The Customer Service Survey
VocaLabs' weblog providing news and commentary on the challenges of providing good customer service.
Apple's new iPhone
Tuesday - January 09, 2007 02:27 PM in
The hot news in the tech world today was the introduction of Apple's new iPhone. With characteristic humility (or lack thereof), Steve Jobs introduced this gizmo as a revolutionary combination of mobile phone, music player, and "Internet communicator."
The iPhone looks cool, at least when demoed by Jobs on stage. It'll be almost six months before real people can get their hands on the thing, and it's an open question of how well the demo translates to reality. To be fair, Apple has an excellent track record the past few years of making things that not only demo well but also work when in the hands of consumers.
One point in the announcement caught my attention, though: it appears that Apple will be providing support for the phone, not Cingular. This despite the fact that Cingular is the exclusive U.S. carrier for the iPhone for the first several years. In other words, when you need help setting up your shiny new iPhone, you'll call Apple.
This is a very savvy move. One thing Apple understands better than most companies--and a big reason for its recent success in my humble opinion--is that customer service is an integral part of the whole customer experience. Bad customer service is like a phone which drops calls, or a computer which constantly needs to be rebooted: something which make the customer feel that he isn't getting a quality product of service.
Apple understands this and has built a reputation partly on stellar support. Most U.S. mobile phone carriers, on the other hand, don't. Cingular has not had a stellar time of it since the AT&T merger (though things have been improving lately), and by playing up the Apple hardware and support and downplaying the Cingular logo (you almost have to search to find Cingular's name anywhere on Apple's web pages about the iPhone), Apple is promising that iPhone customers will get the Apple experience, not the Cingular experience.
With the level of anticipation that's been building for this product, Apple probably could slap its logo on a piece of plexiglass and still sell a million units in the first three months. Part of the reason Apple has that kind of brand power is the level of attention to every detail the company pays to every part of the customer experience. The Apple logo means you're going to get a cool product which works--as compared to its competitors, which often sell plain products that don't work.
Apple's decision to support the iPhone itself means that the company is determined to maintain control of the complete customer experience, and make sure the Apple brand keeps its value.
In comparison....what's the Cingular brand worth? Verizon? Sprint? T-Mobile?
Posted by Peter Leppik
UPDATE: Oops, I was wrong.
One point in the announcement caught my attention, though: it appears that Apple will be providing support for the phone, not Cingular. This despite the fact that Cingular is the exclusive U.S. carrier for the iPhone for the first several years. In other words, when you need help setting up your shiny new iPhone, you'll call Apple.
This is a very savvy move. One thing Apple understands better than most companies--and a big reason for its recent success in my humble opinion--is that customer service is an integral part of the whole customer experience. Bad customer service is like a phone which drops calls, or a computer which constantly needs to be rebooted: something which make the customer feel that he isn't getting a quality product of service.
Apple understands this and has built a reputation partly on stellar support. Most U.S. mobile phone carriers, on the other hand, don't. Cingular has not had a stellar time of it since the AT&T merger (though things have been improving lately), and by playing up the Apple hardware and support and downplaying the Cingular logo (you almost have to search to find Cingular's name anywhere on Apple's web pages about the iPhone), Apple is promising that iPhone customers will get the Apple experience, not the Cingular experience.
With the level of anticipation that's been building for this product, Apple probably could slap its logo on a piece of plexiglass and still sell a million units in the first three months. Part of the reason Apple has that kind of brand power is the level of attention to every detail the company pays to every part of the customer experience. The Apple logo means you're going to get a cool product which works--as compared to its competitors, which often sell plain products that don't work.
Apple's decision to support the iPhone itself means that the company is determined to maintain control of the complete customer experience, and make sure the Apple brand keeps its value.
In comparison....what's the Cingular brand worth? Verizon? Sprint? T-Mobile?
Posted by Peter Leppik
UPDATE: Oops, I was wrong.
Posted at 02:27 PM by | | | |