Apple Makes Changes to 'One to One' Program

[Mattie Num Nums]

I was told by a Genius once that since I'd bought my computer from Best Buy, Apple might not replace it if it were deemed defective. That made me less than happy.

Its a sad truth. Apple really truly only wants to help those that have bought from the Apple store. Its not a written law at Apple but it is one of those things where people that work at stores have so much pride/fanboyism that they look down on people who haven't purchased from Apple. Now this isn't true across the board and its not the will of Steve Jobs but as you can attest to... it happens.

 

[aristobrat]

As a former Genius I can tell you that we were extremely critical with Third Party providers and most of the time told a customer if a 3rd party provider fixed it to go back. This was pretty much company wide to.

I'm not sure how former you were, but as a former Specialist that spent too many hours working POS right next to the Genius Bar, the store I worked at never did that.

No matter where you purchased your Mac from, the Geniuses were always willing to help.

The only time they'd suggest someone go somewhere else was when it was an OOW repair that was expensive that some place like iResQ.com could do for cheaper.

 

[Mattie Num Nums]

it seems to be a great service for those who are buying a new mac, but not so good is you need this service, but already have a recent mac

Maybe someone who just bought Final Cut express for there 6 month old machine that would like to learn how to use it. Maybe someone who bought a Mac and was deployed to Iraq and came back a year later and wanted to learn how to use it.

 

[aristobrat]

I mainly agree but Apple has to resort to this kind of action? Seriously, most of the Apple stores open at 10am (in New England)...Apple couldn't open 1 hour early for these folks?

The store near me opens an hour earlier than the mall, solely for One to One training appointments.

Problem is, Monday thru Friday, most customers can't take advantage of that (as they're at their normal "day" jobs).

 

[Mattie Num Nums]

I'm not sure how former you were, but as a former Specialist that spent too many hours working POS right next to the Genius Bar, the store I worked at never did that.

No matter where you purchased your Mac from, the Geniuses were always willing to help.

The only time they'd suggest someone go somewhere else was when it was an OOW repair that was expensive that some place like iResQ.com could do for cheaper.

2003-2007

The store near me opens an hour earlier than the mall, solely for One to One training appointments.

yeah that is a company wide initiative.

All I am trying to say here is this. Not everyone wants to buy something else the day or the 14 days after they buy a computer. I think this is a bad move. If Apple doesn't have the resources for One-to-One (which it quite honestly has never had in the first place) it needs to change the actual structure within. Apple chose to remove the theaters from stores and to add more iPod/iPhone tables. Instead I think Apple needs to start thinking about things like customer retention and relations instead of just sell sell sell sell at the time of purchase. You can buy Applecare anytime within the first year of purchase, I think One-to-One should be the same as with any serve you purchase.

 

[aristobrat]

2003-2007

Cool. I was 2007-2009.

It was pretty unusual to sell a naked One-to-One where I worked.

Virtually all of them were sold with new computers, so I'm wondering really how many people this affects.

All I am trying to say here is this. Not everyone wants to buy something else the day or the 14 days after they buy a computer. I think this is a bad move. If Apple doesn't have the resources for One-to-One (which it quite honestly has never had in the first place) it needs to change the actual structure within. Apple chose to remove the theaters from stores and to add more iPod/iPhone tables. Instead I think Apple needs to start thinking about things like customer retention and relations instead of just sell sell sell sell at the time of purchase. You can buy Applecare anytime within the first year of purchase, I think One-to-One should be the same as with any serve you purchase.

I guess the point is that current customers were saying that the existing One-to-One program was simply not working. Net Promoter scores were sucking, specifically mentioning "availability of appts".

So you're Apple, and you need to make a change now.

What do you do when physical space is the issue?

Plan million dollar remodels for every single store? Really? 90% of their stores aren't flagship stores with theatres.

 

[britboyj]

I think this is a great idea.

My Mum no longer has to wait a week if she wants to keep learning something, she can book the very next available appointment.

I know a lot of people at the store she goes to have had it for YEARS and KNOW what they're doing, they just have an occasional question on a project for work and that's taking a Creative away from someone who's brand new to the OS.

