My last post was about the iPhone buying experience. Seth Godin blogged about the marketing/economics behind the “scarcity” of “event” launches and described the solution more succinctly than I did: “Use the internet to form a queue.”
Preordering and prequalifying to minimize waiting and maximize satisfaction is such an obvious solution I just can’t believe that nobody at Apple thought of it. (BTW: forget AT&T thinking up good stuff, just assume that all telcos are evil, greedy, and stupid.)
Maybe they didn’t bother because the preordering system would only be needed for a few days, but that’s crazy because such a system would certainly be useful in the future. Preordering could have become a hallmark of Apple’s great service. Instead everyone stood in line for hours so sales clerks could do all the upselling and hand holding one customer at a time. Then, one customer at a time, ckerks had to key in all the activation information, with customers having to say their Social Security numbers out loud (NOT COOL).
Apple shifted all the friction and customer decision making to the worst possible point in the process.
Random thoughts:
- I would have paid up to $150 for someone else to wait for me, but I couldn’t with all the identification hurdles. I think “professional line placeholder” might be a good business for someone. A person whose only marketable skill is “a pulse” could make ~$20/hour. Thinking about all the nerds with prodigious intellects wasting HOURS of productive time gets me steamed. Just think of all the World of Warcraft gold that went unearned.
- Apple usually does one big product at a time, and they usually do it right. This time they rolled out the iPhone App store, an iTunes update, the switch from .Mac to MobileMe, and the iPhone with all that activation baggage. All these products are related, but still, that’s a lot to launch in a week.
5 Comments ↓
well said… thanks for reading!
RE: professional line place-holders, they do exist…in Los Angeles. I researched local assistant services and a few enterprising types had started companies that did this. Which were, I might add, largely staffed by women. Because women are…more patient?
Well, some maybe.
Thanks Seth, your ideas in Purple Cow about “finding and eliminating the friction” and strategically adding friction (for example, pre-qualifying potential clients) have been a big influence on my web design practice.
Communicatrix, I don’t think the lines are totally gone, so it’s not too late to spend a whole day in line at the Grove, getting a sunburn to boot. Catch the madness!
I was all set to say something possibly wise or witty about your awesome post. Then got totally distracted by the fact that Seth Godin commented on your blog.
And now I’m wondering what professional place-in-line-holders (PILHA is what I would call their association, were I to found it), do in terms of warm-up exercises,strength prep etc for the arduous experience.
Line-waiting is the new extreme sport.
Now there’s an ebook waiting to be written!
I’m sure with your yogic physical and mental prowess, you could get the PILHA gold medal. With my case of “programmer’s ass” and instant gratificitis, I’d fail in, lets say exactly 5 hours and 1 minute.