Apple Introduces Major Retail Changes, Including New Pro-Level Positions and Credo

[Medic311]

Last two visits to an Apple Store to have the misaligned front facing camera addressed, they always jump straight to the SIM card tray moisture sensor. Saw them do the same thing with other people at my table with issues completely unrelated to what symptoms of water damage would be. This one guy said he just updated to the new iOS and it bricked his phone and now he can't restore it (has the iTunes logo and the cable displayed). His moisture indicator was pink/red and they denied to help him restore his iPhone bc of that despite being within the 1 yr warranty...all bc of that stupid moisture sensor strategically placed near the opening by Apple so they can deny repairs.

I don't care what titles they want to give to these Apple Store techs, they've been trained to specifically look for ways to deny providing support / repairs. As far as I'm concerned, they can be called Master ******s. It's never been this bad and sadly it's getting worse. After the 2nd screen replacement to address the misaligned front facing camera on my iPhone 6, I noticed the screen wasn't seated all the way down flush. I made another appointment and the tech tried to milk me for an "accidental damage" deductible claiming I caused the damage. When I informed the girl that this screen had just been replaced last week by this same store, she didn't want to hear it and said I need to pay the deductible. Had to get a manager involved who also tried to get me to pay. Claimed "her store's techs" always double check their repairs yada-yada. Finally she agreed to fix the issue they caused and then made a snarky comment of "next screen issue, you're gonna have to pay the deductible" lmfao. I went in for the camera issue and they caused the screen issue with a shoddy repair job.

Apple Stores have gone to crap for support. They could call their techs God for all I care, that wouldn't fix a thing

 

[nuckinfutz]

Expert and Pro simply mean the employee is good at selling Apple Care. Don't go in with expectations that employees holding these titles are some All-knowing Mac superstars.

 

[BigDO]

Enriching lives.

We are here to enrich lives.
To help dreamers become doers,
to help passion expand human potential,
to do the best work of our lives.

AT OUR BEST

We give more than we take.
From the planet,
to the person beside us.
We become a place to belong
where everyone is welcome.
Everyone.

We draw strength from our differences.
From background and perspective
to collaboration and debate.
We are open.

We redefine expectations.
First for ourselves, then for the world.
Because we’re a little crazy.
Because “good enough” isn’t.
Because what we do says who we are.

We find courage.
To try and to fail,
to learn and to grow,
to figure out what’s next,
to imagine the unimaginable,
to do it all over again tomorrow.

AT OUR CORE

We believe our soul is our people.
People who recognize themselves
in each other.
People who shine a spotlight
only to stand outside it.
People who work to leave this world better than they found it.
People who live to enrich lives.

Crazy religious cult status: Achieved.

 

[Arthur75]

And all this to sell totally outdated hardware ?
Get those Skylake MBPs out Apple !!

 

[charlituna]

Apple uses its power to insure the company stays fat and happy off minimum wage employees.

Except Apple employees have always made over minimum wage. It's part of why they are so damn selective.
[doublepost=1471802746][/doublepost]

I'm sure glad they're spending all this time and effort on these extremely critical restructures and poems instead of those wretched MacBooks.

Cause the engineers and software folks are the ones that dreamt up this schtick

 

[wizard]

The problem is, "better" means so many different things to so many different people.

Better these days means in our world view! Unfortunately that world view is pretty hideous with the current people in power.

Decades ago, I abandoned my goal of leaving this world a 'better' place. Because it finally dawned on me how arrogant I was to think my definition of 'better' would be the same as everyone else's.

Exactly!

Now, I simply want to leave everything as I found it. Give the next generation the same chances and resources I had and let them decide what they want to do with it all.

Yes tread lightly.

In any event this highlights a common issue with modern corporations, they push these credos, mission statements or whatever onto employees and expect them to be taken seriously. In the end employees just end up LMAO. This non sense has become a joke in the corporate world and frankly there are many other "credos" that are just as hideous out there, Apple isn't unique here at all.

Frankly I believe simple is better and something like "Do right for our customers" would be all that is needed. Simple and too the point is easy for anybody with half a brain to understand, both employee and customer.

On the other hand I'm not sure why people are whining about the new grade levels. A screen replacement in an iPhone shouldn't demand an advanced technical degree. I wouldn't be surprised to find that the new positions are the result of employee feed back from the Genius Bar. Think about it, would somebody qualified to be working as a Genius want to be doing simple repairs all day.

 

[BraytonAK]

…

 

[Mac 128]

Wow, everyone is a "specialist," a "pro," or an "expert!"

