Making It Easier For Your Customers To Buy From You.

Are you as amazed as I am that so many companies make it difficult to do business with them. Cable and wireless companies … hello? And yet when you have an encounter with a company that makes the buying experience pleasant and productive, you have to wonder why everyone doesn’t see the light. I had such a experience yesterday.

My son is heading off to college in a few weeks and needs a new laptop. After doing some research he decided a Mac would be best for his needs. As the “funder” of his decision I wanted to affirm his conclusion.

I went to Apple’s site to review the models and saw that we could actually reserve a time at any of the Apple store locations to meet with an “Apple Genius.” (Talk about setting a lofty expectation) I selected from the available times and was sent a confirmation invitation and informed that upon arrival I was to see the concierge in the orange shirt.

Sure enough, we arrive at our agreed upon time, see the orange-shirted concierge and she introduces us to Apple Genius John. My Son tells Genius John what he is looking for, Genius John offers feedback along with suggestions for accompanying applications and extended protection for college-centered incidents, and then says he can go to the back, retrieve the Mac and finalize our visit.

He comes back, has a hand-held device you see when returning a rental car, swipes my credit card, asks if I would like the receipt or have it emailed and off we go. Talk about making the buying experience easy and enjoyable.

I thought later about how that service is such a natural extension of the brand personality Apple has so very well crafted over the years. And I thought about how it must increase their overall marketing ROI. They extended the brand in a way that made the sale as seamless as possible.

One final note, when we arrived and departed the store, there was a line of people waiting to get in. They obviously didn’t have pre-scheduled appointment. Boy, did I feel like a “genius.”