Customer Service: It Isn't Hard And Apple Does It Best

[Vincent Ferrari]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://ca.sys-con.com/node/1016492' target='_blank'>http://ca.sys-con.com/node/1016492</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"Apple beat Dell and HP in satisfaction with phone-based technical support, according to a study conducted by Vocal Laboratories Inc. (Vocalabs). In interviews conducted with 1,147 consumers immediately following a support call, 58% of Apple customers reported they were "Very Satisfied" with the call, compared to 46% of Dell customers and 43% of HP customers."</em></p><p><img height="305" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1246016662.usr18053.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" width="456" /></p><p>It's no mystery that Apple is very good at customer service.&nbsp; In fact, it's become de rigeur to see a study released that puts them at the top.&nbsp; I wasn't even going to post about their customer service again until I saw <a href="http://forums.thoughtsmedia.com/f379/2-more-tales-apple-customer-service-94251.html" target="_blank">a post in the forums from user Dyvim</a> who relates two excellent stories of Apple going above and beyond to make he and his wife happy.</p><p>I'm starting to wonder if the true story isn't so much that Apple goes so far to make its customers happy, but rather the question of why aren't PC makers as willing to do the same?&nbsp; I've dealt with HP and Dell support enough to know that if you don't have some leverage to threaten them into action, they won't bother with you.</p><p>Why is that?</p>

[Islanti]

I've dealt with HP and Dell support enough to know that if you don't have some leverage to threaten them into action, they won't bother with you.</p><p>Why is that?</p>

Due to the fierce competition in the PC marketplace there's little left to pay for customer service.

[Janak Parekh]

Due to the fierce competition in the PC marketplace there's little left to pay for customer service. Yup, that's my opinion on it as well. Apple would rather charge more and stay out of that competition and provide better service. That said, I wonder if a Windows OEM manufacturer could do the same thing.

--janak

[Vincent Ferrari]

Yup, that's my opinion on it as well. Apple would rather charge more and stay out of that competition and provide better service. That said, I wonder if a Windows OEM manufacturer could do the same thing.

--janak

Not if they wanted to survive!

This is why Microsoft's latest ad campaign makes me laugh. They're in a prolonged race to the bottom and in their constant desire to pitch windows-based machines as more affordable, they're not pointing out (and rightfully so, of course) the inherent sacrifices being made in that race.

Windows PCs are cheaper, but Apple tops them across the board when you need customer service. Think about that. I know we're a geeky crowd and self-fix most of the time, but what about those that aren't? If you had to give your mom a number to call to get her computer fixed, would you rather she call Toshiba, HP, or Dell? Or would you rather she called Apple?

I think based on survey after survey after survey that answer is becoming increasingly obvious.

[Janak Parekh]

If you had to give your mom a number to call to get her computer fixed, would you rather she call Toshiba, HP, or Dell? Or would you rather she called Apple? None of the above. I'd much rather she go see someone in person (e.g., Genius or other consultant). ;)

(That said, I end up doing tech support for my parents, who are tied to Windows. Oh well. At least my mom doesn't download anything, so her machine stays clean.)

--janak

[doogald]

I think that your headline is wrong; I think that customer service is hard, and that's why it is so unusual to find good customer service these days.

[Vincent Ferrari]

I think that your headline is wrong; I think that customer service is hard, and that's why it is so unusual to find good customer service these days.

I disagree. It's not hard, but it requires a few things:

1. You have to stop viewing it as a cost.
2. You have to really care about how those people represent your company.
3. You have to be willing to take a loss on occasion to make a customer happy and make them return.
4. You have to empower the people on the phone to make decisions so that they don't have to hide behind corporate "policy."

It's really not hard at all, but it requires a lot of control be lost and a lot of companies can't deal with that. The ones that do succeed. The ones that don't become Toshiba.

[doogald]

Having worked with people who provide excellent customer service (not in tech), trust me when I tell you - it is hard. Quite often you need to do what is not natural, quite often you deal with angry people who take anger out on you when you did nothing to deserve it, and quite often you need to tel people "no" - to know the few times when the customer is not right - and that, I really need to tell you, is the hardest part of all.

