Apple Prepping Genius Bar Changes: Focus on Shorter Wait Times, Multitasking, Overnight Repairs

[IlluminatedSage]

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I do not like the idea of sacrificing while you wait repairs for more overnight repairs. The trip to the store is a big time waster for many ppl. Once I have to make a second trip anyway, an extra day is no big deal. But I might feel differently if I ran a business on my Mac.

yeah they tried to get me to do an overnight repair, when all i needed was a new power adapter to replace the one that went bad. the main idea is to take the issue and table it into the back room. ie, get the line reduced and remove the pressure from it.

 

[iVoid]

Multitasking - I hope they don't use the iPhone's idea of multitasking, otherwise you'll have genises that can only finish current tasks or play audio in the background.

 

[ValSalva]

Anything to help the Apple store experience would be very welcome. I hate going to my local Apple store; it's a zoo.

 

[drober30]

Apple has grown tremendously and they need to expand accordingly by hiring more qualified professionals.

Apple will lose their reputation of excellence if they lose touch with their customers.

 

[milbournosphere]

I hope they're getting raises.

+1. Complain at the Geniuses all you want, but at the end of the day they work in Customer Service, which can be (and most often is) a bitch. I've done it, and working in such an environment shows you just how rude and mean people can be. I don't care what they're getting paid; they deserve more.

 

[Voytech]

When a GPU got fried on our MacPro at work, I really needed to bring it back to life the same day. I called local Apple stores and to my surprise they:

• Declined to state if they have any replacement stock (apparently their policy is to never disclose inventory)
• Declined to sell me one over the counter UNLESS I hauled in the tower with me for diagnosis, despite the fact that I had already diagnosed the issue on the phone with an AppleCare tech

Needless to say, I lugged the machine to the store, only to find out, they didn't have a card that worked with my machine. I almost flipped.

I ended up calling Microcenter, from the Apple Store, and checked that their Apple department had the card I wanted. The genius was listening to my conversation the whole time and I was looking right at him.

I am NEVER coming back to Apple Stores for business stuff. Sorry. iPods, phones etc... no problem.

 

[ghostface147]

These people are heavily underpaid. They may not be CCIE certified or some advanced superuser, but I have had good experiences with them. I have even walked in the First Colony Mall Apple Store and got my battery replaced under warranty without an appointment.

I would never work in that environment for less than 40k, which is what they start at. They need to have dedicated iPod/iPhone/Mac support staff. If they do that now, they aren't doing a good job. Too many hats to wear.

 

[BeyondtheTech]

My doctor's office double and triple-books their appoints and multitask. Can't say I enjoy my doctor's visits to begin with, but when they do that, it makes the entire experience that much worse.

Looks like Genius Bar will end up being Mediocre Bar.

 

[ihaveNFC]

My doctor's office double and triple-books their appoints and multitask. Can't say I enjoy my doctor's visits to begin with, but when they do that, it makes the entire experience that much worse.

Looks like Genius Bar will end up being Mediocre Bar.

Excellent point. I'm curious to know how many ppl book an online reservation and don't show up. Maybe that's the reason why they've opted for this?

When a GPU got fried on our MacPro at work, I really needed to bring it back to life the same day. I called local Apple stores and to my surprise they:

• Declined to state if they have any replacement stock (apparently their policy is to never disclose inventory)
• Declined to sell me one over the counter UNLESS I hauled in the tower with me for diagnosis, despite the fact that I had already diagnosed the issue on the phone with an AppleCare tech

Needless to say, I lugged the machine to the store, only to find out, they didn't have a card that worked with my machine. I almost flipped.

I ended up calling Microcenter, from the Apple Store, and checked that their Apple department had the card I wanted. The genius was listening to my conversation the whole time and I was looking right at him.

I am NEVER coming back to Apple Stores for business stuff. Sorry. iPods, phones etc... no problem.

Maybe they were out of stock? How old was your system?

 

[Jeremy1026]

Were you able to enter the details of what you did to troubleshoot it onto your reservation so the Genius had them, or did you just walk in?

We put the information into the comments section, though I don't think the genius looked at it, because he was asking me everything that was done, and I was pretty much re-writing the additional comments part of the reservation.

 

[ferrous]

Overdue upgrade to the Genius Bar

Having just returned (yesterday) from a Genius Bar, helping with the dreaded problems on my iphone 4's, the scenario was the same as the previous times: wait 40 minutes passed the alloted time, being rushed, and finally replaced iphones. In previous times, my name was kicked off the list, and trying to catch one of those "roving salesman" is like hitting a lottery jockpot. They're always busy.

Great job on the forthcoming changes.

 

[TennisandMusic]

+1. Complain at the Geniuses all you want, but at the end of the day they work in Customer Service, which can be (and most often is) a bitch. I've done it, and working in such an environment shows you just how rude and mean people can be. I don't care what they're getting paid; they deserve more.

