It’s customer service that will determine if your customer will come back for more and not stop talking about you. I want to share this little true story with you.

Recently I took a 24inch desktop to Apple store in Chadstone for repair. Although the computer did not fail there were some messages coming up that the hard drive was on its way out. The computer was 5 years old and out of warranty.

As I was struggling carrying the computer from the carpark, about 50M from the Apple store I got a tap on the shoulder. “Can I take this for you” It was apple store employee in his blue T shirt coming back from his lunch break. It was a life saver! What a nice touch of customer service!

He took me to the Genius Bar looked up on the screen for my details and performed a check on the computer. It was indeed confirmed that there was a problem with the hard drive. He explained they could replace the drive but because it was out of warranty it would be just under $300 and will take about 3 days. Happy with that I left the computer there.

Two days later I got a call from the Apple workshop, Er we can’t replace the hard drive with the drive of the same capacity because it is superseded , is it Ok if we give you a bigger capacity drive (500GM instead of 250GB)? It will be the same price. Duh I thought why are you asking me, of course I will have bigger drive for the same price. But then I thought about it.

I was the customer and Apple was going to give me something else I was not expecting and even though it was going to be more valuable to me and infinitely better they were asking my permission. Why?

It was because I was the customer and I had the right to say yes or no. I was about the respect. What a nice touch of customer service!

A day after I got another call. Er sorry but we chipped the screen whilst repairing we have to get another one in,  sorry it will be another two days. OK I said , no big deal, it can happen to anyone.

Two days after I got a call. Sir, your computer is ready for pick up, and by the way, because we are late repairing it for you, there will be no charge.

I was blown away with customer service, I have been in business for over forty years and have never experienced anything like that, so forgive me for not being able to stop taking about it.

Would it not be nice if your builder was like that?

Would it not be nice if there were more apples in the world?