How the Apple iPhone blew my mind AGAIN— A customer experience lesson

I spent the last 2 months thinking about a phone upgrade. My Vodafone mobile contract and my iPhone 11 had served me diligently for 2 years. Since April 2022, I had maintained my old phone, seriously considering what to jump on to next. If you ever found yourself in this dilemma, you know what I am talking about. Do you go for another iPhone upgrade? (13 Pro model? 13 Pro Max?). Or do get something entirely different? I had concluded I wouldn’t get another phone for 3 months, so I stayed on a SIM-only contract with Vodafone.

If you read my last article you would remember I travelled recently to Slovenia. While I was there with a group of lads, I kept trying out the features of their phones, especially those who were not using the iPhone. In the end, I was still undecided. I got back from the short trip still thinking about what phone I would eventually get.

This week, the answer showed up!

I visited Vodafone one last time and told them I was ready for a mobile phone upgrade. You already know I decided on the iPhone 13 Pro, despite being enticed by the ultra-camera of the Samsung Galaxy and a few other phone models. When I thought about the current experience I have enjoyed on my ex-Iphone 11, and how easy it was to share files with my loyal Iphone family members, and of course the plethora of apps I had used frequently on my iPhone, I gladly brought out my debit card, and authorised the upgrade. Hello iPhone 13 Pro, welcome home!

I drove home from the store in excitement, unpacked my new Iphone and turned it on. As expected, the standard welcome screen turned up, asking me to choose my location & my preferred language. And this is where things got a little interesting . Unexpectedly, my ex-iPhone 11’s screen beeped and displayed a notification. It had detected my new iPhone was nearby and prompted to lead me through setting up my new phone.

Source : https://images.macrumors.com/article-new/2021/09/set-up-iphone-13.jpg

My jaw dropped!

How the heck did it even know that? This is where I get very impressed with technology when it becomes a super-enabler for everything customer experience. The iPhone 11 detected the presence of a later model and prompted me to initiate a migration process from my old device to the new one. All I had to do was tap on a few buttons, acknowledge I was the owner of both devices, and in a few minutes, all my data and settings started to copy from the old iPhone 11 to the iPhone 13. WOW!

Within an hour, the entire process had been completed. My files, pictures, documents, videos, contacts, apps, settings and everything I needed had been seamlessly copied from my old phone to my new one. Come to think of it, my Wi-fi settings were copied across too. I didn’t even need to setup the Wi-fi on my new phone. It was a complete experience, no gaps! This is what customer experience is about — from start to finish, no gaps, no doubts!

But that wasn’t even the end of it. As soon as the copying process was completed, the iPhone 11 asked me if I would like to erase the content on the old phone, in case I was planning to give it to someone else. WOW! I hit the button and in a few seconds, all my data was erased from the iPhone 11. It had now reset itself back to day 1 — the welcome message popped up. It was such a seamless process, the simplicity is impressive.

Lessons from this experience

The more I thought about this, the more I realised how important it is to make the experience as easy as possible for the customer.

Many years ago, switching phones was a pain. You would manually have to initiate the copy process, choose what you need to copy and go through a whole setup process on the new phone. It could take days to setup your new phone completely.

Here I am many years later, getting my new mobile phone fully setup without my having to stress. Technology delivering a top-class experience to Apple’s latest iPhone user — me!

Let’s remember these lessons from the Apple IPhone:

1. Anticipate customer needs — Like the seamless Apple iPhone onboarding process, you don’t need to wait for a customer to tell you their need. Find ways to detect customer needs using data and leveraging technology. The more you can anticipate what your customer needs, the more precise you’re likely to deliver exceptional experiences.
2. Make it unbelievably simple — Nobody wants to spend hours copying data from one phone to another! There’s a metric called ‘Customer Effort Score’ (CES) which calculates the effort your customers put in, when using your products and services. The easier it is for your customers, the more delighting it is to continue using your products and services.
3. Understand your customers’ goals — My new phone setup process was interested in knowing what I would do with my old phone i.e. erase it, and give it to someone else. The process covered the entire process from setup to erasure of the old phone. This is how you should support your customers, from beginning to the very end of every need.
4. Build a history of credibility — did you notice I was hesitant to switch away from the iPhone? My previous experience on the iPhone 11 and previous experiences with Apple products made it so. When there is a track record of exceptional services, customers will struggle to switch away from you. It is simply how customers behave if you give them a reason no to leave.
5. Leverage data and technology — this is a separate article in itself. Data gives insight that deepens your understanding about customers behaviour. I can confidently share that Apple knows their customers inside out, so they are able to build products & services that meet customer needs. Use technology to your advantage, there are tools that can help you do business better and deliver better to your customers too. (Check out My Centre Office www.mycentreoffice.com , they have a FREEmium that helps you manage customer data and run useful customer insights)

Even as I write this article, I am still marvelled at my iPhone experience. It did remind me how important it is to maintain top-class customer experience, especially if you want to win in a crowded market place.

For the hundreds or maybe thousands of people who get to read this, I have just shared my positive experience as a customer to multitudes without any request from Apple. This is how buyers become long-term loyal customers and active promoters. No surprises, this is how the Voice Of the Customer (VOC) works.

Customer Experience always wins. Take it very seriously in your business and watch your customers become long-term loyal promoters of your brand.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.