(Reuters)
Apple’s retail stores are among
the most successful in the country. And a large part of that success has
to do with the company’s vaunted Genius Bars and their blue-shirted
Geniuses. These are the people who do everything from restoring your
crashed MacBook Pro to repairing your busted iPhone.
But beneath their blue
shirts and name badges, they’re just regular guys. We recently sat down
with two Apple Geniuses, Greg and Tim — both used pseudonyms — to pick
their brains and see what it’s like being the public’s tech support
specialists.
Before we get started,
it’s important to note that these are just two Geniuses among many, and
they don’t represent the thoughts of every Genius out there. Now, on to
the good stuff.
“I just needed a job out of college.”
Greg: Initially,
I just needed a job out of college; Apple has great health benefits and
really solid pay for a young person who needs a job to land on their
feet after finishing college. I’ve only ever worked at the Genius Bar. I
don’t think I would have stayed at all if I were selling [products].
Sales aren’t really much of a motivator, you know? I think most techs at
Apple retail feel that way, too.
“Training is … lots of asking permission, being empathetic, and trying to align with people.”
Tim: When you
are a Genius, you are sent out to Apple corporate for three weeks of
training. The first week is basic troubleshooting. The second week is
all customer interactions, how you should talk to them and listen to
them. I think that’s the most important part. The third week is when you
fix devices.
Greg: Training
is much more focused on how to position information and ask questions.
There’s lots of asking permission, being empathetic, and trying to align
with people. So, you’re not just saying, “This is broken. It costs this
much to repair.”
“The Family Room Specialist role was the worst thing to happen to Apple.”
Tim: The Family
Room Specialist role [mobile device and creative specialists] was the
worst thing to happen to Apple. They are trained in house, usually by
reading pamphlets on iPads or the like, and then are thrown right on the
floor. As a result, the Family Room Specialists were either really good
at the technical side but couldn’t talk to customers, or they could
talk to customers and don’t know the technical side. So Family Room
Specialists might replace a perfectly good phone because they didn’t
know how to change a setting on it. The Family Room Specialists are
giving Geniuses a bad name.
“We had one crazy customer every single day.”
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