[Vincent Ferrari]

Having worked with people who provide excellent customer service (not in tech), trust me when I tell you - it is hard. Quite often you need to do what is not natural, quite often you deal with angry people who take anger out on you when you did nothing to deserve it, and quite often you need to tel people "no" - to know the few times when the customer is not right - and that, I really need to tell you, is the hardest part of all.

I've been in the wireless business for 12 years on the end of the business that the average customer doesn't see. I don't buy into the "it's hard" thing. It's hard when you have to fight against people above you who don't give you the authority to do the right thing, or when you have to cut through ten layers of management that give you conflicting information.

It's particularly hard when you don't educate your people or train them how to deal with situations and instead make them rely on stupid scripts and a customer service system that requires a field to be filled out whether or not it applies to that particular customer.

It's also hard when you hire people because they come cheap rather than because they have the personality to do a job where they may have someone really aggravated yelling at them on the other end of the phone.

The job itself isn't hard; companies make it much harder than it needs to be. Apple isn't doing anything the other companies aren't able to do on their own, they're just doing the things the other companies won't do.

[Sven Johannsen]

I disagree. It's not hard, but it requires a few things:.

1. You have to stop viewing it as a cost..Not sure how you do that. It is a cost, and a substantial one if you own the market, because the cost increases as you have more product in the market. Beyond that, how many PC models does Apple sell? A dozen? How many Dell, or HP? To keep many more customer service reps competent on many more sytems takes more CSRs and more training, and more pay.
2. You have to really care about how those people represent your company..Not being able to afford enough fully competent CSRs is not indicative of not caring. If you have to hire a lot more folks because of the volume, not because of shoddier product necessarily, but because of percentages of a greater base, you pay less, and you get what you pay for.
3. You have to be willing to take a loss on occasion to make a customer happy and make them return..That has happened to me on a number of occasions with Dell, and HP. (Never had an issue that required it with a Sony). I think it is unfortunate, but it seems dependeant on the CSR you get, and quite often, I'm convinced, on the customer's attitude. It does seem to be a fact of human nature that those who wish to pay the least for a product often seem the most beligerent when they get what they pay for.
4. You have to empower the people on the phone to make decisions so that they don't have to hide behind corporate "policy.".Well, yea, but if if your success puts you into the situation that to service all calls you need to go to a tiered support system, you can't have the lowest tier, minimum wage, read the trouble-shooting tree from the screen CSRs, handing out stuff willy-nilly. If your profit margin is low, then you have to sell a lot of sytems to make up for that one you give away for customer satisfaction. If on the other hand, you are making 200% profit on every box, you can afford to give one away now and again.

You are right though, good customer service isn't hard...if you have the money to spend on it, because it absolutely is a cost.

[Vincent Ferrari]

You are right though, good customer service isn't hard...if you have the money to spend on it, because it absolutely is a cost.

I don't remember saying it wasn't a cost. What I said was you can't view it as one, meaning you can't try and turn customer service into a profit center or rate its effectiveness based on how much it loses you.

Sure the bean counters need to know about the money, but customer service should not be constrained within a budget. Does that mean they should run wild? Hell's no. Most middle management dopes would become lunatics if that happened.

You can't make it profitable, so cutting corners, setting up horrific voice activated systems to keep people from reaching your employees, and restricting employees to questions and answers from a script (I called one time with a malfunctioning keyboard on my Dell Mini and they insisted on having me do Windows Update until there were no more updates just to prove that it wasn't a Windows Update issue. Has a keyboard problem ever been solved by using Windows Update?) may save you money in the long run, but they don't help your company.

And by the way, I don't know any company making a profit of 200%, although I reckon that was some kind of underhanded dig at Apple. If so, real original.

[Jason Dunn]

Uh...is it really brag-worthy that 58% of Apple customers were happy with the level of support? That's a 42% "failure" rate if you look at it another way. Dell coming in at 46% isn't so far behind. Maybe this would be brag-worthy if Apple was up in the 70% range, but a 12% spread isn't massive.

I think good customer service IS hard actually - if it was easy, everyone would be getting 90%+ on these types of surveys.