Pretty much dead on. Looks like you worked at Apple around 2007-2008. The Promoters/Detractors thing came around right as Personal Shopping and EZ Pay was introduced.
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Apple Retail Store Employee on Product Launches, Store Culture, and Customers
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Pretty much dead on. Looks like you worked at Apple around 2007-2008. The Promoters/Detractors thing came around right as Personal Shopping and EZ Pay was introduced.
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You could copy and paste most of these stories for any retail outlet. It's a demoralizing line of work.
You could copy and paste most of these stories for any retail outlet. It's a demoralizing line of work.
I bet not... at least no more than most companies. Friends I know at Apple love it. Of course, every job has it's ups and downs and sometimes you get put with a bad manager and life is not fun. But again... that happens at most large companies and even small ones.
You just make some wild assumptions.
I left around that time, I worked for a few years before then. I hated those Microsoft Pay systems, they were HUGE and weighed down our pants lol. Plus we had to cover up the MS logo yet some customers would notice it.
You worked for Apple? Would love to hear your stories. Sorry for the LONG post, but man I have a lot of stories I could tell.
Oh, and then there were the "secret shoppers". Hired by Apple pretending to be customers to report and rate the store and individual employees.
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I left Apple Retail mid-last year. The final nail in the coffin? Attach rate, attach rate... bloody attach rate. Every SINGLE meeting each and ever time there was one, was about how great everything is going but how we need to constantly improve MobileMe and One to One. AppleCare seemed to always get dismissed even though it was clearly the highest cost. But if you think about it, that was also probably the least profitable. Our GR was always filled with repair so I can see why this was.
The company itself was great to work for. I still have lots of friends that work there and I visit every so often. I miss it at times but the added pressure each day to hit your numbers and have your little cards on you to keep track just became a bore and took the fun away... Not to mention the sheets in the back (MTD numbers & %'s) that you had to always be able to recite to whichever manager wanted to know at any given time for whatever reason.
The company itself was great to work for. I still have lots of friends that work there and I visit every so often. I miss it at times but the added pressure each day to hit your numbers and have your little cards on you to keep track just became a bore and took the fun away... Not to mention the sheets in the back (MTD numbers & %'s) that you had to always be able to recite to whichever manager wanted to know at any given time for whatever reason.
I think that every single person should spend some time working in retail (whether it's at Apple or McDonald's, it really doesn't matter). You learn a lot about dealing with annoying and demanding customers and hopefully the experience helps you not to be one
I worked in a hardware retail store (Canadian Tire) one summer a few years ago. The sense of entitlement some people had was just ridiculous. They expect you to be complete product experts whilst simultaneously looking down on you because you make minimum wage instead of earning the mega bucks as a business executive like them. Hey guess what? You can't have it both ways. Overall it was fun though, I learned a lot, and find myself having a lot more sympathy for store workers now than I used to (and, conversely, I can tell the difference between someone who's trying but having difficulty versus someone who really should know better).
+1
Roughly 10 years ago I used to work at Circuit City and people would get literally upset if they found out you didn't have a degree in computer science yet were selling a computer. Sorry, but if I had a computer science degree I wouldn't be working at Circuit City.
People have the super false assumption that a sales person should know everything about what they are selling but it doesn't work that way. The sales people are not given products to take home, or compensated for their time playing with it and learning every nuance of it, they simply know what the tech jargon means and read of the tag/box. Occasionally employees would get some kind of training on some new fad feature but thats about it. And honestly, this is to be COMPLETELY expected for someone only making ~$8 an hour. Anyone who expects something more is only fooling themselves.
Circuit City had it right back when I worked there, the sales people were on commission so we had to know a lot more about the products because returned sales cost us money. Many people used to shop at our store because a lot of us did know the ins and outs of every major item we sold and could explain it very well. Sadly Circuit City did away with commission and fired the best sales people they had, which was the beginning of the end of that store.
Apple is by far the worst. All you have to do is to attend their interviews and see the fanboys/fangirls who want to work there. I went to two rounds of interviews and I have never seen so much fanboyism in the prospect employees. I swear to god some people would want to work for Apple for free; all they want in return is free Apple products.
They are usually the ones who don't get hired!
Sounds grim. At least working for John Lewis we aren't trained to be robots like Apple employees. Nor are our sales judged highly. And if someone asks about a new iPad etc, I'll just admit that one is expected this year, dishonesty goes nowhere.
It's so tempting to say something catty about this, but I don't think I even have to.
We all got the cue...
The new ATT is no better. Everybody I know who works at the little Satellite/converted Centennial stores is working on 2 out of 3 admin write-ups for not meeting quota. Funny thing thought is most of the managers are getting moved to the flagship stores. Corporate appears keen on closing all the good stores and leaving the dumbsticks behind.
