Flip the Funnel: How to Use Existing Customers to Gain New Ones

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

When I picked up my new iPhone 3GS from the Apple store, I headed back home, and—upon backing up and restoring my data—found that none of my 17,000 applications made it to my new phone. I submitted a query to Apple’s customer-service center and got the 24-hour autoresponder (on Friday at 2:16 P.M.) indicating that the turnaround clock has begun.

Here’s where it gets interesting. It dawned on me a few hours later that there was a better way; and so I tweeted my problem. Within seconds, I had the solution at hand—not from an Apple representative (although theoretically it could have been), but from the crowd. I also Googled the problem and got the same solution within seconds (admittedly, many results were from the Apple forum).

Apple responded to me on Saturday at 12:08 P.M. with what can only be described as a terrific response:

Hello Joseph,

 

Thank you for taking the time to contact us. I am sorry to hear that after updating the iPhone software your apps are no longer found. I know it is important to you to have this issue quickly addressed, my name is John and I am glad for the opportunity to take care of this for you.

Good news Joseph, App Store purchases may be downloaded again at no charge, either from your device or using iTunes on your computer. Be sure that you are signed in to the same iTunes Store account that you used to shop from the App Store, and follow the steps to purchase any missing content again. You will be notified that you ...