5wire, you lose any EDID capability. So now the Mac knows nothing about what it's sending video to. Then I'm not even sure if DVI-over-CAT5 or DVI-fiber passes EDID through. Also, for some of our gear, you have to know a decent bit (and it's extra steps) to set up EDID on the inputs, and most of our techs don't know how (or why) to do this. Most Macs refuse to do 1280x720 naturally, you can ONLY get that resolution if your EDID forces it. (And even then, sometimes it doesn't work.) But like I said, you don't always have EDID, and the only 16:9 resolution a Mac can do is 1080. Which is outside the boundaries of a lot of gear, making it somewhat useless since you don't always have a scaler to change the Mac's 1080 to a 720 signal, and doing so also degrades your video quality more than if the source is natively 720. And while I agree that 16:10 is a much better aspect ratio, Every basic screen owned by every AV company is built as 16:9 (or 4:3). So to do everything properly, you need to have that 16:9 signal flowing through from the source.

What a load of hilarious crap. Do you know how ignorant and idiotic you are coming across? I told you I have been supporting BOTH Windows and Macs for over my entire career. . . and you have the GALL to blow smoke at me??? WOW! What loads of lies! Macs can only support 1080 degraded to 720? Where did you get that gem? Apple Macs can easily support 4K monitors you idiot and can do multiple resolutions. As i stated, Apple includes whatever adaptors required to hook up to Industry standard Monitors with their computers.

Here is a standard Apple Preferences Display Selector Pane to show how full of BS you are. . .

Note the resolutions far beyond your idiotic claim of refusing to do 1280 by 720

. . . What a crock of bovine excrement. You seem to be completely oblivious to the fact that Apple's are used regularly in video and other movie work. . . in fact Apple Macs were used to do the dailies in the Making of the Lord of the Rings in full resolution. . . so that Peter Jackson could see what the special effects looked like. The new MacPro can render the scenes in real time. . . and you claim they can't do better resolution than 720????? The new iMac has a TRUE 5K screen built in, you idiot. That's 5120 x 2880 and YOU are blithering about Macs not being able to do 720????

You want to talk about rabid? Rabid anti-Apple TROLLS will go to any extent to lie about stuff they know nothing about.

The metal body is nice, but the user interface isn't friendly, the file system architecture is a pain to navigate, and their stupid mice didn't even come with two buttons! (Obviously, the last point is a joke. They have more than one button. Now.)

Not a joke since at least 2000, as if you knew anything at all about Macs, you just went to system preferences and turned the second button on. Navigating the file system is easy. . . easier than Windows. The structure is essentially the same, but more flexible. It is UNIX™. As to the User Interface, you just are used to Windows. Most people who bother to take the time to learn the Mac find it a lot easier to use than Windows.

[Svartalfiar]

Wow, I must have hit a real nerve there... I haven't seen this much anger and vitriol since twenty minutes ago when I ran across a religious thread with all the Catholic-bashers!

Do you know how ignorant and idiotic you are coming across?

Making disparaging remarks about Macs to a fanboy? I'm sure I'm the most idiotic, most ignorant person ever! But if that's wrong, please, enlighten me!

Macs can only support 1080 degraded to 720? Where did you get that gem?

Ha, where did you get that gem? I said nothing of the sort, I think you need to sit back, have a beer, and work on your reading comprehension. I said that we have gear that can't handle a 1080 signal, so we have to drop it to 720, or 1600x900 (usually 720 since it's just more common). So when you run 720 through your entire production, for the best signal quality you want all your sources to have the same resolution you run to outputs. Which means all laptops need to be set to 720. And a native 720 will look cleaner than a 1080 downscaled to 720, that's just the fact of compression. I don't really care if any of them can output 4k, we DON'T USE IT. The highest resolution we use is 1080 if all the gear on the show supports it. Otherwise, everything is usually run in 720.

...and you claim they can't do better resolution than 720????? The new iMac has a TRUE 5K screen built in, you idiot. That's 5120 x 2880 and YOU are blithering about Macs not being able to do 720????

Sigh. Reading comprehension. I said Macs can do 1080, so I don't know how you get me saying they can't do better than 720. From the part of my post that you even excerpted: But like I said, you don't always have EDID, and the only 16:9 resolution a Mac can do is 1080. I apologize if by saying 'can do' confused you, I meant that as the resolutions they naturally have, not what EDID or ScreenResX can add. I don't care AT ALL what resolution the built-in screen can do. That does nothing for me when I'm using the extended desktop as my live screen. Which, as I mentioned above, I want to be set to 720.