I left around that time, I worked for a few years before then. I hated those Microsoft Pay systems, they were HUGE and weighed down our pants lol. Plus we had to cover up the MS logo yet some customers would notice it.
You worked for Apple? Would love to hear your stories. Sorry for the LONG post, but man I have a lot of stories I could tell.
I worked for 4 years. 3 years before the iPhone age and a year after. Man things changed so fast.
One to One is the main focus at the moment. 40% is the target. Applecare is quite an easy and is important to buy too.
There need to be targets for employees otherwise they would be lazy and too no work and not approach customers. Targets believe it or not, motivate most customers.
Its an easy job though, make no mistake. The level of pay is high for such a low skilled job.
How about an article on what it is like to be a customer at an Apple store... I think it might be worse than being an employee most of the time.
The store here in OKC is about the size of a shoebox and is usually stuffed to the rafters with people - going in there reminds me of being in the locker room in junior high. There are way too many people in way too small a space, and someone ALWAYS smells of body odor.
When you FINALLY get the attention of an employee, you have a 1 in 4 chance of getting someone who can help you without patronizing you. The other 75% of the time, you have to deal with someone who is "super nice" and wants to shake your hand and tell you the reason your iPhone doesn't make calls is because you need to close multitasking apps every single time you use them, or some other total BS answer that the average iPhone user would believe. (This is a really common answer these days at my local store. I have been told this is the issue on my phone when I took it in -- of course, it wasn't. Then my boss got fed the same line for a problem on their phone -- but they didn't know any better and left. Yay, going back to the store is so fun! Even worse... I was recently with a friend with a 3GS running OS 3.2 who was having issues with their touchscreen no longer working, and the "helpful" employee immediately told them it was from the multitasking apps that they needed to close. Really? When I jumped in and said that A) it didn't have multitasking apps and B) that wouldn't be the issue anyway with something like this, the super "helpful" employee gave me a disgusting look and smiled and said she would do us a favor and swap out the phone, but for us to know that they were only doing it because I clearly wanted that. Really? Thank you so much.)
Oh - did you want to buy something? Good luck. The greasy haired people are really busy answering stupid questions for the gaggle of 12 year olds "considering" purchasing an iPad or the 100 old people who are there for One to One with their Tangerine iMac and iMovie 2.0.
Need a Genius Bar appointment? Well, OK, I can't complain too much about that. The staff at the bar have always done a good job of actually fixing what is broken. But some of them are real greasy and annoying as well, or will argue that they're doing you a favor when the fact of the matter is the item failed under warranty. One of the guys at our local store has so many Apple icons tatoo'd on his arms that I would NOT be surprised if he told me his water bottle was full of Steve Jobs' piss. I'm all for liking Apple products, but there is more to life folks.
So yeah, I don't have a lot of pity for the guy who wrote this article about his super fun experiences as an Apple employee.
The store here in OKC is about the size of a shoebox and is usually stuffed to the rafters with people - going in there reminds me of being in the locker room in junior high. There are way too many people in way too small a space, and someone ALWAYS smells of body odor.
When you FINALLY get the attention of an employee, you have a 1 in 4 chance of getting someone who can help you without patronizing you. The other 75% of the time, you have to deal with someone who is "super nice" and wants to shake your hand and tell you the reason your iPhone doesn't make calls is because you need to close multitasking apps every single time you use them, or some other total BS answer that the average iPhone user would believe. (This is a really common answer these days at my local store. I have been told this is the issue on my phone when I took it in -- of course, it wasn't. Then my boss got fed the same line for a problem on their phone -- but they didn't know any better and left. Yay, going back to the store is so fun! Even worse... I was recently with a friend with a 3GS running OS 3.2 who was having issues with their touchscreen no longer working, and the "helpful" employee immediately told them it was from the multitasking apps that they needed to close. Really? When I jumped in and said that A) it didn't have multitasking apps and B) that wouldn't be the issue anyway with something like this, the super "helpful" employee gave me a disgusting look and smiled and said she would do us a favor and swap out the phone, but for us to know that they were only doing it because I clearly wanted that. Really? Thank you so much.)
Oh - did you want to buy something? Good luck. The greasy haired people are really busy answering stupid questions for the gaggle of 12 year olds "considering" purchasing an iPad or the 100 old people who are there for One to One with their Tangerine iMac and iMovie 2.0.
