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A positive Gen Y retail customer experience?

I don’t know if this blog entry is a positive report about retail customer service, a data point in the battle between online and offline shopping, or an observation on the work ethic of Gen Y. You pick.

When I read somewhere about the Apple Airport (a wireless networking Swiss Army knife device), Tom Riley, our anomalous closerlook Apple evangelist (a senior business executive and a fierce Apple loyalist?) encouraged me to walk over to the Apple store in Chicago and pick one up. I walked past the well-behaved line of 200 waiting to buy their new iPhones (even a week after the launch!) to entered the Apple toy store. After excellent product support by a shaggy, jeaned salesperson, I had my new gadget in hand. Seth, a personable 23 year old, swiped my credit card with his wireless handheld right in the showroom and emailed me the receipt from his device, all while humoring me with an informed discussion of the Apple stock price. It took less than five minutes. I walked out smiling.

I could have bought the device online, but I would have missed the positive customer experience that involved a perfect blend of sophisticated environmental design, technology-enabled efficiency, and excellent employee hiring and training. I guess that shouldn’t be a surprise coming from Apple, but it still feels good.

On my walk back to the office from Michigan Avenue, I realized I needed to make a pit stop. (I know. A bit too much information.) Border’s seemed to be the best place to get in and out quickly. Now my personal ethic demands that I always make a purchase in these circumstances to justify the use of the facilities, and in the case of a bookstore, happily that means buying a book. As I made my way to a register to pay for my five new books (whoops), the woman in front of me was asking the cashier for the location of Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens. Charles, the twenty-something, slightly more kempt cashier gave her precise directions, but then as soon as she had left, quietly spoke into a small microphone to alert staff in that area of the store that a family was on their way, the mom had short dark hair, and please have the book out and ready for them when they get to that section of the stacks. He did this as he was scanning my purchase.

I complimented Charles on his Ritz-Carlton gold standard class of customer service, and he smiled and responded that he was just trying to be helpful.

I match Riley’s passion for Apple with my advocacy for Amazon.com (witness my library), but it’s the superb level of customer service I received on Friday that keeps me a retail customer, too.