High quality products aside, Apple’s customer service has always been one of the company’s best assets.
That asset took a tumble in Q2, however, according to a new StellaService report which suggests that Apple’s customer service has gotten worse over recent months.
The major criticism involves Apple’s phone, email and chat problem resolution scores. While Apple typically ranks highly in this category, this quarter the amount of time customers had to wait to chat to an Apple rep increased from 34 seconds to 63 seconds. This is 20 seconds slower than the sector average.
Even when people do get to chat to someone, the successful chat resolution rate — referring to the questions answered satisfactorily — fell from 97 percent down to 94 percent.
Customers also had to wait longer to speak to a person on the phone. Wait times increased to 121 seconds, although the resolution rate was much better, at 99 percent success.
All in all, the news isn’t as bad as it first seems. Apple’s shipping fulfilment times fell from 3.1 days in 2014 to 2.6 days this year, while same-day shipping has been consistently good. Apple also scores highly on refunds — returning money to customers twice as fast as other electronic and media companies looked at by StellaService.
A part of the problem is that StellaService has changed the way it ranks companies, while the arrival of the Apple Watch has additionally put strains on Apple resources. The net result is Apple falling from 3rd to 25th place on the customer service rankings between Q4 last year and now.
Have you personally noticed Apple’s customer service getting better or worse recently? Leave your comments below.
Source: StellaService
Via: Apple Insider
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
6 responses to “Apple’s exemplary customer service takes a dive, report claims”
I have always rated Apple phone support a 10 until recently. I have worked support myself and have had support people work for me so I am always very nice to the support people. In fact I go out of my way to be very nice to them. But recently I have been shocked by the bad attitudes of the support people. When I called about a problem with rules in Apple mail I received a very snide “we don’t support that”. Apparently Apple no longer supports all of the functions in it’s mail (true and confirmed). I explained that I had worked support and the person said sorry but we get so many complaints about the rules its driving us crazy. This is not isolated and other tech support people have told me that Yosemite is so buggy that they are overwhelmed (the reason for the longer than usual wait times). So Apple for the software side (Yosemite and iOS) gets a 4 and the support a 7 (compared to other companies) and hardware still a 10.
Another problem with Apple Support is the lack of a central ticketing system. When one support group denies support and tells you to contact a different support group you have to start over. Plus, you deal with the second group referring you back to the original group. Some groups only provide support by email and have a 72 hour turn around time. Sometimes their first response is a question asking if you are still having the problem. Which would be fine if that did not start the 72 hour clock again. To compensate I put my question on the discussion forums and give the URL to apple support. I maintain the status in the discussion forum to coordinate between the groups.
The data you presented hardly supports that!
1. “successful chat resolution rate fell from 97 percent down to 94 percent”
97% to 94%– that’s marginal and probably within the margin of error.
2. “Wait times increased to 121 seconds, although the resolution rate was much better, at 99 percent success”
Hmm… How do you equate “much better” with “takes a dive”?
And, 99% having their issue resolved!
3. The shipping times got better, too! “Apple’s shipping fulfilment times fell from 3.1 days in 2014 to 2.6 days this year, while same-day shipping has been consistently good.”
In any event, what’s really missing here is an analysis of where StellaService gets its data? Usually, these tech market, tech service quality studies are inherently, deeply flawed with biased sampling, etc.
It’d be good, in the future, if you would describe–and dissect–the source’s methodology!
Apple’s customer service has aways been great and still is. I never had a problem. Rating Apple’s customer service a 10
Super frustrated today after my Genius bar appointment (5 day waiting time). Spent 2 hours at the store to wipe my new MacBook Pro clean and reinstall the OS. That did not fix the problem.
They now expect me to be without a computer for 5 days – a computer that is not even 60 days old – even though it is obviously a hardware warranty issue.
Last time I was there (also for 2+ hours) they replaced my defective iPhone battery and managed to screw up my power button in the process.
They agreed to send it out to repair (and provide a loaner) but was told that I would have to set another appointment for that because they were behind and with other people on the waiting list.
The rep was nice and he was trying to help me, but what really ticked me off was all of the waiting time and appointment setting while a bunch of other employees were there just talking to each-other basically waiting for retail customers to walk in
New customers > Existing customers
I have been a great supporter of Apple, but I am beginning to wonder if the “beast is too big”. I have a fault with my phone and cannot make an appointment in an Apple Store in any of my 4 nearest stores for the next 6 days as they are fully booked. Appointments can’t be scheduled after this and I refuse to stand and wait for approximately two hours on the turn up on the day system – maybe that is me being unreasonable. On line chat inform me that even they can’t get appointments in my area.