But congratulations, you have a Mac that has a wide variety of resolutions available. Many Macs don't. They'll have some basic 4:3 ones, a couple 16:10 ones, and 1920x1080 as the only 16:9 resolution. 1280x720 is not an option. They will have 1280x800, but that's not what I'm looking for.

You seem to be completely oblivious to the fact that Apple's are used regularly in video and other movie work.

YOU seem to be completely oblivious to half of what I posted. I am using the Macs for video playback (PlaybackPro Plus), I am a video engineer and this is what I do. The only reason people used to buy Macs was for one of two things: you had too much money and bought one as a status symbol cause it's hip and cool, or two, you were in the world of video editing which Macs have really ruled until the last couple years.

As i stated, Apple includes whatever adaptors required to hook up to Industry standard Monitors with their computers.

Really? Who's the idiot troll now? If I go to Apple's website, they specifically state that the adaptors DO NOT come with the Macs. If yours did, well lucky you, you got a bonus. So here, I'll post some info straight from Apple.com for you. Note, neither one has a scaled 720 resolution listed!

https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs-retina/

13-inch:
Native resolution: 2560 by 1600 pixels (Retina); scaled resolutions: 1680 by 1050, 1440 by 900, and 1024 by 640 pixels

15-inch:
Native resolution: 2880 by 1800 pixels (Retina); scaled resolutions: 1920 by 1200, 1680 by 1050, 1280 by 800, and 1024 by 640 pixels

Thunderbolt digital video output
Native Mini DisplayPort output
DVI output using Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter (sold separately)
VGA output using Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter (sold separately)
Dual-link DVI output using Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter (sold separately)


Not a joke since at least 2000, as if you knew anything at all about Macs, you just went to system preferences and turned the second button on. Navigating the file system is easy. . . easier than Windows. The structure is essentially the same, but more flexible. It is UNIX™. As to the User Interface, you just are used to Windows. Most people who bother to take the time to learn the Mac find it a lot easier to use than Windows.

I know Jobs accepted the need for two buttons, that why that was a joke about their mice only having one. Only the old ones did. And no, the file system opens a new section of the window each time you navigate into a directory, instead of just showing the contents of that dir. you end up with a long tree stretching the whole of your window for files that are buried deep in several folders. Structure is the same, but the visual application in Macs is annoying. I don't like the dock, my old Dell had the same thing, it was extremely annoying, so I turned it off. A regular start menu is just fine (and yes, I do hate MS's new gay Metro thing. Absolutely retarded), no reason to change things just to make it more difficult for people used to Windows. I have experience with a couple versions of Linux (dual-boot set on both my laptops), and they are much closer to the Windows gui than to any Mac I've seen.

[Swordmaker]

Ha, where did you get that gem? I said nothing of the sort, I think you need to sit back, have a beer, and work on your reading comprehension. I said that we have gear that can't handle a 1080 signal, so we have to drop it to 720, or 1600x900 (usually 720 since it's just more common). So when you run 720 through your entire production, for the best signal quality you want all your sources to have the same resolution you run to outputs. Which means all laptops need to be set to 720. And a native 720 will look cleaner than a 1080 downscaled to 720, that's just the fact of compression. I don't really care if any of them can output 4k, we DON'T USE IT. The highest resolution we use is 1080 if all the gear on the show supports it. Otherwise, everything is usually run in 720.

I'm sorry, but I seem to have assumed that you understood that a Mac can output more than just the resolution of what you see on the screen through the video ports. . . but apparently you think Macs can only duplicate or mirror the resolutions of the Mac's built in screens. . . nothing could be further from the truth. ANY Mac can out put any of the screen resolutions you seem to think are not possible to a Mac. Macs are used in High Definition Video production all the time. . . but you seem to be blissfully unaware of that fact.

I think I was right when I said you don't know Macs.

[wardaddy]

Chipotle is hipster Mex founded in Denver naturally for silly health conscious dinks

I’ll pass

I prefer genuine Mexican run by Mexicans

Bad for you taste better

And before the purists start they both hire illegals

What is the funniest part is folks here it’s really Mexican with the name

Where do they live I wonder

[wardaddy]

Do the firebombs here know anything about Chipotles owner and mission statement

They should not eat there on principle

Course I shouldn’t buy Apple either admittedly

We have likely 150000 mex in metro Nashville maybe more

Plenty good places

And one New Mexican owned by a couple from Chama I frequent

My chain is Oscars like I said......Cali style Mex not as wet as Tex mex which I also like

Local owned by legal Mex.....Jalisco. The 70s Nashville Mexicans were Guadalajara

Their women are prettier

[Pelham]

My mother grew up east of El Paso so Mexican food was a normal part of my life at a time when it was a rarity in the US. In DC we’d have neighbors over and they’d never seen or even heard of a taco before. America, Before Mexico.

