Gone are the days of Apple Store employees aimlessly wandering about asking everyone they see if they need any help or have any questions. Instead, workers are now using some pretty amazing software to track down customers “in need” of assistance, as well as those who’ve arrived to pick up online purchases using the new in-store pick up service.
The software, which Apple Store employees run on an iPod touch, displays an overhead floor plan of the store. Customers are only required to press a button on one of the iPads that have been strategically placed at all major products. Once activated, the station glows red on the employee’s floor plan and they can immediately rush over and assist.
Another neat feature — and by neat we don’t mean creepy — centers on in-store pickup of online orders. The way we understand it, after purchasing an item with the Apple Store app, a customer can simply walk into the Apple Retail Store, and employees are notified that the user is there to pick up their items without the customers having to do anything other than showing up. This is made possible by Apple’s location services, which is built in to all iDevices.
Once notified, an employee brings out the customer’s goods and completes the transaction. If any payment is required, the iPod touch’s case has a built in credit card reader, as well as an extended life battery, just incase grandma can’t find her American Express in the bottom of her purse before that battery strikes zero.
Apple continues to change the retail landscape, bringing forth innovative solutions to make the experience as stressless as possible. Now if they can just build a loitering iPad “DEMOER” eject button.
