Marketing of Apple - Research Paper Example

Running Head: MARKETING RESEARCH APPLE Marketing Research - Apple Apple has able to develop a highly reputable brand name over the past few decades. Technological innovations such as the iPhone and the iPod have allowed Apple to become a preferred product/service provider amongst consumers (Clark, 2007). In consideration of this increased market share that Apple has been able to acquire, Apple is faced with the challenge of making sure that its customer service infrastructure is adequately developed to address any and all concerns that its customers may have. Apple realizes this responsibility and recognizes it as a key element of its modern day marketing strategy (Apple, Inc., 2010). In order to address this area, Apple has made numerous developments that are directed towards facilitating consumers. The Apple store is one such significant innovation. Through the Apple Store, Apple has attempted to reach its customers directly while giving them a chance to interact with specially trained customer service representatives (Lohr, 2006). These Apple stores not only carry out customer service activities but also carry out sales support services for Apple’s consumers. Apple has hundreds of its stores spread out across the US, UK, Canada, Switzerland, Japan, France, Australia and other countries. Apple stores are known for their customer support staff that excels in the areas of assisting customers with their problems with Apple products and services (Apple, Inc., 2010). Furthermore, these stores are also known for the fact that they deal with customer queries pertaining to almost every problem that customers can have with Apple products. This not only allows the Apple store to serve as a customer facilitation center to function as a Sales Center. In contrast to the Apple store, the Apple website has been providing Apple users with customer care services for a longer period of time. This questionnaire was developed to carry out a research to determine which of the two customer support services had been more successful in providing Apple consumers with satisfactory and quality services. The Apple store houses different staff to entertain different requirements that consumers have. Examples of staff present at Apple stores include the concierge, expert and genius amongst others (Apple Inc., 2010). Each type of personnel is assigned a specific task with respect to customer service. Furthermore, the store makes use of techniques to invite consumers to an informal environment of customer care. The Genius Bar can be considered to be an example of how Apple has attempted to bring together customer care with a user-friendly method of interaction. In contrast to the Apple store, the Apple website has been in operation for a long time and has been serving the very same purpose for consumers (Free-Press-Release Inc., 2009). Apple consumers have been making use of the Apple website to acquire information about new Apple products and services. In addition, the Apple website has also been serving as a key sales point for Apple. It is therefore evident that both channels hold significant relevance in terms of Apples direct interaction with its consumers. The following paragraphs will provide a detailed elaboration of the survey questionnaire, the respondents, the findings and the inferences drawn from an analysis of the findings of the questionnaire. The Survey Questionnaire The purpose of the survey questionnaire was to develop a comprehensive insight into the perception that Apple customers have about the Apple store and the Apple website with regard to the effectiveness of customer care. The survey questionnaire was designed so that it was distributed in two sections. The first section dealt with customer perception of the In Store Customer Service while the second section dealt with the customer perception of the Online Customer Service that Apple has to offer. The questionnaire began by asking the respondents how often they visit the Apple store and then continuing the subject of the question by inquiring if the customer service at the Apple store has been friendly. The next question asked the survey participants if the staff present at the Apple store appeared to be suitably trained for customer service in terms of technical expertise and if the staff had been able to understand the problem. Having identified how the customer service at the Dell store had been in terms of their expertise and professional attributes, the questionnaire then moved on to identify how the staff had been in terms of functioning. This was done by asking the respondent about how long it had taken for the respondent to have his/her queries resolved. The questionnaire then invited the respondent to provide a brief but exploratory recommendation on how the service being provided by Apple can be improved. The next section in the questionnaire began by asking the respondent about the nature of the frequency with which he/she visits the Apple website for purposes of acquiring customer support. This was followed by a question that addressed the time it takes for the customer to have his/her query answered. To ensure a thorough analysis, the next stage was to establish whether or not the respondents problem had actually been resolved from making the call. The overall satisfaction that the respondent had experienced as a result of the call was established by identifying the level to which the customer had found the online customer to be of utility. The survey questionnaire came to a close by asking the respondent to provide recommendations on how the Apple online customer support system could be improved. The paper will attempt to elaborate how Apple’s customer service has become characterized by its website and how it needs to develop its store-based customer service infrastructure more. The Respondents A total of twenty respondents were contacted for the purpose of acquiring responses for the questionnaire. In alphabetical order, the participants in the survey constituted Ahmed Masaood, Ali Al Khan, Ali Taqi, Alyazya Al