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Angela Ahrendts Says Apple Store Employee Retention Rate Rose to Historic High of Nearly 89% During Her Tenure
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I was puzzled as to why they brought in the HR person to run retail. Is this really the reason?
exactly my impression. I've not lived in a country with office Apple Stores - but my understanding was that in the days of old, Apple Geniuses were very knowledgable - undoubtedly they could walk into a good job at any time. The dumbing-down of the Apple Store staff means that they are less likely to leave for more interesting or better paying jobs...
I wonder if John Stackhouse bothered to point this out, or if it was a soft-ball fluffpiece, like most PR jobs, I mean interviews, are nowadays...
Who says I am complaining? I'm explaining why Apple's retail store must be a dream job for a sales drone.
Limited product selection, lots of demo units, easy to follow return policy, service has to be scheduled days ahead.
I do want a Best Buy experience, I do go to Best Buy! That is kind of a straw man argument, no?
Don’t worry, they’ll conjure up some reason why it’s not true. The narrative is more important than everything else, you know.
History will show Angela Ahrendts to have been a fantastic hire. She successfully reoriented Apple retail at a time when every other retail chain was contracting their brick and mortar stores. It’s no coincidence that Apple has continued to grow its worldwide stores, bucking the trend when most chains have been closing stores as customers have been moving to online shopping. I challenge you to find an empty Apple Store.
Positioning Apple Stores as places to learn, as physical showrooms for their products while pushing for online sales, even to customers already at the store, and as locations for Apple’s legendary after market service, enabled Apple physical retail to grow and become places to build up Apple culture in the cities they’re in.
Angela probably left because it became clear that Jeff Williams was next up to take the reigns from Tim Cook and as an ambitious leader type, a former CEO of a major company, she didn’t see the point in waiting around. I’m sure she’s going to pop back up as CEO of another major company after she’s gotten her desired time off.
Positioning Apple Stores as places to learn, as physical showrooms for their products while pushing for online sales, even to customers already at the store, and as locations for Apple’s legendary after market service, enabled Apple physical retail to grow and become places to build up Apple culture in the cities they’re in.
Angela probably left because it became clear that Jeff Williams was next up to take the reigns from Tim Cook and as an ambitious leader type, a former CEO of a major company, she didn’t see the point in waiting around. I’m sure she’s going to pop back up as CEO of another major company after she’s gotten her desired time off.
Bingo.
Apple Retail used to hire genuine Apple IT nerds for the Genius Bar, who understood how RAM and HDDs worked, could do fine-motor skill hardware repairs, AND had personal relation skills. Now they hire drones who ship stuff to depot or swap there for a refurb unit, and all the diags are done via automated tools. The skill requirements are now gone.
They used to hire skilled video editors who'd teach Final Cut and Logic. Now they show people how to draw on an iPad Pro from a script. Now they hire a group of individuals who are, shall we say, retail-for-lifers. They're passionate about Apple, some of them are event smart, but retail is *enough* for them, and they're just glad they don't have to sell phone plans at Best Buy or wherever anymore.
The quality of Apple Retail's employees DROPPED as far as expertise goes. If I as a consumer know appreciably more about my technical problem than the person supposed to be fixing it, that's a problem. If I know so much they don't even understand my explanation of the issue, that's a BIG problem, and a common one nowadays.
Retail Lifers are lucky to get to work for Apple, but that's why they're sticking around. Even in its service level downturn under Ahrendts, it's a better gig than any other retail job. The people who thought independently and had better and more aspirations moved on, as they always did, but they were replaced for the most part by lower-end workers who stuck around.
History shows a number of world leaders who inherited a good thing to be good leaders, even when they did everything to squander it and failed to do so.
The reorientation to a "gathering space" is not sustainable long term. Stores need to earn money per square foot to sustain their overhead. Reduced third party accessories, demo areas, One2One, Pro level education, removing personal business cards and name tags (making it transactional in nature, rather than personal, countering the stated goal of "gathering space") and general reduction in knowledable staff in favour of cheaper, younger staffers (generally speaking) does not build long term customer relationships.
I challenge you to find an empty Emergency Room. I live at the juxtaposition of 3 major Apple Stores, and visit ones in NYC, LA, and SF regularly for work. A significant portion of people are either there for a broken device (where wait times are now *insane*) or kids kicking tires.
Unless you want to learn a Pro app, or ask a question beyond the pre-approved script that is.
Making people wait for a product is never a good idea.
I assume you've not had to use the Genius Bar in the past couple of years then. I know IT groups at major companies that support THOUSANDS of Apple devices who'd rather throw any hardware issue machine in the trash than deal with Apple Store support at this point.
She left because Apple's Net Promoter Score has plummeted and the writing was on the wall. While NPP (Net Promoter for our People) score may have gone up, that's only half the equation.
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Ruh roh. Cue the “if Steve we’re alive” crowd to light their torches and grab their pitchforks.
First, she inherited an Apple Store that needed an intervention after John Browett took it in the wrong direction, and Tim Cook had to admit he was the wrong hire. Second, if she had done nothing but maintain Apple Stores, then maybe you'd have a glimmer of an argument, but she completely transformed them. That was all her. She didn't just sit on a successful store and coast.
No, they don't. Apple Stores don't have to sell a single item in store to be wildly successful as a sales tool, in the same way advertising agencies don't have to ship products to customers who see their ads. The Apple Store has been wildly successful as a culture builder, as a tool that keeps Apple top of mind and as a part of the Apple experience. Some people care less about the products' design or the operating system or the App Store but deeply value that they can walk into an Apple Store and have their questions answered and their concerns addressed.
And again, Apple Stores have continued to grow despite the heavy trend in retail for chains to compress.
