Angela Ahrendts on Apple Retail Criticism: 'I Don't Read Any of it, and None of it is Based on Fact'

[ntlman]

I'll just share this personal anecdote about the Apple Store. Not sure if this is fair to criticize AA for this, or Apple's overall repair strategy. But this is a ridiculous problem that needs to be corrected.

I work in Southern California, in a corporate department that uses entirely MBPs (over 500 of them). Our office happens to be in a popular suburb, and only blocks from a popular Apple Store location. We make enterprise purchases of these machines, and when we have to send them out for service (the MBPs we have span in age from 2014 models all the way to the current models), do you know where we have to take them? They make us take them to the Apple Store and wait in line like everyone else. Apple has restricted our IT dept from having the tools for internal repairs just like they have small resellers (not that it would matter, when everything inside is either glued/soldered together). So, despite the fact we have an enterprise purchasing contract with Apple, they flood the consumer repair lines with our repair requests, which can average 10-20 a week (not all of these are Apple defects; oftentimes it is for dropped machines and other mishaps).

The point I'm making is that this causes a piss poor customer experience for everyone else because a corporate client is taking up most of the service repair resources of the store. And I'm sure this is not the only Apple Store that has to deal with this.

 

[Abazigal]

Lady, you don’t have to read all criticism. But since there is so much criticism and applause when you left Apple, that means you failed.

The End.

How much is this criticism, or is it just the vocal minority griping and whining, as they tend to do?

Macrumours is not a proxy for the sentiments of the general Apple user community.

 

[firewood]

But let’s just ignore the criticism. That’s what strong leaders do.

Especially when those leaders have the analytics, the numerical data (revenue, retention), and the critics don't.

 

[I7guy]

Maybe Jony Ivie can go with her. They both seem to share the same "I know what's best; I don't have to listen to anybody" attitude.

Exactly who should "they" listen to? MacRumors forum posters. Granted things can always be improved, but the lot of the apple store, IMO, has improved over the last few years.

 

[ElRojito]

Fact: I worked for her
Fact: she sucked

 

[duervo]

If she says she never read any of it, you can bet she read at least some of it. Not all ... but some of it.

 

[alex2016g]

Well in that case I am glad she is gone. Person who doesn't read the critesism should not be in charge of anything especially at Apple. What a stupid thing to say on her part
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Fact: I worked for her
Fact: she sucked

Tell us more...

 

[s15119]

As a former employee, i can confirm she ruined the stores for everyone

Nope. She didn't ruin them for me, or for millions of other people.

 

[JosephAW]

They got into her head. Too late.

 

[aaronhead14]

“I don’t read any of it, but I’ll still make a blanket statement about it anyway” lol

 

[ElectricPotato]

I never get tired of hearing about Apple's pipelines. Magical.

 

[derekamoss]

Good for her. I’m glad she is speaking out. A lot of unfair criticism directed her way.

Take the un of unfair and you might be right. Apple Stores today are no longer something I look forward to going to. It's a hassle now. I am not saying she was the only person to cause it, Apple Stores have been declining for years, she just did nothing at all to turn it around.
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last 2 Apple stores i visited didn't feel different at all. i dont know what people are complaining about and i also have no clue what Angela did to make it better/worse.

Thats just it, she literally did nothing to make it better, it's still the horrible experience it has been.

 

[FairlyKors]

She talks about helping to create the next “Apple Music kids” at around the two minute mark. Don’t have a clue what that means and really don’t think she does either

I don’t have the stomach to listen to the interview, but she strikes me as someone who is unable to speak without stringing together buzzwords approved by her “inner circle” of executive cheerleaders.

If she really doesn’t understand tech, like some have mentioned, that should’ve been an immediate disqualification for the position. Like there weren’t other equally qualified candidates who also understand the tech that makes up Apple’s entire line of products?

 

[szw-mapple fan]

....shut up.

the retail stores suck ass now. literally no organization, stand in this line to stand in that line, no help whatsoever. annoying af to go into now.

Hasn’t really been my experience to be honest. There’s always someone to greet me at the door and wait times is usually about 15 minutes if I have an appointment. They tell you to go to a general section of the store so I get to walk around for a bit to look at the products without having to worry about staying in one place. I wish the wait time was shorter and the repair process was better documented when going from specialist to specialist, but in general my experience was positive. Admittedly the store I go to is one the newer and larger ones, so your mileage may vary.

 

[Plutonius]

If she doesn't read the criticism, how does she know what the criticism is and that it's wrong ?

 

[szw-mapple fan]

If she really doesn’t understand tech, like some have mentioned, that should’ve been an immediate disqualification for the position. Like there weren’t other equally qualified candidates who also understand the tech that makes up Apple’s entire line of products?

