Apple

Greetings,

As you know I got a new MacBook Pro laptop.

IT IS CONSUMING ME.

Learning the computer, trying to load all my photos, starting to put my lecture together, putting the final touches on my speaker packet (which is going to be real cool)...

It is taking so much time. For one, because I am like a baby learning to read and I am a perfectionist. So I end up doing things 10 times, making it just a little bit better every time. In order to learn all the things the Mac does, I have been soliciting my friends. "Hey, do you have any time tomorrow to show me how to do X". I have asked everyone I know how to do things.

Then someone told me about One to One. Do you know this? This is something Apple sells for $100. It is one year worth of free one-on-one tech support. Any time you want, you make a one-hour appointment and you just go in there and they will teach you. I was like, "I am all over this. Instead of asking my friends, I can get personal attention from real techs!"

There is an Apple store in the mall right by my house (literally about three miles away). I went in there to sign up. It was about 12:15 on a Monday afternoon. I walked into the mall at the food court entrance and it was pretty empty. Only a couple of people eating lunch. Then I walked through the atrium, the middle of the mall and it was empty. I might have seen one person.



I was like, "Cool, I will be in and out of Apple in no time."

Let me tell you that I have never been in an Apple store. I have all Apple products at home, such as an iPod, iPad, iPhones, but I have ordered them all online. Monday was the first time I have ever been in a store. I walked into Apple and it was like a zoo. There were people everywhere.



There was more people in the Apple store than the rest of the mall.

It was like I was in the twilight zone. I was greeted by a 19-year-old in a blue Apple shirt and a ski hat (yes, it is still 95 degrees outside here in sunny Central Florida). He asked me how he could help me. I told him I wanted to by a One on One. He said it is usually reserved to the exact time you buy the computer. He made a call on his cool device attached to his ear and got the clearance. He took me to the back of the store. In my traveling the 60 feet to the back of the store I saw four people I know. One guy was buying a iPad 2 for his wife, two were taking an intro class because they just bought a desktop, and I saw someone I knew that worked there.

He got a card from the back and handed it to me. We went back to the front of the store, where it was quieter. This is where we were standing and he ran my credit card. We were not at the counter or anything. We were standing in the middle of the store and he swiped my card ON HIS PHONE. I was out of there (excluding me talking to my friends for a couple minutes) in about 15 minutes. I walked out of that store just in awe.

I was talking to a friend that knows the numbers to one of the Orlando stores (this store is in an average mall) and he told me they do $200,000 A DAY.

So lets talk about this a minute. They have a bunch of college-aged people working there, probably very cheap. But props to Apple because they had a lot of employees in the store. No one was really waiting around for service. So I would say they had great service. Apple has a superior product line. And the product line....everyone wants it. If it is not the laptop, it is the iPod nano for the kids. Or the desktop that really is on the desktop. Or the iPad 2. It is like a fad, but for adults.

They are always ahead of the curve (I am sure they are working on the iPad 5 right now). Did I tell you that at the food truck thing I did a couple weeks ago, the person taking the money on the food truck could take credit card? I was like 'cool.' Yeah, it is an app on the iPad. Yeah, the person signed right on the screen of the iPad. Oh my gosh, my head was spinning.

As I always do, I want to bring everything I see back to the office. Did you know you can scan checks on the iPad (another app)? So now that being robbed is so fresh in my mind (getting new alarm system installed on Friday), I was thinking we can get an iPad here. We can scan checks and run credit cards. Leaving nothing but the little cash we have in the safe. What about filling out health histories on the iPad and signing the iPad when they are done. It is practical and it has the "way cool" factor.

But as dentists do we have people waiting for our patients when they walk in? Do we have great service? Do we stay ahead of the curve? Do we have a product that EVERYONE WANTS? Do you have the "way cool" factor in your office?

I don't know about all of that, but it is interesting to think about. I have to get going. I have to go and figure out how to use iDVD and iMovie (if you don't know what this is....drop by the Apple store).

Have a great Wednesday,

john