Need a Genius Bar appointment? Well, OK, I can't complain too much about that. The staff at the bar have always done a good job of actually fixing what is broken. But some of them are real greasy and annoying as well, or will argue that they're doing you a favor when the fact of the matter is the item failed under warranty. One of the guys at our local store has so many Apple icons tatoo'd on his arms that I would NOT be surprised if he told me his water bottle was full of Steve Jobs' piss. I'm all for liking Apple products, but there is more to life folks.
So yeah, I don't have a lot of pity for the guy who wrote this article about his super fun experiences as an Apple employee.
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Haha, I still work there and I know just what you're talking about.
They put me in Hardware -- at the time, I knew practically nothing about power tools or plumbing or anything, but they assured me that I'd be trained on all I needed to know using their little PowerPoint training programs. (Of course, once I realized that I was being paid the same hourly rate to train as I was helping people on the floor, I did as much training as I could...!)
I worked at Canadian Tire to make extra dollars while working on a Master's degree in computer engineering. Prior to that, I had worked at a particular software company as an engineer. One day, an employee of that company came into the store. He was wearing a shirt with the company logo on it. So I said "Oh, hey, you work at ___!" The guy looked at me like he was thinking "Yeah, right, like some minimum wage loser like YOU could ever hope to know anything about my company or what we do".
I think that was one of those realization moments when you learn not to judge people by what you see.
Yep Ron Johnson is doing such an awful job isn't he! They only have the highest revenue per square foot in the world.
We worked in parallel years. Everything changed. First the switch from PowerPC to Intel chips, increasing workstation PowerMac then Mac Pro prices with Xeon server processors. The iPhone was/is great but Apple left OS X and true desktop systems for the average consumer (Apple becoming Apple Electronics, Inc. should have been the first hint). It gained them billions, but killed it for the professionals who used Apple for their careers, knew about computer tech and were respectful.
Walk into any Apple store now. It's filled with families and yelling/uncontrollable kids, impatient diva's and nose picking iDevice testers forcing Apple to give my friends who still work there anti-bacterial hand gel. lol
GREAT! I'm happy for Apple. You're missing the point. The numbers are great, but we were discussing being employees during the Intel then iPhone/iOS introductions and the negative implications as a result. Apple sold one of the highest rated CCFL LCD line and PowerMacG4/5 systems resulting in many dedicated professionals such as Annie Leibovitz using only Apple products. Aside from bankruptcy as her partner Susan was suffering from cancer and NYS/Federal Government doesn't recognize gay marriage, which cost her millions in healthcare and Annie millions in estate taxes when Susan died, Annie has become an endorser of HP products as Apple left their high end quality lineup for mediocre iDevices and the ITMS.
It may have garnered them billions, but at what cost? Jobs stated the desktop isn't dead, but based on Apple's product history as of late, I wouldn't bet on Apple focusing much on desktop/server systems. XServe, Shake, a dedicated display lineup, no 10.7 Developer Beta's, no OpenGL 3.0+, no dedicated 64-bit apps as iLife et all is still 32-bit, no Resolution Independence, no mid-tower system for professionals who cannot afford or do not need the power of a Xeon Server processor, less focus on new tech such as Light Peak, USB 3.0, SATA III - and heavy focus on iOS, iPhone's, iPad's and the ITMS dominating and tying this all into one closed ecosystem. Sure, the closed system may work, but ironically Apple has become the 1984 commercial they claimed not to be.
…FYI this isn't "complaining" and there are MANY Apple owners who are disappointed in the direction Apple has taken with regard to Prosumers. We have no issue with iPhones and iPads, I love mine. That doesn't mean Apple has to completely drop the Prosumer line, even going as far as to move OS X programmers to the iOS platform. So again, I'm psyched this has done well for Apple but they're making their money on iDevices and portables, and left the sect that supported them when they were faltering company.
Where are the professionals such as myself who use Final Cut Pro, Aperture, etc. going to go when Apple finally decides to retire the Mac Pro after the XServe? Most of us have already left for Windows systems and are using AVID and Adobe CS5. Apple may not care, YOU may not care, but a lot of us do.
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Terrible strategy for Apple to use isn't it! Has only made them the second most valuable company in the world.
Their aren't your company, so stop thinking they should release products you like. They are a business and want to maximise profit and thankfully they do it by making great, innovate products.
In mine and my colleagues experience, it is certainly the best retail job we've ever had.
My mates can't believe what I get paid!
Being a former Apple Employee myself I can tell you that Apple stores place a lot of time and energy into creating the best customer "experience", while those in charge close the doors and talk mostly about the store's sales. Selling Apple products is easy, but the add-ons are what they really want you to focus on. Each add-on is measured daily and running counts are posted for all employees to see. Although it would never hold up in court, those who didn't perform well in add-on sales were much more likely to lose their jobs when a "new batch" of employees came along.
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