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Angela Ahrendts Says Apple Store Employee Retention Rate Rose to Historic High of Nearly 89% During Her Tenure

Apple Store customer service is awful.

The last few times, two stores, in the last two weeks, I went to buy a watch, and an iPad, and could not get help.

Both stores had workers just standing there... but they all had a title and a duty that apparently did not include helping customers with cash in hand.

This new system has empowered and validated hourly employees to not help customers, proudly stating “it’s not my job.”

It’s pathetic, but comical to watch.

Only a massive bureaucracy could have enough committee meetings to invent such a dysfunctional system.

Never. Again.
 
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Rogifan said:
It’s unfortunate she gets a bad rap. And often times for things not totally in her control. What most people complain about is the stores being too crowded. There isn’t really a way to solve for that outside of building a lot more stores. How much say did Angela have in the number of new stores built? Did she get to make that decision or was it something Cook and the board had to sign off on?
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Yep I would tend to think she was limited in what she could do. She was brought in to sell watches along with elevating them to fashion like branding which she failed at doing. I’m not sure you want someone who had zero tech knowledge and had to learn on the job from day one making any other important decisions.
 
Turnover is just one factor of many. I'm pretty sure the customer experience number has dropped. I'd be ok with a higher turn over if I could get someone to ring up my purchase. I use my phone app for the things on the floor but anything with a serial number you have to interact with the employees and that experience at my local store gets more and more painful each visit.
 
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Visited Apple Store last week first time since October I’ve been avoiding the store now because the experience is horrible. So last week I saw the store almost empty unlike before always crowded. Got in the employee greeted me when you need anything let us know. So I said to my self this better than my previous experience. I went straight to iPhone cases looking and trying to feel and checking different colors all of the sudden another employee jump into me. Then told me that she ask me what I’m looking and that she could help me. I was right there looking for the cases I know what I’m looking for and got annoyed then left the store. It’s not the kind of store I used to enjoy visiting where nobody jumps into you. When I buy stuff from the store I tend to take my time and when I really need help I can call somebody. When I have a question or just bring the item when ready to checkout. I don’t need sales talk like going to BestBuy.
 
HoneyCrispAF said:
This is at best misleading, not to mention irrelevant to HER as an executive. I know many many employees and customers that found her irritating and are happy to see her leave. The retention rate has ZERO to do with her, and 100% to do with the flat economy for younger generations entering the work force or older workers laid off in the 2008 disaster.

Apple isn't a bad gig in your 20's and even early 30's as far as retail goes (health care, 401k, tuition reimbursement and the usual benefits package even at part time).

My time in an Apple Store I've meant some highly educated super bright employees, and often wonder why is he/she here doing this? I often let them speak and ask questions, even though I need limited help I'm interested in the company as a share holder. I find many of employees over qualified, extremely bright, over worked, and worst of all directed to be over attentive to a point of awkwardness by what id imagine is a directive from upper management?

The customers in these stores not happy with the service fail to understand the scale at which Apple operates, this is not a mom and pop shop. People buy these products in the 100's of millions, and they break them and things go wrong is a small percentage (true of ANY product). The expectation of the consumer is Apple's own doing, placate to every complaint for years and you have created the perfect monster. Angela created this dissatisfaction with her luxury brand background and hyper attentiveness and odd luxury item releases. A gold watch, really??

She has left the company's retail weaker through lack of vision of what the company has always stood for: Creativity, Innovation, and Being Freakin' Cool. All three of these are lacking in the stores as she walks off with her 73+ million dollar salaryo_O
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Employee retention rate is one of many factors for how well an exec performs. I don’t think it’s disingenuous for her to believe that as a quality benchmark, but it’s rather narrow minded that she is using that as the only benchmark. I’ve been at many companies where staff were very unhappy, yet retention was at an all time high. But when the wave happens, it won’t stop till it stops.

Despite this, I think their retail sector will persist as long as it still makes sense. Even if the whole experience was atrocious, people still go for various reasons
 
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Abazigal said:
Nevertheless, Angela's KPI would likely be employee retention and satisfaction, both of which seem to be pretty good under her tenure.
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I think they'd be part of it, but another important metric would have assuredly been revenue growth.
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Ubuntu said:
Never said it was the same thing - you made the assumption there. Given people have been negative about Apple retail while Ahrendts was in charge this is seen as notable because it's a good thing that happened on her watch, which goes against the common narrative. This is great for stirring up controversy as no doubt people in this thread will come out of the woodwork to yell "But she's terrible, Apple retail sucks!" etc.
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I didn't say you said anything...just pointed it out. A change was likely made because she wasn't performing as they saw necessary.
 