I would think it'd be more empowering to work with fewer job titles, rather than more. For instance: Customer Service - Sales; Customer Service - Genius; Customer Service - Operations. That should cover everyone. All these job position divisions just make it all the more likely that it's someone else's job to do what should be done at the moment.

"Oh, wait, I'm not the Expert Pro-Specialist that is supposed to help you. But let me go find the person with the correct job title and see how long the wait will be for you to speak with that person."

I think it just doesn't make for an inclusive environment of teamwork.

I can just imagine it now - 'Isn't there a "Pro" I can speak with? I afraid your "specialists", "experts" and "geniuses" just aren't cutting it. I have a "Pro" problem!'

 

[freediverx]

To be fair, some of the new names for their sections do make more sense--not that I'll ever remember any of them. My problem with the store employees is that a lot of them don't seem to be given enough training on the new products. It seems a bit anachronistic now in this age of super accurate leaks to keep employees in the dark about new products right up to the day of retail release.

Overall I like the attitudes of the employees I have interacted with. They are enthusiastic and make the effort to help. It is a shame that everything I've read about how they provide retail employees with upward mobility and retention basically sucks, pardon my language.

And nothing is going to help the seemingly persistent problem of Apple not having the released products in stock and having clearly embarrassed employees be forced to tell customers to go order online or wait and try back some other time or worse, go to another store in another freaking state. Yeesh. I hope Angela reams someone a new one to fix that problem.

There's nothing necessarily wrong with the position name changes. But adding new intermediate positions smacks of salary-limiting tactics, while that credo is extremely creepy and off-putting. The only thing that could make it worse would me some religious or patriotic references.

 

[charlituna]

Last two visits to an Apple Store to

I'm curious. Was it the same store? Is that the store all your visits are to. Cause I'm in LA and go to several stores there and no one acts like that. Although I imagine that liquid could cause damage to the logic board that might make it short out during a restore so that one is at least a little logical. But the rest, nope. Heck I've had my sim tray sensor pink and they said it was only an issue if they found liquid or rust etc while doing the repair.

 

[5105973]

There's nothing necessarily wrong with the position name changes. But adding new intermediate positions smacks of salary-limiting tactics while that credo is extremely creepy and off-putting. The only thing that could make it worse would me some religious or patriotic references.

I agree. I was referring to changes of the sections of the stores.

 

[62tele]

Wow, just when I was thinking that Apple couldn't innovate anymore, they give us something spectacular like this.
It creates the same excitement that it did in my workplace when management changed the culture by renaming employees as "associates".
Bravo. Apple, you still got it!

 

[BraytonAK]

…

 

[charlituna]

I would think it'd be more empowering to work with fewer job titles, rather than more. For instance: Customer Service - Sales; Customer Service - Genius; Customer Service - Operations. That should cover everyone. All these job position divisions just make it all the more likely that it's someone else's job to do what should be done at the moment.

"Oh, wait, I'm not the Expert Pro-Specialist that is supposed to help you. But let me go find the person with the correct job title and see how long the wait will be for you to speak with that person."

I think it just doesn't make for an inclusive environment of teamwork.

Well heck if you want to simply, just call them staff. Train everyone to do everything and dump the divisions etc.
[doublepost=1471803299][/doublepost]

Wow, just when I was thinking that Apple couldn't innovate anymore, they give us something spectacular like this.
It creates the same excitement that it did in my workplace when management changed the culture by renaming employees as "associates".
Bravo. Apple, you still got it!

To be fair this is clearly internal stuff never meant to be known by sites like this

 

[Bubba Satori]

A credo for worshiping deified iGizmos kinda makes sense.
Will they have prayer chapels in the Apple Temple?
Get Taylor Swift to chant the credo every hour to crack the whip on the minimum wage 'executives'.
Can I hear an amen?

 

[jasonklee]

Apple, with great admiration, please, don't make your retail ops seem more important than they are. You sell overpriced gimmicks, from the stupid original iPod (yes, I was a naysayer and I'm still proud and I'm still right) to the stupid iWatch crap. We want OLED and a bigger battery, not this Heaven's Gate cult propaganda.

 

[guzhogi]

I work in IT, and am so glad I don't work in retail like this or the Geek Squad at Best Buy. I prefer working in a place where I see the same people, work on the same equipment. This way, I know what works, what doesn't, make suggestions on how to improve, etc.

