I am impressed. Now after spending years in customer service and developing CRM applications, I have to admit that I am impressed at the moment with Apple. Let me start at the beginning. Until recently I had not had a big need for folder actions in OS X. Well, the other day I had the perfect workflow. After processing a file I wanted to place it in a folder, then once a new item was placed in the folder, it would be moved to another folder on the NAS. So – pretty simple for a folder action huh? When a new file arrives in folder A – move it to Folder B.
That’s when the fun started.
So following Apple documentation I created a workflow in Automator. Tested it – it did what it was supposed to. So then I went to attach it as a plug-in for a Folder Action. I could not get it to fire when a new item was added.
So I went online to figure it out. Found some hints. None of the solutions worked for me. So I thought that after being an OS X user for the last two years I would finally use the Apple Genius Bar. I made an appointment, and described my problem on line. When I showed up for my appoint 3 min late, I was seen right away. So after describing my problem. the guy very apologetically says that Apple Scripts and Folder Actions are not his area of expertise. I quickly learned that the two guys who could help me were not here or with another customer. Soon my 15 mins were up and he had to get to the next appointment. I agreed I would go online to discussion.apple and post a question/look for answers there (which I had already done). So I went away a bit unsatisfied with my first Apple Genius experience.
Later that day I get a email survey from apple asking me about my experience. So I was honest. Gave them high marks on most things. I did mark them down for paring me with a Genius that was not qualified for the problem I was experiencing.
So now we come to today… 4 days later. I get a voice mail from a manager at the Apple Store. I called her back, and we talked about my survey. She was very apologetic, set me up with a “real” Genius.
The whole point of this story is, as a consumer, if I had had trouble say writing a BAT file in windows — where could I get this kind of service or help without spending hours combing online forums or spending money on a service? This is customer service. Granted it would have been better if my problem was fixed the first time. The fact that there is a process in place that actually pays attention to my survey answers and action is taken on them – well that’s the way it should be. We know that all too often survey answers end up in a report that at the end of the quarter that says “…customer satisfaction is down… maybe we should look into this …”. This is customer service done right.
I realize that as I become more and more familiar with Apple as an organization and as a developer of software that all I start to understand some of the fan boy mentality surrounding it.
