I have some thoughts on the Apple Watch and the retail experience when buying/selling one. Disclaimer: I am not an Apple employee.
1. The watch distracts from knowledge of Apple. The Specialist role has been demeaned by the customer watch try-on process. What I mean by this is a Specialist used to be about knowing Apple products inside and out. Not just about the computers, but convincing you why you needed to buy a new copy of Mac OS X. Why buying a Mac is worth it for owning an iPod. What iMovie and iDVD could do. I remember when a Specialist needed to explain to me the differences between Tiger and Leopard, etc. Now they can't even tell you that HFS+ is the file system. All of these detail oriented processes and knowledge-based interactions with Specialists have now become 100% dumbed down. This trend is going to get worse when a Specialist now spends 50% of his or her time simply helping a rich person try on a Watch instead of knowing the details of every product. It would be like a BMW salesperson only knowing about the Z4 instead of the M5.
2. The "try-on" experience is dehumanizing. Where the Specialist role used to be about sharing the experience of Apple, it's now about helping rich people try on jewelry. I watched an interaction at my local store, and the specialist looked like a full on servant/steward when helping an old man put it on. He literally put the Watch around the man's wrist. When did working at Apple become being a peon? Something intangible about that put a nasty taste in my mouth. I had a fleeting thought of Bob Cratchit and Scrooge. Of course Apple has always been expensive, but Specialists were never forced to lose their dignity.
3. Apple is not incentivizing Specialists to care about the Apple Watch. This is happening because despite the Watch needing a purpose to sell, and Specialists needing to convince you why to get one, many of them won't own one themselves. Why? They simply aren't paid enough. And Apple is only giving a 50% discount. How are your Specialists supposed to care about selling something they can't enjoy themselves? It really irks me that Apple simply assumes that a couple of hours of training is all it takes to launch this product that is entirely new in both category and interface and design. Specialists not being able to afford the watch adds to the servant feeling by the way.
4. The joy of launches is gone, because launches are gone. I understand Angela is new, but I cannot support the way the new MacBook and Watch launches were handled. What is the point of opening 500+ stores in the US when you aren't going to launch your products in them? How are your employees supposed to actually enjoy the Apple Watch when they aren't going through the most exciting times of the role? Any Specialist will tell you that the time you enjoy the most is a launch. That has been taken away from them on top of everything else.
tldr: Specialists are now underpaid servants that handle jewelry they can't afford to help rich people and don't even get to enjoy a launch when doing it.
1. The watch distracts from knowledge of Apple. The Specialist role has been demeaned by the customer watch try-on process. What I mean by this is a Specialist used to be about knowing Apple products inside and out. Not just about the computers, but convincing you why you needed to buy a new copy of Mac OS X. Why buying a Mac is worth it for owning an iPod. What iMovie and iDVD could do. I remember when a Specialist needed to explain to me the differences between Tiger and Leopard, etc. Now they can't even tell you that HFS+ is the file system. All of these detail oriented processes and knowledge-based interactions with Specialists have now become 100% dumbed down. This trend is going to get worse when a Specialist now spends 50% of his or her time simply helping a rich person try on a Watch instead of knowing the details of every product. It would be like a BMW salesperson only knowing about the Z4 instead of the M5.
2. The "try-on" experience is dehumanizing. Where the Specialist role used to be about sharing the experience of Apple, it's now about helping rich people try on jewelry. I watched an interaction at my local store, and the specialist looked like a full on servant/steward when helping an old man put it on. He literally put the Watch around the man's wrist. When did working at Apple become being a peon? Something intangible about that put a nasty taste in my mouth. I had a fleeting thought of Bob Cratchit and Scrooge. Of course Apple has always been expensive, but Specialists were never forced to lose their dignity.
3. Apple is not incentivizing Specialists to care about the Apple Watch. This is happening because despite the Watch needing a purpose to sell, and Specialists needing to convince you why to get one, many of them won't own one themselves. Why? They simply aren't paid enough. And Apple is only giving a 50% discount. How are your Specialists supposed to care about selling something they can't enjoy themselves? It really irks me that Apple simply assumes that a couple of hours of training is all it takes to launch this product that is entirely new in both category and interface and design. Specialists not being able to afford the watch adds to the servant feeling by the way.
4. The joy of launches is gone, because launches are gone. I understand Angela is new, but I cannot support the way the new MacBook and Watch launches were handled. What is the point of opening 500+ stores in the US when you aren't going to launch your products in them? How are your employees supposed to actually enjoy the Apple Watch when they aren't going through the most exciting times of the role? Any Specialist will tell you that the time you enjoy the most is a launch. That has been taken away from them on top of everything else.
tldr: Specialists are now underpaid servants that handle jewelry they can't afford to help rich people and don't even get to enjoy a launch when doing it.