Also, Apple hasn't really updated its Mac hardware line in a while. Sure, CPU is important and I get how one big release is more exciting than a bunch of smaller ones. But Macs haven't really been updated in more than a year it seems like, and there have been updates in other hardware areas like SSDs, video cards, ThunderBolt, etc. Adding to that, Apple started fragmenting the iOS line, too. With the 9.7" and 12.9" iPad Pros having fairly different innards, the iPad Mini not getting the Pro treatment, having the iPhone 6, 6s & SE, not to mention Plus versions. It's not as bad as Android or the Mac line in the 90's before Steve Jobs' return, but it's getting there. Whatever happened to simplicity in the lineup?

Also, in terms of upgrading/maintenance, all Apple hardware pretty much sucks. I get the appeal of skinny, but when you have to pay over a hundred bucks just because someone tore off a key on on a MacBook, or totally replace an iPhone because it dropped out of your pocket, not good.

 

[5105973]

Last two visits to an Apple Store to have the misaligned front facing camera addressed, they always jump straight to the SIM card tray moisture sensor. Saw them do the same thing with other people at my table with issues completely unrelated to what symptoms of water damage would be. This one guy said he just updated to the new iOS and it bricked his phone and now he can't restore it (has the iTunes logo and the cable displayed). His moisture indicator was pink/red and they denied to help him restore his iPhone bc of that despite being within the 1 yr warranty...all bc of that stupid moisture sensor strategically placed near the opening by Apple so they can deny repairs.

I don't care what titles they want to give to these Apple Store techs, they've been trained to specifically look for ways to deny providing support / repairs. As far as I'm concerned, they can be called Master ******s. It's never been this bad and sadly it's getting worse. After the 2nd screen replacement to address the misaligned front facing camera on my iPhone 6, I noticed the screen wasn't seated all the way down flush. I made another appointment and the tech tried to milk me for an "accidental damage" deductible claiming I caused the damage. When I informed the girl that this screen had just been replaced last week by this same store, she didn't want to hear it and said I need to pay the deductible. Had to get a manager involved who also tried to get me to pay. Claimed "her store's techs" always double check their repairs yada-yada. Finally she agreed to fix the issue they caused and then made a snarky comment of "next screen issue, you're gonna have to pay the deductible" lmfao. I went in for the camera issue and they caused the screen issue with a shoddy repair job.

Apple Stores have gone to crap for support. They could call their techs God for all I care, that wouldn't fix a thing

Whattttttt? Whoa. Really? I hope my store doesn't start acting like that. I've only needed service once for a broken screen and their equipment was down so I had to wait for almost two weeks for an offsite repair. I was not happy about that but I was reasonable about it.

Anyway I hope they are not going the way of Samsung. Samsung is supposedly trying to bring their customer service levels up to better compete with Apple. I will believe that when I see that. But Apple better not be dropping to reach the lowest common denominator. Part of the reason my husband and I've paid the premium on Apple products all these years was for their customer service and their higher than industry average build quality.

 

[nuckinfutz]

And all this to sell totally outdated hardware ?
Get those Skylake MBPs out Apple !!

I think you mean Kaby Lake

 

[niun]

Whatever happened to the good ol' credo,

We find courage.
To sell old tech that people don't need it at a price they can't afford.
to push Apple care
to solder everything
to upsell, upsell, upsell!
to do it all over again tomorrow.

 

[BraytonAK]

…

 

[ditzil]

Wow, everyone is a "specialist," a "pro," or an "expert!"

I would think it'd be more empowering to work with fewer job titles, rather than more. For instance: Customer Service - Sales; Customer Service - Genius; Customer Service - Operations. That should cover everyone. All these job position divisions just make it all the more likely that it's someone else's job to do what should be done at the moment.

"Oh, wait, I'm not the Expert Pro-Specialist that is supposed to help you. But let me go find the person with the correct job title and see how long the wait will be for you to speak with that person."

I think it just doesn't make for an inclusive environment of teamwork.

Not sure what people expect. Apple is the only tech company looking out for all people as evidenced by their stance against invading our privacy. Give them a break.

 

[Jesse McCarthy]

Jobs: "customers don’t form their opinions on quality from marketing..." Either do employees. I really miss Steve Jobs. Little talk; lots of talent.

 

[AppleFan91]

Ugh. That credo is just cringe-inducing. I seriously would have preferred, "we make things to sell them for money". Rather than this long pile of corporate vomit about "changing the world". Just gross.

 

[ElRojito]

The genius position seems to be getting phased out. They seem to be slowly taking their position and spreading it to the lower level employees. The only difference now is that a genius can do Mac repairs, which could be easily sent out, removing the need for that position.

It's also sad that the employees that have the most passion and experience seem to be getting the boot.