Hall of Fame: How Folks At Apple Support Turned Me Into An Apple Advocate!

An Apple Customer Becomes an Advocate Due to Apple Support

Until recently I was merely a customer of Apple. That changed over the last two weeks. How so? I ran into a problem and had to reach out to Apple Support to get that problem addressed.  That problem was addressed in a way that leaves me with a delightful experience – one that calls forth a smile and gratitude.

What Calls Forth Customer Loyalty / Advocacy?

Before, I tell you about my experience I want to address the matter of customer loyalty. How do you turn a mere customer into a loyal customer and advocate?  I don’t know as I suspect that it depends on the concrete (flesh and blood) customer.  I can tell you how the folks at Apple Support turned me into a loyal customer and advocate:

1. You make it easy for the customer to get through to you when that customer needs you;
2. You staff the front line with human beings (not bots) who embody the human touch and are technically competent;
3. You put in policies-practices-tools that encourage/enable your people to sit side by side with your customers and together address the matters that matter to your customer;
4. You make sure that the customer feels that you have made his problem (job to be done) yours and that s/he is safe in your hands;
5. You don’t leave your customer’s side until you have gotten him/her to his/her desired destination – which is almost always a desired outcome; and
6. You convey the impression that it has been a pleasure helping the customer in a way that the customer gets (at an experiential level) your pleasure

How The Folks At Apple Support Turned Me Into An Advocate

I own two Apple products: MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air.  My daughter is the one who is the heavy user of the MacBook Air and so I hadn’t used it for months. When I did use it I noticed that there was an opportunity to update the operating system to the latest version. So I went for it.  Something went wrong and the MacBook Air ‘died’.

When my daughter found out she was not at all happy. Why? Because she had important homework on it. Homework that had to be handed in the following day. Suddenly, it became both important and urgent to get the MacBook Air working again. This is when I noticed fear taking root. Why so? Because I was thinking something like this: “The MacBook is 5 years old. Will Apple help me?  I don’t see any reason why Apple should help me out with a 5 year old product. There is no warranty in place…”

I googled “Apple Support” and after two clicks ended up here: Contact – Apple Support.  What is the statement / promise Apple makes? “We’re here to help”. Is it an empty promise? No.  Look at the webpage! It invites you the customer to “Talk to us” – that is exactly what I did.

Almost immediately I found myself listening to a friendly male voice. He helped me to find the serial number. With the serial number he knew it was a 2012 MacBook Air. Then he told me how to reset it.  I initiated the process and noted that that computer was telling me it was going to take hours downloading operating system over the internet. So I thanked the young man and told him I was ok to take this forward. The Apple Support chap told me that he had logged my case, ‘gave’ me the case number, and asked me to quote that case number just in case I needed to call back.  He showed up as pleasant, knowledgeable, and helpful.  I felt gratitude.

A day later, I found myself on the phone to Apple Support. Why? The laptop had been downloading software for hours and then just hung up when it got to “40% remaining”.  This time I found myself talking with Danae. She detected my concern (given that the laptop had my daughters homework) and responded beautifully: she told me that it was not an issue and that she would help me to get the MacBook Air working. It was the tone of her voice – a combination of human warmth, confidence in what she was asserting, and her commitment to her promise.

Then she set about keeping her promise.  Whilst she was helping me I asked about her and learned that she is Greek. We talked a little about Greece given that I had been reading Adults in the Room by Yanis Varoufakis (ex Finance Minister of Greece), and have positive experience of Greek people. With the reset process in operation again I noticed that the laptop was telling me it was going to take hours. I told Danae of this. It is her response that floored me. Why? She made it plain that she was by my side, continued  to own the problem, and would see it through to the end.  She followed up the verbal promise with this email (I have replaced numbers with *):

This time the download process completed to the end. The latest operating system was installed and the MacBook Air was operational. A fact that was a great relief to me and a delight to my daughter.  I wrote back to Danae:

Hello Danae

I so enjoyed talking with you this morning – feel blessed that our paths crossed today.

Thank you for being a beautiful person – in a world that shows up an mostly inhuman it is soul filling to come across such as you.

I want you to know that you have helped me to fix my problem.

The MacBook Air is up and running and I know that this will please my 17 year old daughter who is never far from it.  She will especially welcome getting here homework back – so that she does not need to redo it!

I shall be writing about the GREAT folks at Apple Support and especially you.  Keep a tab on this blog here:  www.thecustomerblog.co.uk

How to end?  I wish you and your loved ones the very best. Also, is it possible to keep in touch perhaps through LinkedIn?

This is the reply I received:

Richard Shapiro in The Welcomer’s Edge stresses the critical importance of Welcomers – customers, to the business, by cultivating loyalty through genuine heartfelt service.  I am clear that Danae is a Welcomer!

I am also clear that the folks in leadership positions are the ones that create the context/space for Welcomers like Danae to show up as Welcomers. Great support does not happen by accident.  Great support flows from a certain kind of customer philosophy: take care of your customers and your customers will take care of you. This kind of philosophy requires a long term orientation and faith in the decency of human beings.  Few, of those that I have encountered, in leadership positions embody this orientation, this faith.

So I offer my thanks and gratitude to the folks at Apple – those in Apple Support, and those who in leadership positions who enable Apple Support to provide great support.

I dedicate this conversation to Danae Panagopoulou – I am grateful that she exists for it makes this world that much more beautiful with her in it.

Enough for today.  I thank you for your listening and wish you the very best. Until the next time….