Ron Johnson developed the concept for Apple’s retail stores, and he has a new book out about it. Today, he hosted an AMA on Reddit, and … well, let’s just say Ron and I disagree on how consumers want stores to work.
While the store is highly organized the traffic to the store is generally high which can make finding help difficult for customers. Apple employees are trained to observe customers and greet each with a warm welcome and request to help. While it may take a moment for this interaction to happen this is how we help customers. The alternative is to create a store based on appointments and first come first serve. Unfortunately, customers strongly dislike this type of service. Think DMV.
People do not hate the DMV because there are appointments and first-come, first-serve visits. People hate the DMV because it’s (sometimes) inefficient and slow, with surly staff, and they often want you to have filled in incomprehensible paperwork.
People like Apple Stores because Apple sells cool stuff. People get frustrated at Apple Stores because it can take some time to get attention, and many of us are told to stand and wait in specific spots that make you fear you’ve been forgotten. The stores are decidedly weirder than they have to be.
