We all love Apple products.  I think most of us would agree that the iPhone is beautiful and intuitive.  We talk about features…. and we can’t wait for new releases.  We accept hiccups… as it’s all part of the customer experience journey…. until the iPhone screen cracks like mine did.  Again.  What I immediately heard from friends was, “you don’t have a case?”  If a case is needed, it seems to me like it should come with one or be made with materials that don’t shatter.  We can land on the moon, but our phones shatter to bits with a single drop.

Two years ago I was in Turkey and the captain of our boat got out of the water, dropped his phone on the deck and then rinsed it off!  He didn’t have a big ugly plastic case covering it up.  The best part?  No trips to a store or kiosk to replace shattered screens.

It took 5 days to get an appointment and 3 hours in the store to get it fixed.  I can still hear myself complaining about the time I wasted dealing with my iPhone.  Yes, they have a process.  Yes, it works… but takes a ton of time and it is frustrating.  I spent some of that time staring at a wall of add-on products designed to combat the flaws from cases, to screen protectors and more.  Do I believe innovation comes with imperfections, like shattered screens?  Perhaps.  So, maybe I just need to temper my expectations and have more patience.

This experience left me wondering…. are our customer expectations too high?

I do believe the day will come when we won’t tolerate frustrating service… even for the brands we love.  If you pay more for products of higher quality- they should come with a higher level of service.  We’ll just see how long our patience lasts.  Maybe they could just sell a DIY screen replacement kit.  That would be a step in the right direction.

In the meantime, I’m left to ponder if I expect too much.