I am a mac user. I've been operating Sofcoast from my macbook pro 17 inch laptop off and on since I was a defense consultant several years ago.
Lots of people complain about Apple. I've even grumbled a little bit too from time to time because my experience with my mac until recently was more like an unhealthy relationship with a girlfriend. When things were good they were great! When they were bad, they were really bad... just listen to the Lucinda Williams song "Joy" from the Crazy Heart soundtrack (a great movie) and you'll get a "feel" for what I'm talking about.
"...you took my joy I want it bayack!"
The point is that over the past year my previous macbook has crashed on two separate occasions, the last time was a couple of weeks ago. The first time this happened, I took my mac to the Apple store and they fixed it and I restored my lost data from my time capsule (which is a killer product that I believe everyone needs). This time (and once again) Mr. Jobs and his team have taught me an enormously important lesson about product quality and customer experience. Over the past six months we've been focused on building the worlds first tactical inflatable wing. (check out this post to get some background).
Key Lessons learned from my recent experience with Apple.
- Building stuff for others to use every day is hard. Don't compromise.
- Customer experience creates (or destroys) value. Be careful.
Most recently, while I was in San Diego, I experienced the second episode with my old macbook. I took the computer to the Otay Ranch Apple Store in a panic. I showed up and gave them the computer to see what they could do. They told me they'd call me when they finished up the diagnostics. Long story short, I left my old macbook pro at the store, bought a new macbook pro that day, took it home, restored all of my data and was back up in about 20 hours with no data loss.
It gets better.
I got a call the next day from the Apple store manager. Apple decided to replace my old macbook pro with a new one (the one I purchased in a panic the day prior). They refunded my full purchase price minus a small fee. The Macbook Pro is a two thousand dollar computer. (a lot of money for an entrepreneur..)
What a harrowing and ultimately fantastic experience!
In a world where we're all connecting to each other through applications we download to our smart-phones or the content we generate and share on blog posts or social networks, the tools we interact with every day (for some every moment of the day) to connect with each other to help us access, share, connect or find information is now an embedded part of our social fabric. It's in our DNA. Everything we do has an experience connected with it that we can share with each other instantly through these tools.
The point is this: In 24 hours I went from singing the Lucinda Williams song, Joy, (..."you took my joy!"), from the Crazy Heart soundtrack to singing the song "How you like me now!" from the group, "The Heavy" album titled "The House that Dirt Built".I will never forget this.
I guess it's because I expected to simply be "stuck" with a lemon and the replacement costs. And I wasn't. Why? Because the store manager was empowered to "defend the brand". He didn't want an Apple customer to have a bad experience with an Apple product.
That's a customer experience to remember.
For me this is a profound (re)discovery.
How about you?
Have you ever chose to "defend the brand"?
If so, how? Why?
If not, why not?
Cheers,
John Surmont
Founding CEO
Sofcoast, Inc.
