It's not only crowds. It's lack of organization. Last time I went there it was a mess, with employees just standing about in a small space, no one asking questions to customers, no one interacting if not for one poor individual at the entrance put in charge of taking down the appointments etc. all by himself.
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Angela Ahrendts Shares Lessons She Learned While Working at Apple
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It's not only crowds. It's lack of organization. Last time I went there it was a mess, with employees just standing about in a small space, no one asking questions to customers, no one interacting if not for one poor individual at the entrance put in charge of taking down the appointments etc. all by himself.
Why does she give me the impression that she signed on just for the money and left the minute her shares were fully vested?
Why do you think "chaotic free-for-alls" refers to the number of customers in the store rather than the lack of clarity on where to go, or who to talk to for assistance or checkout?
The best lesson she learned at Apple is "take the money and run."
/s
I'm not sure how much she improved the stores or whatever, but she did seem to bring a touch of class to Apple, if that means anything at all. At least she didn't ruin anything that I'm aware of.
/s
I'm not sure how much she improved the stores or whatever, but she did seem to bring a touch of class to Apple, if that means anything at all. At least she didn't ruin anything that I'm aware of.
Walmart is more pleasurable to shop at than an Apple Store.
In the I.T. World tris is called an ITIL practice or standard. Welcome. It’s been around since McDonalds first branded burger joint and it’s the same when you wait in line at a retail chain fast food restaurant or an expensive restaurant.
Triage incoming requests due to priority, when your request doesn’t affect a group/team/department or the business site or location as a whole and you’re not an executive (ahem VIP) you wait like everybody else.
It’s been the he same with the famed Genius bars of old since long before Tim Cook was an executive or even hired (he shows up 2nd year of the Apple store I believe) and much much longer than Angela. Hence why YOU like everyone else required an appointment to be served at the Genius Bar!
Get used to it already it’s been more than 10yrs. Someone stated an experience location vs a sales location should be separate yet I don’t think Angela ever had a chance to make that call.
Wait until Siri and AI begin a HUGE place for Apple ... you’ll see far less people having issues fixed in store for very simple issues.
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When those I first quoted in this thread Use pronouns based on gender and again as I’ve stated and quoted those that used Her/She with dislike without backing UP the reason for their dislike then no sorry you’re wrong they didn’t state ANYTHING more than gender as being the reason for the dislike.
I have make light in this as I agree mostly. Yet there was far less less Apple consumers and users and potentials interested in their products say 7, 12 yrs ago.
She took away Genius training classes and relegated Apple's new techs to learning from PDFs in crowded store breakrooms. For this reason and many more, glad she's gone.
The top comments on this thread say she’s awful. In what way? Can they try to substantiate your claims?
I’m not saying she was great or bad but you can’t say someone is awful and not say why.
I’m not saying she was great or bad but you can’t say someone is awful and not say why.
Yawn. That was my point. She’s been there for 4yrs and consider Apples CEO positive proud send off, I’d say she was most positively impact was her ability to perform well. The Baird considered this as much as well allowing stock options.
Diedre is also using her experience centres in a quote so obviously Angela’s vision still stands as value to Apple.
[doublepost=1557174618][/doublepost]Deidre O’Brien said:
Just selling products or fixing them wasn’t going to cut it at the Apple stores. They sell other products they don’t make nor affiliated with and are affiliated with via licensing (lightning port spec licensing etc). Staff also recommend software for solutions as well.
I’m not sure if you’ve noticed when you’ve been going to the stores in the last 12yrs or have heard others noticing, yet customers are asking more and more of the sales reps time in “how do I do this?” or “what can this (insert product)” do?” Type of questions. This ads to the queue being lengthened. I’m sure many Apple Geniuses during ir after repairs have had to make similar suggestions to clients when making repairs as well.
Apple has long offered migrating your data to a newer Mac or classed to show you how to use OSX, many authorized retailers of done this for years - incl Toronto GTA local authorized retailer CarbonComputing since the dawn of OS X. I for one went to those free “Puma” OSX classes.
This experience centre move was a way to keep faith in the brand at Apple, amongst their users vs going to a third party. Also the major make overs helped Apple get/soon to have approvals for stores in more historical locations. At the very least with so many users on iOS and OS X (ahem macOS), more and more are wanting to know how to use them vs fixing them due to higher quality.
Yes there is issues with over crowded stores designed originally to be JUST stores. Genius Bar real estate space has suffered ... yet maybe this debate would be better seen when all of us can see Apples statistics in:
how many repairs per day per store are requested? What products are requested for repairs? How many repairs are actioned vs completed? How many repairs needed to be sent into factory for parts not on hand or tools not available at stores or for escalation? How many requests where not approved for repair as not recognized by Apple as a manufacturers problem vs end user?! (Probably THE most frustrating)
I’d like to imagine Apple users are far better at troubleshooting software issues on their Macs and iOS devices vs Windows users yet the installer user base and skewed level of support route (corporate vs end user) would not make for a fair comparison. Still would be very interested to see.
I can only speak for me, I worked as a Genius from 2007-14, so I was leaving as she was coming in. From my buddies that are still there or who left some time later, most of them say she made stuff worse or turned their managers into metric/number bots.