The one benefit of SoCal being overrun by thousands of illegal Mexican nationals is that we have plenty of family run food joints that serve the real thing.

One of my favorites was in a converted house. If you wanted a second beverage you could go get it out of the cooler on your own and leave the cash on the counter.

[Svartalfiar]

ANY Mac can out put any of the screen resolutions you seem to think are not possible to a Mac

But not naturally. Out of the box, many Macs don't output 16:9 (except 1080) for whatever reason Jobs had for that. Yes, you can download ScreenResX or some other program, but many of the Macs I've dealt with don't naturally allow for 1280x720, which is the specific resolution I want. You don't seem to understand that in the world of corporate AV, trying to get the best picture with the gear you have doesn't mean 4k or 8k or anything like that.

[Swordmaker]

But not naturally. Out of the box, many Macs don't output 16:9 (except 1080) for whatever reason Jobs had for that. Yes, you can download ScreenResX or some other program, but many of the Macs I've dealt with don't naturally allow for 1280x720, which is the specific resolution I want. You don't seem to understand that in the world of corporate AV, trying to get the best picture with the gear you have doesn't mean 4k or 8k or anything like that.

Macs have INTEL graphics. . . and Macbook Pros have an additional graphics card as well. They can output whatever you want, natively. You keep claiming they can't do that we do regularly and have been doing for years. I repeat, Apple Macs have been used professionally in VIDEO PRODUCTION for years in 4:3 and 16:9 output at all kinds of resolutions to various makes of monitors. . . standard and HD. . . direct to DVD, etc., or other recording or projection devices, but only you seem to be unable to figure out how to do it! SHEESH!

[Svartalfiar]

Macs have INTEL graphics. . . and Macbook Pros have an additional graphics card as well.

Yes, and Windows laptops with intel graphics have the same problem sometimes too. My laptop only does 1366x768 when VGA is extended. Stupid.

I repeat, Apple Macs have been used professionally in VIDEO PRODUCTION for years in 4:3 and 16:9 output at all kinds of resolutions to various makes of monitors. . .

I am aware of that I WORK IN VIDEO PRODUCTION. Just today I had a presenter running bootcamp on his Mac, and 720 popped right up. I have had some laptops that allow for 720, but most don't. You're basing Mac's abilities entirely off of your experience with them. I have different experiences where 720 is not an available resolution. Why, I don't know. Maybe your expertise could offer some suggestions to help figure it out, instead of immediately branding me an incompetent and ignorant anti-Apple troll.

but only you seem to be unable to figure out how to do it!

Maybe I don't know. Preferences>Display>Uncheck 'mirror displays'>Gather windows>Scaled display>select resolution. So what, pray tell, am I doing wrong?

[Swordmaker]

Maybe I don't know. Preferences>Display>Uncheck 'mirror displays'>Gather windows>Scaled display>select resolution. So what, pray tell, am I doing wrong?

OK. My apologies. However, I don't know what is wrong. I use Macs and have supported them for years on many different types of multisynch monitors. . . and have never had it not show that as an option on a monitor that's capable of the resolution. There was a time when Multisync monitors were the exception rather than the rule they are today. Check the refresh rate you are sending the signal at. Some resolutions just don't work right at certain refresh rates on some monitors. Some multisyncs work fine at every refresh rate from 50 to 90 Hz. . . and others are so finicky they get a black screen on everything except a very few resolutions they like. Sometimes, some resolutions will not show up on the Apple display requestor at some refresh rates that are non-standard. See if that helps.

[Svartalfiar]

Sometimes, some resolutions will not show up on the Apple display requestor at some refresh rates that are non-standard. See if that helps.

But it's not just a refresh rate issue. The resolutions aren't present at all. I've had two presenters come through today so far, the first one was fine and had no issues. The second one's (MacAir) only offered 3 resolutions on the secondary output, 800x600, 1024x768, and 1280x960. Nothing else. The main display can do a wide range, but the extended was extremely limited.

[Clemenza]

The only thing that looks good on a hipster is fire. If the barbarians looted and sacked the twee gentrified precincts of Brooklyn, I would not shed a tear.