I can't talk to what she did at Apple one way or the other. I don't go to the Apple Store very often, but the few times I have the help was good. I don't like the slow checkout procedure that takes an eternity when you have money and are ready to be. Seems like a delay tactic.

I can see I am happy to see her go. People bitch about Cook (which I don't), but consider if she took his position when he left the company. The whole company would be a vanity project with no consideration for function or performance. Cook has probably kept Ive contained as best he could.
 
Jsameds said:
What about Apple Store customer retention rates?
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I think the focus is the increased productivity that she brought to the stores and overall the customer base growth. Seems she executed in some fashion, at least gauging by the Apple stores in my location.
 
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Baymowe335 said:
I think they'd be part of it, but another important metric would have assuredly been revenue growth.
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I didn't say you said anything...just pointed it out. A change was likely made because she wasn't performing as they saw necessary.
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Certainly sounds like you did given you responded to my comment with that point;)
 
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cardfan said:
Yep I would tend to think she was limited in what she could do. She was brought in to sell watches along with elevating them to fashion like branding which she failed at doing. I’m not sure you want someone who had zero tech knowledge and had to learn on the job from day one making any other important decisions.
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I’m sorry but no one would be saying this if this was a man. What tech knowledge did Ron Johnson have? His claim to fame was making Target chic. That’s when people started referring to Target as Targét Boutique.
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ipponrg said:
Employee retention rate is one of many factors for how well an exec performs. I don’t think it’s disingenuous for her to believe that as a quality benchmark, but it’s rather narrow minded that she is using that as the only benchmark. I’ve been at many companies where staff were very unhappy, yet retention was at an all time high. But when the wave happens, it won’t stop till it stops.

Despite this, I think their retail sector will persist as long as it still makes sense. Even if the whole experience was atrocious, people still go for various reasons
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Where did she say that’s the only benchmark?
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HoneyCrispAF said:
This is at best misleading, not to mention irrelevant to HER as an executive. I know many many employees and customers that found her irritating and are happy to see her leave. The retention rate has ZERO to do with her, and 100% to do with the flat economy for younger generations entering the work force or older workers laid off in the 2008 disaster.
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So her comment is misleading and irrelevant but your anecdote and opinion is is not? Saying retention rate has zero to do with her is opinion not fact.
 
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My biggest issue with the stores is they needed more of them. Even in my medium sized town, the single Apple store is packed anytime it is open. A second store on the other side of town would alleviate some of the pressure on the single store, and improve customer experience.
 
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Kind of irrelevant that you retain staff when customers dont want to visit because of the new layout. I am sure less customers and a less busy environment would result in higher retention as its less work!
 
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Whoever is running the show now is doing a great job. Way less siloing and better service for THE CUSTOMER

Angela Ahrendts made the store an awful experience, good riddance
 
techno-Zen said:
Whoever is running the show now is doing a great job. Way less siloing and better service for THE CUSTOMER

Angela Ahrendts made the store an awful experience, good riddance
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Angela hasn’t been gone that long. I’d be surprised if there were major changes at stores already (and that’s assuming there are going to be major changes). There are 5 Apple stores within 30 miles of where I live. The three I frequent don’t seem any different than they did when I visited 3-6 months ago.
 
Baymowe335 said:
I think they'd be part of it, but another important metric would have assuredly been revenue growth.
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I seriously doubt it. The Apple Stores exist to let customers better experience Apple products, not push them onto customers. When you can purchase Apple products from a variety of places, including online and third party retailers in addition to the flagship stores themselves, it doesn’t make sense to grade Angela on sales from just the flagship Apple stores themselves.

For example, I could go to an apple store to play around with the new iPad Pro, then order one online a few days later. The apple store has done its job, though it may be hard to quantify its benefit in this regard.
 
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yesjam said:
To be expected considering that during Ahrendts' tenure Apple decidedly moved toward hiring retail workers with fewer skills and less opportunity outside the company.
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I haven't experienced that at all.

Whether it's needing sales assistance, questions answered, or brining something in for repair, I've seen an improvement.
 
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