A picture is emerging from an IFO on-line survey of Apple’s retail stores, reflecting the typical customer service axiom that one mistreated customer shouts louder than 10 satisfied customers. Based on an average of store rankings for seven performance measures, along with submitted comments from responders, the St. John’s Town Center and Regent Street stores are ranked among the lowest, while highest scores went to the King of Prussia, Country Club Plaza and Millenia stores.
So far 191 surveys have been submitted, representing 103 different stores in the chain of 173. Among all the survey, 68 respondents accompanied their rankings with written comments. A store’s ranking is the average of seven performance measures, taking into account that not everyone provided a score for each measure. [Check the survey for the performance measures.]
Of those stores for which three or more surveys were submitted, the St. John’s Town Center store ranked the lowest, with a 2.87 score out of a total of 5.0, with five surveys submitted. Written comments seemed to bear out the ranking, with one person complaining of bad Genius Bar service, and a manger who wads up customer complaints and basketballs them into the trash can.
Next up at the bottom of the list was the Regent Street (UK) store, with nine surveys submitted. The store ranked a 3.54, with two submitted comments that were both negative. One respondent said the store was a “magnet for every tourist/backpacker/cheapskate/salesman to use” the Internet. Another complained of poor service from a manager.
One comment was particularly telling. “They sometimes talk down to me as I am 15 which I don’t appreciate,” the person wrote.
Mid-way in the rankings were the Florida Mall, with a score of 4.36, and the Flatiron Crossing store with a score of 4.32 and 3 mixed-review comments. Respondents submitted 4 and 5 surveys for the stores respectively.
At the top of the rankings were the King of Prussia store with 4.94, Country Club Plaza with 4.90 and Millenia with 4.86. All three had three surveys submitted, along with one positive comment each.
There are 59 stores for which just one survey was submitted, making an accurate evaluation of the store impossible. Hopefully additional people will complete surveys to help round out the picture of how stores are performing.
Download (pdf) the complete list of store rankings here, or check the full survey results.