Angela gutted what used to be a highly treasured rite of passage: genius training.
No longer do geniuses train at Apple’s secret genius room classrooms in Cupertino (and later Austin and Atlanta). Nope, now they train Geniuses in the crazy Apple store’s breakroom through pretaped videos and PDFs, very nearly the same material that’s available to independent, 3rd-party authorized technicians through GSX (working in IT, I can still access this as we have a self-servicing account).
An experience I treasured in 2008, going to Cupertino for a month, getting to meet Woz one evening at the Outback Steakhouse (he buys steaks to go for his puppies), and waiting behind Steve Jobs buying his blueberry muffin at Caffe Macs with Jony Ive right by his side... this is all gone for anyone new, and Angela green-lit it.
I know the program doesn't intrinsically scale when you're hiring hundreds of Genii per month instead of dozens... but here's the real problem: Geniuses today learn how to fix your Mac or iPhone by watching videos and PDFs, if they even get to fix it- most of the laptops get shipped to Flextronics for repair. In my era, most Genius hires had a good knowledge of computers, now they tend to promote people from the floor with good sales numbers and strong net promoter feedback, which isn't bad - but there's not nearly as many diehard Mac geeks as there were.
The experience of having a veteran Apple trainer like Jim Bontempo who was there in the 1990s showing you exactly how a blackstick spudger should feel as it removes a connector and the tension of said move- all gone now. The insider knowledge that you need to feel the edge of the display clamshell for precise alignment with your finger, not your eyes as you tighten down the T6 screws, gone. Nifty tricks on how to handle stubborn ZIFs and screws... gone.
By the way, any Genius trained after about mid 2018 is learning on your stuff... not the training Macs we got to destroy/tinker with in Cupertino. If Delta Airlines did the same cost-cutting move, a novice, Day 1 pilot could be flying your plane. Thanks FAA for protecting us from folks like Angela.
Truly sad, but I suppose, inevitable.
And yes, they pay geniuses a lot less than they did in the old days - thanks to Angela. I left and became a corporate IT manager, we make a boring SAAS software package that nobody outside the industry knows about, but my salary almost tripled, and nights/weekends are off.
Bottom line, her creativity is the same as most MBAs... "cut any costs and take credit for doing so, push your best people harder, replace them with worser ones, make the work boring as a byproduct." She lacks the vision of Ron Johnson, and I do think her gender and Burberry fashion pedigree secured her spot because Apple thought it was going into the gold watch selling business.
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I agree. It's lazy, toxic and does not promote healthy discussion.
have to admit I have never her the complete song before.
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while working in the store I was baffled how frequently we ran low or even out of such things as headphone adapters, lightning cables, power bricks, phone cases and watch bands. I would be very surprised if these accessories didn't account for 50% of the margins.
" okay, maybe I'm here because I'm a leader and maybe I'm here because I'm a brand builder. I wouldn't go as far as say visionary, but..."
I too.. am incredibly humble..
I too.. am incredibly humble..
TIM: Angela, did you ever hear the story about the carpenter?
ANGELA: No.
TIM: Once there was a carpenter and he built a door...and there it is!
ANGELA: No.
TIM: Once there was a carpenter and he built a door...and there it is!
Thank You for your insider report. It is far more valuable than our speculative opinions.
Regarding her stereotypical corporate approach and priorities, I wouldn't be surprised if that was Apple's instructions. It sounds like she wanted to achieve an atypical retail experience that Jobs would have endorsed, but the corporate machine that Apple has become requires everything to contribute demonstrably to the bottom line.
Changing focus... this cinches what some of us suspected: Apple's on-site techs are not qualified. Confirming a repair is needed is not the same as trouble-shooting. Swapping a broken device for a working one is not a skill. Advising customers to replace their out-of-warranty device because the repair is inconvenient to Apple, is dishonest. We need Right to Repair because Apple is neither equipped, nor motivated, to provide the service.
I think she was going in the right direction. I would have liked to see an expanded Apple store, with a comfortable dedicated space for creatives/students to work –– an aesthetically-pleasing computer lab, and a space free of the roar of blenders. Desks, lounge couches, greenery, an abundance of outlets and wireless chargers, etc. A cool setting beyond that of a library or cafe. As of right now though, it's still just a regular ol' store. You want to get in, get out.
Apple Stores are great as long as you don't need any help with product advice or service.
I try to spend as little time as possible in an Apple Store. I place pre-paid orders online for in store pickup. Even then, you still have to interface with at least two or three different employees.
Just wish they would adopt a Little Caesars Pizza Portal type package pickup so I can skip all the unnecessary interactions and waiting, but then they would not get the chance to up-sell me on extras I don't want or need.
I try to spend as little time as possible in an Apple Store. I place pre-paid orders online for in store pickup. Even then, you still have to interface with at least two or three different employees.
Just wish they would adopt a Little Caesars Pizza Portal type package pickup so I can skip all the unnecessary interactions and waiting, but then they would not get the chance to up-sell me on extras I don't want or need.
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There's that, although most people don't know more. But for me it's the cult like behaviour of the workers.
Personally, I always buy online and will only visit an Apple store if I want to look at a product or take something in to get fixed or replaced after AppleCare has expired.
How much did she get paid to sit silently for 6 months? I want that job.