Customer service as a value driver
Apple Inc. is one of the largest publicly owned corporations in the United States. Apple products are known far and wide for their good quality though critics have tried to point out at the high pricings of Apple products(Apple Inc., 2015). Regardless, Apple still has numerous customers in many parts of the world. One of the reasons for this is their excellent customer service.
One of the major value drivers for Apple is customer service. Many times, tech companies concentrate more on the specifications of their products and forget about customer service(Scholar, Johnson, & Singer, 2012). Customer service is of great importance to the brand and for Apple particularly it has made it stand out from other tech companies(Grippi, 2012). In the J.D power list of the top 60 companies in customer service in 2014 the only tech companies that made it to the list were Apple and Amazon(Jobs et al., 2013).
One of the ways that Apple has created great customer service is by having retail stores all over the world where its products are sold(Lazonick, Mazzucato, & Tulum, 2013). In fact, the idea behind extending its retail network was to offer great customer service. When a customer needs a product repair all they have to do is book an appointment to an apple store, the booking enables you to choose the specific day and tie you will take your product to the store(Tan, 2013).
Within 5 minutes of getting into the store on the due date of your appointment you are already seated and receiving service from a professional. Products usually take about 3 to 5 days to be repaired depending on the nature of the problem. Having retail stores alleviates shipping time and hustles of products(Schwartz, 2014). It also provides a one on one experience with the brand and gives Apple a chance to create brand loyalty through the services they provide(Kerr, 2014). Customer service is an important and influential value driver in any company and should not be ignored.
References
Apple Inc. (2015). Business Conduct The way we do business worldwide. New York: Sage.
Grippi, B. (2012). Apple inc. California: Apple inc.
Jobs, C., Jobs, S., Sculley, J., Amelio, G., Sculley, J., Sculley, A., Europe, A. (2013). Exhibit 1A: Apple Leadership (19832011), 1983, 1–21.
Kerr, J. (n.d.). FY 2015 % Revenue per Segment. New York: Sage Publishers.
Lazonick, W., Mazzucato, M., & Tulum, Ö. (2013). Apple ’ s changing business model : What should the world ’ s richest company do with all those profits ? Accounting Forum, 37(4), 249–267.
Scholar, M. D., Johnson, K., & Singer, J. (2012). The Innovative Success that is Apple , Inc . sc. Marshall Digital Scholar, 1(1), 1–43.
Schwartz, C. (2014). Apple Inc. Management, 2(1), 1–26.
Tan, J. (2013). A Strategic Analysis of Apple Computer Inc . & Recommendations for the Future Direction. Management Science and Engineering, 7(2), 94–103.
