14 DAY TRIAL // The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are ready to come out in the stores around the world on Friday morning. Thousands of customers will flood the gates and will want to buy the latest and greatest phone.
As usual, Apple employees have a special guide on how to deal with potential issues and take care of the customers who will want the new device. Especially since we know for sure that people will line up in front of the stores a few days (or even weeks) in advance.
Managing the lines
According to 9to5mac, the employees need to follow this guide and the rules are pretty strict. Every store is going to be open at 8am on Friday and the customers can join one of the two lines: a walk-in line and a Personal Pickup Line. Three hours in advance, the Apple employees need to make sure they talk to the customers and split them by order type.
Apple will distribute reservation passes for the walk-in line and even pass out refreshments. Did you know that there is a training Apple employees need to go through just to know how to manage lines?
The iPhone 6 will come in stores two days in advance. The preorders line has special treatment. Apple employees are instructed to deal with them as soon as possible. Also, on launch date, the Genius Bar will open much later, so customers waiting to have a computer of phone fixed will not get stuck in the lines with the other ones.
Smiles and workshops
The employees need to advise the customers on what they need to bring in when buying a new phone, but under no circumstances are they allowed to share inventory levels. Also, when you get to the store, you need to know when was the last time you performed an iCloud backup and you need to have your iCloud account credentials.
Apple store personnel is instructed to talk to the customers about AppleCare+ and share their enthusiasm. Also, they can offer the new iPhone owners advice on how to use their phones in the beginning (initial setup) or schedule Workshop Classes for the ones who need to learn some more.
A last interesting tip is that all Apple stores are required to keep 4% of their inventory for special cases. So if they say they are out of stock, maybe there's still a chance for you to get that iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in the first day.
