The Genius Bar is a permanent fixture at Apple's retail stores. It's staffed by trained personnel who can perform repairs on Apple products or just offer help and advice. The experience is supposed to be simple for customers, at least in theory, but it almost never is. Customers often have to wait a long time for their turn, particularly on busy weekends when the stores are crowded.
Mick McConnell, the vice president of design at Samsung Electronics America, felt during a recent visit to one of Apple's Genius Bars that “there's gotta be a better way to do this.”
Samsung Care Centers
Samsung has launched a pilot program in the United States in a bid to outclass Apple's Genius Bar. It has teamed up with coworking startup WeWork to launch three “care centers” in WeWork locations in Detroit, Miami, and Williamsburg, New York.
Any Samsung customer can head to a care center to get help. Even if it takes a couple of hours, they won't be wasting that time pacing around a store. Customers can take full advantage of WeWork's coworking space. This allows them to get work done while the techs sort out their problem.
“The concept was, if I take time out of my day, at least I can sit in a conference room, make phone calls, and do work, as opposed to sitting in a busy room with a bunch of angry people,” explains McConnell.
Samsung's care centers are housed in a Miesian black steel and glass box with shared tables and Samsung workstations. The furnishings in these spaces have been upgraded Samsung video conferencing systems have been installed as well.
The company clearly points out that this is only an experiment right now and there's no guarantee if it will be scaled up. If Samsung does decide to scale up these care centers, there are 235 WeWork locations in the United States where it can potentially establish these centers.
