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Microsoft Reportedly Poaching Apple Retail Staff
Eugen notes an article up at Ars reporting that Microsoft, besides copying Apple's retail formula, is now going after Apple's retail employees. "Microsoft is reportedly trying to hire away Apple's retail employees by bribing them with... wait for it, better wages. 'People that have spoken to The Loop on condition of anonymity confirm that Microsoft has contacted a number of Apple's retail store managers to work in their stores. In addition to "significant raises," the managers have also been offered moving expenses in some cases.' It doesn't end there: once the ex-Apple managers have jumped ship, they are asked to contact their top sales employees at their old workplaces and offer them similar positions at Microsoft's retail stores, also with higher pay. ... If you work in an Apple store near a soon-to-be-opened Microsoft store, apparently the software giant is giving you a free pass; no looking through job postings necessary!"
First of all this is coming from a Mac user. In fact im typing this on my macbook now.
Evidently the Mac Stores outside my area are quite different than the ones here. Here they are rather pretentious sterile cubes with one or two employees willing to show you why you really need that $3000 loaded macbook pro rather than the $999 macbook so junior can do his homework faster. 3-4 other people standing around and one guy at the Mac Genius table arguing with a guy that dropped his Iphone in water and expects a free replacement anyway. I have yet to find any employees outside the genius bar that actually know anything beyond their scripted demo, and the guy at the bar is usually too busy explaining something mundane to be of much help if you do not have a scheduled appointment.
Have the "I'm A Mac" commercials permeated the consciousness of Microsoft to the point that they themselves feel that no one but nerds and suits use windows? What good is a mac entrenched hipster selling windows?
Gateway stores would have been far more successful if you didn't have to special order and wait for a computer. Had they spent the cash and had inventory at their stores, I'm almost sure they would have made a much bigger impact.
There is one thing Apple has that few other consumer level companies give, and that is service. Apple Numbers has glitches? Call Apple or hit a Genius bar, and it doesn't matter if it is the hardware, the app, or the OS, they will at least try to fix it. They may not be perfect, but this is better for the nontechnical home user than the usual "call the hardware/OS/app/software guy, don't bother us" that is common in the PC world. This is also the same reason why IBM, Oracle, Cisco and Sun rake in the big cash. For production, people don't want to try to figure where in their stack the issue is, they want it fixed ASAP regardless if it is an app, RDBMS, OS, or hardware problem.
Had Gateway offered this service where people could come in with their machine, and someone would be able to at least point them in a direction, be it a broken app, software, Windows, or the GW hardware, I am almost certain the stores would still be turning a positive ROI. Of course, this would mean tacking on a price difference to afford this, but perhaps Gateway might have been better off as positioning as a higher end computer place with personal service, similar to Alienware or IBM/Lenovo.
My question is, what can Microsoft do with their stores to make them worth the investment? Some ideas occur to me, but they are not really consumer level. One of them is partnering with HP or another PC vendor, and having preconfigured, turnkey appliances ready to go out the door. SMB needs to go with Exchange? Hit the MS store, buy a rack frame, DC, Exchange edge server for outgoing/incoming mail, Exchange edge server for OWA/POP/IMAP, and two servers for the central hub mailbox storage. Another business needs a large document repository? Sell a preconfigured, ready to go tower with SharePoint installed, and some consultant service time to get it up and integrated.
Consumer level, it is a lot harder. Perhaps preconfigured/preinstalled PCs that have more than just the basic bloatware. For example, laptops that ship with Enterprise or Ultimate Windows 7 editions, Office Professional, a no nonsense corporate edition antivirus utility. Another example would be a PC in a Media Center/HTPC case that is configured with the latest CableCARD stuff, large capacity, low-noise drives and mountings. Finally, another example would be a Windows Home Server box from HP that someone can buy off the shelf and start using as backups. In all the above examples, the key to customer sat would be having some form of support, either by phone or in person.
Two more differences.... Microsoft chases the corporate market much more aggressively -- and has an OS and marketing strategy tuned to those market's needs (centralized control, scalability). And Microsoft has a broader product line (besides a scalable, supported server) they have a significant game business--both hardware and software. The retail locations will be able to push XBox and MS Studio Games--something that Apple really can't offer.
I'm an ex Apple retail employee. If there is one thing I can say about my coworkers, itâ(TM)s that they fucking loved that company. About half of the people I worked with were part time employees with full time jobs doing photo and A/V work, usually for their own smallish firm. Why did they work at Apple? The discounts. Sure the store didn't pay the best (~$12/hour starting) but when you can get that $6000 mac pro / 30" screen combo for half off it starts to look very attractive for 20 hours a week. Apple loved it; they got some very knowledgeable employees to move their merch. Also, Apple treated us pretty damn well. As a whole, retail sucks. At least where I was, the managers were flexible and understanding. There were plenty of product giveaways to employees (in the 6 months I was there I got a free Shuffle when it had just come out as well as a free OS upgrade. I also picked up a week old mac book pro for ~50% off) I'm not too sure what MS is offering, but a lot of the people who were at the Apple Store weren't there for just the paycheck.
No smoking sigs indoors.