Not to burst your bubble, but I doubt Ron Johnson had much of of a tech background given his business background and career at Target. Yet he successfully established Apple Stores. I don’t think it’s necessary to understand the technical side. Understanding your customers and the company’s marketing strategy is much more important imo. Completely conjecture, but I feel like she was less hands on and better at developing general concepts. It’s great for a fashion brand but could make it unsuitable for Apple stores, given how many different kinds of transactions are handled by an Apple store.

 

[FairlyKors]

Not to burst your bubble, but I doubt Ron Johnson had much of of a tech background given his business background and career at Target. Yet he successfully established Apple Stores. I don’t think it’s necessary to understand the technical side. Understanding your customers and the company’s marketing strategy is much more important imo. Completely conjecture, but I feel like she was less hands on and better at developing general concepts. It’s great for a fashion brand but could make it unsuitable for Apple stores, given how many different kinds of transactions are handled by an Apple store.

I didn’t mean engineering expertise...and it didn’t sound like that’s what was meant by the others. But if that is what was meant, then yes, I agree with you.

 

[ThunderSkunk]

how can she know if any of it is based of fact if she did read them

"This all started soon after 'The Flight of the Monarch' was published...
A mean little tell-all-book filled with nothing but lies, and pictures of also lies!"

 

[Shirasaki]

The worst thing about Apple stores is when you are trying to buy something, and no one can help you, at a STORE lol. I remember I had to stand and wait for 20min to buy something, so absolutely ridiculous.

Yes. There used to be someone waiting at the entrance asking “what do you need today”? Guess I need to change my way entering the store? Lol.
Finding the right guy to help is also not that straightforward than once it was three years ago, I’d say.
Despite that, I do had great experience in recent weeks dealing with issues about my iPad Pro and Apple Watch, and iPhone.
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I don't get the vitriol towards her. She is not great but I am not sure she is that bad. For me the worst Apple executive is Eddy Cue.

Yet he is still around.
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Her level of arrogance is astounding.

“Just avoid shopping that way.”

Good riddance.

Not just her. The entire apple is built upon ignorance and arrogance, hence they can be so successful.

 

[CarpalMac]

Beyond the well documented issue with her statement, there is the more serious issue:

She works in retail but is stating, on the record, that she refuses to listen feedback.

Alrighty then..... Air BnB must be delighted with their new hire.

P.s. I'm sure she has no regrets at all. With an 8 figure bank balance I'm sure I wouldn't either.

 

[SeattleMoose]

AirBnB?.............really? Bwahahaha!!! They deserve each other...

 

[brewcitywi]

I haven't worked at Apple, I'm not blindly defending AA, or their stores, and, I have no right to evaluate AA's performance, or, anyone's informed opinions here on this blog. That's not why I'm commenting.

Also, I don't want to get into every issue at Apple Stores, or debate on what's been transformed (or not) in the past 5 years. I'm sure, if I was pressed, I could come up with plenty of things I like and dislike, about how the Apple Stores have evolved, or devolved.

But, AA has a point. I'm sure that, in her time at Apple, there was overwhelming customer and employee feedback that AA and her team ferociously "listened to," and "reacted to," through their own internal communication channels.

That's not what she's talking about.

She is saying, and rather appropriately, that, unless you have been the Chief (something) Officer at a major corporation for an extended period of time, and you've had to deliver results (for which she was surely judged against inside Apple), that she has no reason to listen--or answer--to you (or me) in any way. She is not accountable to you, unless you're playing in the same "arena." (explained below)

And, she is 100% correct.

Whether time tells that she succeeded in her initiatives, or that they inevitably fail and new directions have to be pursued, that will have to work itself out.

Brene Brown cited a quote from Theodore Roosevelt for her book, "Daring Greatly," that specifically references this very thought:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; (...) who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and how at the worst, if he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory or defeat." - Theodore Roosevelt, the Man in the Arena, 1910.

That's who she's "not listening to."

And, if she ever does, then they're coming for you next.

 

[Quu]

It's funny two of my friends independently brought up to me the issues they had with the Apple Store redesigns.

The first said that they are now way too crowded with people socialising making it difficult to buy things. Often with very loud overhead lectures that no one cares about disrupting the retail experience.

The second said the genius bar (the physical bar) is gone and now when you want service you have to find an employee, tell them you're present for your hopefully pre-arranged appointment then just wait around somewhere until an employee (hopefully) finds you.

Seems like she ruined both the pre-sales and after-sales experience for paying customers to chase her dream of opening a chain of trendy coffee shops with open mic nights for poetry majors.

 

[Da_Hood]

I had no opinion of her either way, until she credited customer loyalty and retention to the retail stores she designed all by herself. Seems arrogant to me

 

[Black Tiger]

The Apple Store is not a store? Sheer brilliance in that statement. Definitely an air of unwarranted arrogance in that kind of statement, and I am increasingly concerned by this new tendency by Apple execs to speak in this language of fairies and unicorns. Steve Jobs was a bold marketer, but he had a sincerity about it that this Angela definitely lacks. But, Hey she got our money right, so who’s laughing at the end of the day?