Massucci’s Take: Placed my order at Wendy’s — and got a new iPhone

Author: admin

27 Aug

With a broken iPhone 3G in my pocket, I was standing in line at Wendy’s and spotted someone using his iPhone, just ahead of me in line. I showed him my iPhone’s cracked screen and cautioned him to get a case for his.

The guy, it turned out, works at an Apple (AAPL) Store Genius Bar. He sees broken screens often, he said, and he told me that wet or cracked iPhones fall outside of Apple’s coverage protection. It costs $200 to replace such phones, he said. Nevertheless, before we parted ways — and, significantly, before he learned that I was a reporter — he invited me to stop by the Genius Bar, where he’d see if he could replace the iPhone, at no charge.

“It’s not about charging, it’s about the service,” the staffer told me later. (His manager requested that he remain anonymous.) “It’s about letting people know they can get this kind of help. It’s up to us to use common sense and make smart decisions. That’s the cool thing about the job.”

“You want to free your people up to make beneficial decisions for the parties involved,” says Patricia Edwards, analyst and founder of Storehouse Partners in Bellevue, Washington. “That is the type of environment you want to inspire, if you want to have the reputation for fabulous customer service.”

Is it realistic to expect tech companies to offer a level of service similar to Nordstrom (JWN), or Ritz-Carlton? Well, why not? Apple comes the closest to delivering such service, although that service is inconsistent. (Writing on Salon.com, Amanda Forini said she’d “rather not deal” with smug, aloof Genius Bar staffers.) “It can be like going to your doctor’s office and waiting,” Edwards says. Yet for tech consumers, the Genius Bar is one of the few places that offers reliable customer service. Next >>