Ahrendts said that there are still challenges. Her work wasn't done, nor would it ever be. There will always be issues to solve. One of those challenges is that Apple's user base has grown monstrously in the past decade, faster than they could keep up with demand for support while maintaining the customer service they're known for. The solutions that worked when Apple had a few percent market share of personal computers to the iPhone generation aren't the same.
This point goes directly to contradicting your assertion that she could have just coasted on Steve Jobs' laurels. Obviously not. This isn't the same company Steve Jobs left and she had her work cut out for her.
The solution she implemented was to make Apple Stores experiential locations, shifting sales as much as possible to online, and second, making them walk in service centres, with casual, relaxed spaces like the Genius Grove, rather than the more formal, lineup at a counter that worked well early in Apple Stores' history but couldn't now. The Genius Grove hasn't finished rolling out. There's also been an effort to getting support questions answered in the Support app and now in iMessage, triaging issues so that stores aren't overwhelmed.
As am I. Does she mean they maintained the same number of employees from year-to-year? Does it mean employees stayed for an arbitrary minimum period—say three months?
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You Sir, could be on to something!
I discovered yesterday that the Apple Store here in metro Denver no longer has a web site and hence no longer offers online appointment making, no longer has a human being in that store who answers the phone but instead auto-voice told me, who has no sim iPhone, that I would get a text re appontment and, when I drove down to the store a few hours before closing, all the technicians were gone and hence no one could take my Macbook Air with my note requesting a new battery. A young man made my appointment for me super-rapidly on a iPad as I leaned over to correct his spelling of my name and email.
Things have changed in this store since 2012 when my Macbook Pro needed a new hard drive.
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I called my local Best Buy store to see if they could replace the battery in the Macbook Air I bought from them 2.5 yesrs ago, and was told yes, but they had to send it some where and that it would take 2 weeks.
Things have changed in this store since 2012 when my Macbook Pro needed a new hard drive.
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I called my local Best Buy store to see if they could replace the battery in the Macbook Air I bought from them 2.5 yesrs ago, and was told yes, but they had to send it some where and that it would take 2 weeks.
In some parallel universe maybe.
No that occurred long before she arrived.
Stores were packed before she arrived. She just made them more disorganized and more difficult for customers to get help and purchase things.
Again, all of this occurred well before she arrived.
That makes zero sense. She's ambitious so instead of waiting to become CEO she left? But that standard there would be no VPs at Apple since all of them are waiting around.
The only thing in your post that is somewhat correct and aligns with reality.
We know when Ive played with 'creative' custom colors for the red Mac Pro 2013, it was actioned for charity, rather than used as a new luxury product class.
Ditto with custom colored Apple watch sport bands, used as special event and promo give-aways...
Until at a point (that may/may not directly overlap the period he was working on Apple Park) where Apple Stores' display attention was heavily (distractingly) focused on seasonal watch band color changes. This later phenom is a distinct trait from the fashion industry where Ahrendts originated from.
So there's that.
Why wouldn't you stick around in your job where you don't have to serve many people and can stand around chatting instead?
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 salary
Lovely insight, thank you
I used to love visiting the Apple Store and now I avoid it and go there as a last resort. It has turned into a confusing chaotic mess with no defined flow, filled with staff that have no practical knowledge. In recent visits I've also found that the items I'm looking for are consistently out of stock.
I’ve had nothing but great experience at Apple North Star. Yes they are busy, but someone has always come to escort me out. Kidding! Someone always manages to get to me to answer a question or ring me up. Even the genius bar hasn’t kept me long. They’ve swapped out products for new when I was thinking I was going to pay the Piper for work. I was even asking for refurbished because I felt guilty. I’m a klutz. This has happened twice for work out of warranty. I think if you have a bit of social skill, you can start a conversation with a fellow Apple user If it takes a minute. Don’t sulk. If you know your stuff, maybe point someone with a question the right way. I usually apologize for butting in when I’m somewhere like Best Buy and see some old lady being up-sold when all she wants is an office computer for simple stuff. The customers are ALMOST always happy and thank me. Not sure about the associates, but they seem polite about it. Actually now that I think about it, BB has been pretty good service when I’ve gone, with the exception of one young associate (but to be honest, I think I scared her a bit).
The Apple Store experience wasn't a good one for me.
For service they check you in then tell you to go sit somewhere and someone will come find you. So, my choice was to sit on a wooden cube or a rock hard stool with foot supports all the way up on the stool.
I'm almost 60 years old. I prefer function over form and to me the Apple Store is annoying and uncomfortable
For service they check you in then tell you to go sit somewhere and someone will come find you. So, my choice was to sit on a wooden cube or a rock hard stool with foot supports all the way up on the stool.
I'm almost 60 years old. I prefer function over form and to me the Apple Store is annoying and uncomfortable
I hope you let them know. I can’t stand or sit comfortably for any length of time, bad joints and blown disks. Function can still celebrate form in the right hands.
If that's your only possible speculation, that could be a sign of a limited imagination.
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I'm sorry to hear that. Do you have a physical infirmity? I'm 67, and I was pretty comfortable waiting, sitting on those cubes. Much better for me than standing, which is what I find I end up doing when waiting in most retail locations.
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So what do you do while waiting for service (anywhere, not just Apple)? The only alternatives I can think of are to lie on the floor or a table; or just refuse to wait, and leave. Genuinely curious.
There's an implicit assumption in your response that all VPs have the same goals and motivations, in this case to be CEO of a huge corporation. Which isn't true; some do (and possible AA does), some don't. VPs are not stamped out by cookie cutter.
No, because the term can be interchangeably used. As a matter fact, specifically, in my area, many stores are referred to as ‘town squares’. You’re entirely from a different country, it might be referred differently in different parts of the world. It’s not difficult to grasp.