No, they don't. Working retail is unskilled labor. I did it for two years when I was in high school/early college. I did a good job because I was always friendly with customers, even when they were practically threatening me because they couldn't return a beat up game with no box (worked at Software Etc., now Gamestop), but I never in a million years thought I "deserved" more pay because customers can be a pain.

You know who else can be a pain? Coworkers. Bosses. You get paid based on how rare your skills are. Working retail is about the lowest on the totem poll that you can get. So there you go...

 

[yg17]

The negativity of some posts here aer incredible. If you don't like Apple products, get the hell out of here!

There's no rule here that says you have to like all Apple products, or any Apple products to be here

I don't like the iPhone and iOS, yet I have 2 Macs and I like them. Where do I fit in?

 

[kernkraft]

Again, when it comes to multitasking, Apple failed to understand the customers' needs. It seems that this sytem only saves Apple Inc time and money on the expense of making customers wait during an appointment. You book an appointment and will find that the ten or fifteen minutes is nowhere enough to have your problems rectified as the Genius only spent a fraction of the time dealing with you. What's next? Call centre direct line in the Genius Bar?! Genius!

 

[ihaveNFC]

There's no rule here that says you have to like all Apple products, or any Apple products to be here

I don't like the iPhone and iOS, yet I have 2 Macs and I like them. Where do I fit in?

Purgatory?

 

[budselectjr]

This is just basic queueing theory. It's pretty interesting stuff on how long people will wait given how and when they are interacted with.

 

[BLOND37]

well we just got multi tasking on the phones LOL so now it the stores lol.. also i like the idea. before all this - a few months ago - i needed some thing quick fixed and even though i had an appt a genius took me during a down moment from another appt (think he had to restore os for them) so while waiting..

 

[Voytech]

Excellent point. I'm curious to know how many ppl book an online reservation and don't show up. Maybe that's the reason why they've opted for this?

I have to think it's a big percentage... 20% maybe? But they already dealt with that issue. On another occasion, I was literally 5 minutes late to my appointment and it was immediately filled with a walk in customer. I wasn't mad because I was late, and the next appointment was in 15 minutes.

Maybe they were out of stock? How old was your system?

It's a late 2008 MacPro 8-core and that situation happened a year ago in August.

 

[BC2009]

What They Should Focus On Is Fixing The Antenna!

Not every thread needs to be about the iPhone-4.

 

[Whaditis]

There's no rule here that says you have to like all Apple products, or any Apple products to be here

I don't like the iPhone and iOS, yet I have 2 Macs and I like them. Where do I fit in?

Exactly

 

[AR15MBP]

Yet another example of a corporation taking advantage of the terrible job market to squeeze every last drop of productivity from it's employees.

 

[Eidorian]

Yet another example of a corporation taking advantage of the terrible job market to squeeze every last drop of productivity from it's employees.

It'll look good next quarter for the shareholders.

 

[gfoster610]

Another ex-Apple employee Genius chiming in.

First, as far as the multitasking, when I was there in 2004, we were already doing this. There was an appointment system, but not like what it is now. We generally took a few customers at a time, and there was never a time when a customer felt like I wasn't giving their issue it's full attention.

Second, if I was still working for them and read this, I'd be looking for a new job. The genii at the store are already overworked and underpaid. Now, they're talking about making them stay to work later hours to get repairs done. That doesn't sound good.

Also, while I was there I noticed a shift in how they were dealing with the Genius position. While I was there, we had quite a few sales people who were interested in advancing to the Genius position. While I don't have a problem with people wanting to move forward in their career, it should always be based on knowledge and skill set. Many of the people that I had to help train were not fit for the position. Not only did they not have the right temperament, but they also did not have the technical background to be considered likely candidates.

When I went through the interview process, it was three interviews. You had to meet with multiple sets of managers for the first and second interviews, and then you had to pass a technical interview. This was to make sure that people with right background were hired. When they started this whole promote from within idea, I can tell you, it left a bad taste in many of the fellow Genii mouths that I worked with.

Back in the day when the stores first opened, people were paid based on their level of knowledge and experience. So, Genii got paid rather well. Then, Apple decided to bring in some "experienced" retail people to corporate. That's when the changes started to happen in the stores, and they weren't for the better.

The problem with the stores and how Apple is handling them is this. They need to pay their people well, and treat them like the corporate employees. Until they do that, they are going to continue to have a high turnover rate in all positions, especially the Genius position, and will see a degradation in customer satisfaction.

 

[BC2009]

In response to this Google has decided to launch the Genius Support Forum. In this forum Google representatives will simultaneously ignore 10 or more questions concurrently while additional non-Google users post replies saying "Yeah, this happens to me to, does anybody know how to fix it?"

Google feels that this level of multi-tasking far exceeds Apple's Genius Bar.

 

[HLdan]

A company trying to set up their stores so the customer can have a better experience and faster service and these annoying MR members are complaining? Good thing for me there are other places I can surf on the web to avoid some of these people here.