She was also told as a "legacy" one to one member she can still renew.

The "group sessions" can be joined by anyone if they just show up apparently and if I want to learn Pages or iMovie I can always come to a free Workshop if I don't have a One to One. I've never had an Apple Employee (specialist, orange-dude, genius whoever I can grab) NOT try and do their best to answer questions on a program.

 

[diamond.g]

You have to admit, it does sound like a good opening for a 3rd party to step in and cover those that Apple isn't willing to cover.

 

[Mattie Num Nums]

Cool. I was 2007-2009.

It was pretty unusual to sell a naked One-to-One where I worked.

Virtually all of them were sold with new computers, so I'm wondering really how many people this affects.


I guess the point is that current customers were saying that the existing One-to-One program was simply not working. Net Promoter scores were sucking, specifically mentioning "availability of appts".

So you're Apple, and you need to make a change now.

What do you do why physical space is the issue?

Plan million dollar remodels for every single store? Really? 90% of their stores aren't flagship stores with theatres.

I used to sell One-to-One from the G-bar (at least 2-3 a day no joke). I was notorious for the amount of Procare I sold when Procare and One-to-One where the same.

I think One-to-One is a program that anyone including savy people can take advantage of. One-to-One is something that makes Apple special and solidified its culture of being friendly and helpful to any Mac user. Now its only for people that want to buy computers. Again a step backwards in the Apple culture I fell in love with and many others have. I think have a 1 year window is more than fair.

Cool. I was 2007-2009.

It was pretty unusual to sell a naked One-to-One where I worked.

Virtually all of them were sold with new computers, so I'm wondering really how many people this affects.


I guess the point is that current customers were saying that the existing One-to-One program was simply not working. Net Promoter scores were sucking, specifically mentioning "availability of appts".

So you're Apple, and you need to make a change now.

What do you do when physical space is the issue?

Plan million dollar remodels for every single store? Really? 90% of their stores aren't flagship stores with theatres.

Apple did a bad job planning stores. At my former store there was so much One-to-One going on people couldn't even play on the computer because a session was going on. They finally added a creative bar but it was literally a foot from our already small and crowded G-Bar. Apple is popular, they need to start thinking about either adding more stores of making there current A-B class stores bigger. Its tough to be an A- store in a 30 foot layout.

 

[pmpknetr21]

So, the ones who need it most are the people purchasing only from Apple?

No. But this is yet another way for Apple to distinguish themselves from 3rd party retailers. Wanna get the most from your Mac? Wanna use it for more than just iTunes, iPhoto and Safari? Buy it from the Apple Online Store or from an Apple brick and mortar store. That way you can take advantage of Apple training services as well.

Genius, man. Genius.

 

[leonstafford]

Maybe...

OS X is going to be released as open source enough to make it easy to install on non-Apple hardware... then like RedHat or SuSE, you get all the perks if you pay for it...

 

[ericinboston]

The store near me opens an hour earlier than the mall, solely for One to One training appointments.

Problem is, Monday thru Friday, most customers can't take advantage of that (as they're at their normal "day" jobs).

I'd have to disagree on the M-F stuff...a LOT of people work from home (like me)...a LOT of people can take 1/4 day off and go in late (just like I do for dentist or doctor visits).

All I'm saying is that Apple could have offered other alternatives and many have been discussed here. I'm looking at this from the point of view of a new (less than 60 days for example) Mac owner (regardless if they owned a Mac or PC prior to the new purchase). They want to transfer the stuff over but they are just not quite sure they can do it 100%.

You'd be surprised at how many people will pay $200 for data transfer. They're not dumb...they just find a lot of value in letting someone else do the work and have it guaranteed to be done right. Here's a funny example: I have moles in my yard this year...I've spent HOURS on the net and the phone talking with garden stores about how to get rid of them. I picked up the phone and some service is coming tomorrow for $295 that GUARANTEES they will rid my yard of moles for the remainder of 2009. I could go out, buy the traps, set the traps, check them daily, blah blah blah and pray that I did it all right...or... I could just let someone else do it. $300? Take my money, man. I have better things to do with my time in the summer.