Suwaidi, Edward Macnamara, Humaid Masaood, Juliana Enoor, Maria Salha, May Yateem, Meryam Al Thani, Mohammed Shiekh, Nasser Al Suwaidi, Sara Al Jassim, Sara Smith, Shaun Johnson, Sofia Bellamine, Sonia Sing, Sultan jarala, Tahani Abbas and Trina Crawford. Nineteen of the respondents assisted in the research by filling out the questionnaire, however, one of the filled out questionnaire was observed to be unsuitable for incorporation in the study and therefore a total of eighteen filled out questionnaires were used. The respondents were all of different backgrounds but were users of Apple products. It was ensured that each of the respondents contacted had experienced the need to visit an Apple store or had made attempts to resolve the problem in question through the Apple website. Furthermore, the respondents were informed of the topic and objective of the research and were reassured that any information they provide would be used for the singular purpose of this questionnaire. They were given the right to anonymity if they chose to have their names kept confidential. A very important element to consider in the following paragraphs is that the responses given by the respondents in the case of open-ended questions were of a considerably raw nature; as if the respondents had tried to respond to the questions with a minimal use of sentences. Therefore, the findings that have been highlighted below were developed after careful consideration of the answers provided and it was through this careful consideration that the inferences were developed. In Store Customer Service In response to the question that sought to inquire upon how often the research participants visit the Apple store for the purpose of taking advantage of customer support, it was observed that a majority of the participants do not choose to make frequent visits to the Apple store. Most of the respondents answered in terms that were synonymous with rarely. Only a small share of the respondents asserted that they visit the Apple store often but none of them expressed a high frequency of going to the Apple store. The question was structured to be complimented with an open-ended answer in order to allow the respondents to express themselves The next few questions were designed to be closed-ended in nature since they required information that was definitive in nature. The respondents were asked if the customer support during their visit to the Apple store was of a friendly nature. In response to this question, nearly eighty percent of the respondents replied that the customer service was friendly during their visit to the Apple store. The next question took into account a more technical aspect of the customer support that Apple has to offer. The respondents were asked if they had observed the Apple staff to be knowledgeable and understanding during their visit to the Apple store. The observations acquired showed that almost ninety two percent of the respondents had found the staff at the Apple store staff to be knowledgeable while eight percent of the respondents expressed the inverse of this perception. The next question was one that sought to identify how long it had taken the available Apple customer support staff to solve the problem. The response structure for this question was kept open ended to allow the respondents to express themselves adequately. It was observed that the observations were mostly directed towards a somewhat satisfactory period of time. None of the participants were observed to be fully positive in response to this question and two of the participants even indicated that it had taken more than one trip to the Apple store to get their problem solved. The next question inquired from the survey respondents on how Apple can improve its service. The structure of the answer for this question was kept open ended to allow respondents to openly express their opinions. In response to this question, it was observed that the respondents wanted the Apple store staff to be more trained about the common problems into which consumers run into. Another response also indicated that consumers coming to Apple stores should be provided with temporary seating areas where they can wait while their problems are resolved. A unique area highlighted by the respondents with regard to how Apple can improve its services was observed to be one that addressed the placement of self-service kiosks in the Apple store. The respondent who gave this opinion expressed that his trip to the Apple store was most uncomfortable because he had to wait for numerous other customers to be dealt with first when all he wanted was some information. According to the respondents, Self-service kiosks could reduce the number of customers that the Apple staff has to handle directly. Online Customer Service The second section of the questionnaire was one in which the respondents were asked about their experience with Apples online customer service. The first question in this section sought to identify how often the respondents visit the Apple online website for the purpose of acquiring support and/or services. The respondents expressed that they frequently visit the Apple online website for the purpose of acquiring customer support. The next question was one that inquired upon the duration of time that the respondents had to wait before their call was answered when they called up Apples customer support. The answers in this regard were fairly uneven in nature since the share of respondents that expressed that their call had been answered almost immediately was almost equivalent to that expressed that their call had been answered after some waiting. The next question in the questionnaire inquired whether the participants problem had been solved. Nearly sixty percent of the respondents expressed that their problem had been solved while the remaining forty percent expressed that their problem had not been solved. The next question invited the respondents to rate the online customer service and solutions that they had been given for the issue. The respondents were provided with a scale of one to five for