 

[pmpknetr21]

why do you have to buy the mac from them? Personally setting up a mac is fun I love doing it!

It's more-so for the training services.

I agree with you, setting up a new Mac is a lot of fun.

 

[Mattie Num Nums]

No. But this is yet another way for Apple to distinguish themselves from 3rd party retailers. Wanna get the most from your Mac? Wanna use it for more than just iTunes, iPhoto and Safari? Buy it from the Apple Online Store or from an Apple brick and mortar store. That way you can take advantage of Apple training services as well.

Genius, man. Genius.

Very true. Again this is how Apple is trying to get all those straglers into the stores. Forget the Mom and Pop stores and come to the Apple Store. It makes perfect business sense, however, in the eyes of the consumer it seems very un-Apple if that makes any sense. Again let me stress my love for Apple. I just really am irritated by the way they are moving. When places like Best Buy are trying to become more customer centric Apple is becoming more Sales centric. Lets not forget the people from the 80's count just as much as the PC user who will never ever buy a mac but has an iPhone and Facebook App.

 

[iGary]

How ridiculous. Oh well. The one-to-one program has been stripped down from what it used to be anyway. It used to offer lots of training on Adobe software as well. I think it'll go away eventually.

I'm sorry, if you buy a Mac anywhere, you should be able to participate.

No it hasn't.

You still get an hour with a trainer, once a week for a year if you like, you get a full data migration (not just a folder on your desktop) from your old PC or Mac. You also get a "Meet your new Mac" session to go over your transfer and get you started. Best Buy charges $149 for a data transfer alone (without training).

Adobe products were never part of the program. If there was a person in house who could teach one of those products then they would do the best they can. The program was technically only for Apple software products.

Apple wants to promote the ownership experience at their stores (not Best Buy, Mac Mall, etc.), which is why the change was made. They want to control the ownership experience as much as possible so customers walk away happy.

Find me somewhere else where you can get trained for less than $2 a session.

 

[pmpknetr21]

From the AI article mentioned above:


Again, I fail to see how this would be a benefit to anyone.

Not entirely accurate. The Standard Care service did not do what the Personal set up does. Standard Care, specifically for data, only transfered one folder from the desktop of your old PC or Mac to the desktop of your new Mac. Personal Set Up as part of One to One allows for the store to put music in iTunes, pictures in iPhoto or Aperture, documents in the Documents folder, etc. The two are very different.

 

[aristobrat]

Apple did a bad job planning stores.

I guess I have to agree, as they're in a spot now where most stores can't meet the demand.

I'd have to disagree on the M-F stuff...a LOT of people work from home (like me)...a LOT of people can take 1/4 day off and go in late (just like I do for dentist or doctor visits).

I'm not saying that M-F during the day isn't busy .. it is. I'm simply saying that there's even more demand M-F after 5PM and weekends.

 

[pmpknetr21]

Well not everyone who buys a Mac knows how to transfer all of their stuff and set everything up. Everytime I walk into an Apple Store and I see those who are getting 1 to 1 help, it's always "older" people (30+ usually)

30+ is older? Wow. I'm glad you put me on to this. I was wondering why people looked at me funny walking down the street at the age of 32. Now I know: I'm archaic!

Wow, seriously? Doesn't "One to One" imply... one to one service? Not a "small group setting"?

Sorry, just had to point that out.

You still have that option. Now it comes with more than just One to One service.

 

[leekohler]

No it hasn't.

You still get an hour with a trainer, once a week for a year if you like, you get a full data migration (not just a folder on your desktop) from your old PC or Mac. You also get a "Meet your new Mac" session to go over your transfer and get you started. Best Buy charges $149 for a data transfer alone (without training).

Adobe products were never part of the program. If there was a person in house who could teach one of those products then they would do the best they can. The program was technically only for Apple software products.

Apple wants to promote the ownership experience at their stores (not Best Buy, Mac Mall, etc.), which is why the change was made. They want to control the ownership experience as much as possible so customers walk away happy.