the purpose of this answer; in which selecting one implied that the service given to the respondents was very weak in terms of its effectiveness while selecting five implied that the service and solution provided by Apple online customer service was highly effective. The last question in this section and in the questionnaire as well was one that invited the respondents to express how they thought Apple could make its online customer support service better. In response to this question, the respondents primarily expressed that the Apple online customer support service is highly effective in nature. A very small minority of the respondents reflected a need for Apple to bring about a change in its online customer support service. Respondents such as these expressed that Apple should open up a virtual customer support center that functions on real-time through which customers can communicate directly with Apples customer support representatives. Inferences It was observed that Apples customer service in the area of online excels in comparison to Apples customer service as provided through the Apple store. Consumers are more prone to visit the Apple website as a first resort in cases where they require information about Apple products or run into a problem relating to their Apple products. The survey findings indicate that it has managed to acquire considerable control over the optimal functioning of its online customer support system but the Apple store still needs to be developed in order to ensure complete customer satisfaction. In light of the survey findings, possible strategies that Apple can adopt for the purpose of developing its store include those such as implementing new store-management techniques whereby customers walking into the store never have to feel that their time is being wasted. The survey findings showed that customers require service that is swift and effective in nature. None of the respondents took the idea of waiting for their turn to be a pleasant one. This signifies two aspects for Apple. The first aspect is that Apple needs to educate consumers more about its products and services in order to assist them in saving time when they run into problems. This can be done by publishing detailed, reader-friendly manuals, booklets, free multimedia based tutorials and the like. The second aspect is a highly interesting one since it calls for Apple to exercise a considerable degree of development in the area of customer care. It seeks to bring together the two elements that the survey questionnaire has attempted to provide a comparison between. The purpose of the proposition of coordination between the two departments is that it will enable Apple to address all the weaknesses in its customer support infrastructure that the survey questionnaire has brought forth. Conclusion The survey was conducted to ascertain the degree to which consumers are satisfied with the customer service provided by Apple stores in comparison to the Apple website. The questionnaire was designed to address both areas in a uniform approach towards each in order to ensure that a fair evaluation was performed. Furthermore, the survey questionnaire was designed to collect data from the consumers in order to get the consumer’s perspective of Apple’s customer support infrastructure. Apple needs to approach its consumers so that they only come to the Apple store when they have a serious problem at hand. The customer should consider the website as the primary place to approach Apple. While on the website, the customer can develop an account and present his/her problem. The automated customer support system can then evaluate the nature of the problem and can decide whether the problem merits being referred to an Apple store. In the event that it qualifies as too complex a problem to solve online, the automated system can then provide the customer with a query number that the customer can show when he/she goes to an Apple store. The Apple customer care representative will only have to enter the number into the networked system to instantly come up to speed with the customers problem and solve it without having to waste time on preliminaries. Such a solution can also prove to be extremely useful in cases where the customer is facing a problem that is of a highly delicate or complicated nature, the customers problem can then be forwarded to the Apple store or division that specializes in the subject area, thereby allowing the customer to save time by coming into contact with the relevant department directly. The survey questionnaire revealed that respondents consider the Apple website to be of considerably greater relevance than the Apple store when taken in account with regard to the nature of service. Consumers showed greater levels of satisfaction with their experiences from the Apple website. The observations made from the open ended responses revealed that this finding remained uniform in terms of the general perception that consumers developed with regard to problem solving as well as with regard to the availability of information. Reference Apple. (2010). Apple - Store List. Retrieved May 13, 2010, from http://www.apple.com/retail/storelist/ Apple Inc. (2010). Apple Store Fifth Avenue, Virtual Tour. Retrieved May 11, 2010, from Apple Store: http://www.apple.com/retail/vr/ Apple, Inc. (2010). Apple - Store List. Retrieved May 13, 2010, from http://www.apple.com/retail/storelist/ Clark, A. (2007, October 23). Apple reaps reward for runaway success of iPhone. Retrieved May 11, 2010, from The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/oct/23/apple.iphone Free-Press-Release Inc. (2009, October 29). Maintaining Great Customer Service: The Key to Success for One Online Retailer . Retrieved May 11, 2010, from http://www.free-press-release.com/news-maintaining-great-customer-service-the-key-to-success-for-one-online-retailer-1256848301.html Lohr, S. (2006, May 17). Apple, a Success at Stores, Bets Big on Fifth Avenue . Retrieved May 11, 2010, from The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/19/technology/19apple.html Read More