Find me somewhere else where you can get trained for less than $2 a session.

iGary- yes it has. I was a one-to-one member back when they called it "Pro Care" in the early days of the program. It encompassed all Mac software and Adobe CS. They have definitely removed a lot of services since then. They were supposed to start including Flash and Dreamweaver once they became part of Adobe, but that obviously got killed.

 

[pmpknetr21]

That sucks. Ever since Steve has been off, Apple has been going down the drain. Well, so long macmall, i have to go spend an extra 500 bucks just to be ELIGIBLE for one to one and procare.

Don't kid yourself. Steve knows EXACTLY what's goin' on, cousin. Apple has to find ways to make themselves a better destination for Mac purchases, especially in this economy. This is one of those ways.

If you're worried about prices, find a college student to walk into the store with you and you'll get all sorts of discounts.

 

[ericinboston]

I'm not saying that M-F during the day isn't busy .. it is. I'm simply saying that there's even more demand M-F after 5PM and weekends. That's based on my experience of having recently worked at a store for two years.

yeah, I think we are in agreement, mainly.

I just think Apple coulda tried harder on this topic. Maybe they did...but they certainly didn't sugar coat the bad news...they coulda said "after 16 months of hiring 83% more staff while sales shot up 400%, we just realize there are only so many hours in a day and there is no method to meet this demand. Therefore, we need to limit the demand...and we did not want to raise prices"

 

[leekohler]

30+ is older? Wow. I'm glad you put me on to this. I was wondering why people looked at me funny walking down the street at the age of 32. Now I know: I'm archaic!

I'm 42 and I've been doing all my own repairs etc, for a very long time.

 

[pmpknetr21]

Personally, I think this stinks. I've been toying with the idea of doing 1:1 since I got my first mac (a mac pro) back in September 2006 but just haven't gotten around to it largely because I have a MP and I like the idea of being able to bring in your computer and work on it as opposed to a training machine they have in the store. So, I recently bought a MBP (in April) at Best Buy for my business mainly because I could get 18 month interest free financing. It renewed my interest in 1:1 since I have a mobile computer but under this new policy, I'm locked out both because of where I got the machine and because I didn't buy 1:1 at the time of purchase.

I wonder if this policy is only for purchases of new Macs going forward or if it's retroactive? Anyone know?

It's not retroactive. That I know for sure.

 

[aristobrat]

iGary- yes it has. I was a one-to-one member back when they called it "Pro Care" in the early days of the program. It encompassed all Mac software and Adobe CS. They have definitely removed a lot of services since then. They were supposed to start including Flash and Dreamweaver once they became part of Adobe, but that obviously got killed.

Lee, any chance you took One to One at a flagship store in Chicago? Maybe they were different.

Even when it was "Pro Care", the store I worked at never officially trained on Adobe.

It was like Gary said, ... if a Creative happened to know the product, they'd do the best they could, but that was it. No guarantees.

 

[pmpknetr21]

IMO, the One to One program doesn't physically scale.

Most One-to-One customers can only do their sessions "after work", which means either on weekends, or after 5PM on weekdays. So what happens is that you have a huge amount of customers trying to reserve a relatively few amount of training sessions. End result is that many One-to-One customers feel that they wasted their money on the program, as they're lucky if they can get one session a month.

As for the physically scaling part, ... the Apple Store I worked in was good about promoting more employees into Creatives as the customer demand grew, but it's to the point now that on weekends, they're doing so many simultaneous One-to-One sessions that they're forced to use computers on the sales floor (because all of the spots at the Creative Table are filled). They'll even use the handicapped-accessible table that pulls out from the Genius Bar to do sessions some days. They're out of physical space.

They could easily have the staff to do 50 simultaneous One-to-One sessions. There's just no room to do it.

Anyhow, it's crazy. I think the overall idea of the service is great, but if you can't get a session, or if your session is going to be on the sales floor (where it's so distractingly busy and noisy), it doesn't live up to Apple's promise.

Well said.