Well, this is fun. You might recall I wrote a short piece on how difficult it is to upgrade Apple’s operating system to the newest release, Mountain Lion. I ran into trouble and quit after I’d discovered other people with issues. I wrote a post, “First Mammal to Lay an Egg: Mountain Lion by Apple.” I love Apple products but took issue with this upgrade.
It seems that Apple has not produced an installation disk for Mountain Lion. You can buy the upgrade on line and download it. Unfortunately, it’s a big download and it takes time. Worse, some people reported that the download quit and had to be restarted and that there were other issues like the speed of their particular internet connection, that affected total time to do the download and upgrade.
So, the post drew some comment, which is not unusual but what is interesting is the differing customer orientation philosophies expressed by me and my reader. I share the exchange with you below because 1) it’s public and 2) it neatly summarizes a lot that we’ve been debating in CRM circles for many years. FYI, the debate is happening at the Enterprise Irregulars site where the piece was cross posted. You can also read the post at that link and you should and also pay attention to the references I included.
What do you think? Here it is in full (so far).
First response (to the post)
“so, shipping a CD or DVD would be faster? The download happens in the background and doesn’t interrupt whatever you’re doing at the moment. It recovers from disconnects and failures gracefully. This is such a non-issue to any normal mortal. Not to mention downloading is more green, less wasted plastic and paper and shipping charges.
My reply
the download has issues as the referenced materials show. Also, I don’t have the time to babysit the process. Many people are having problems with this approach. It might have green and other benefits but it should not be the only way to a solution. Normal mortal?
Second response
I don’t know, more people upgraded to mountain lion, on a percentage basis, than people who upgrade windows in any similar timeframe. Must work for most people. Sorry it didn’t float your boat. But I think the analysis on this one is pretty poor.
My reply
You have no concept of the individual user and you sound like you are blaming the customer, not a great idea. This is not about how most people fare, the company has a responsibility to all of its customers and in the examples I found, it failed them.
Third response
Denis, I am the individual user. And There are 20 mac users in this office (and a few windows users as well) who all updated with nary a complaint. We don’t have a single “IT” employee to help them do installs.
I believe the data you found does not paint the picture of “most people” but of a few people from a forum. Check the status on mountain lion downloads and you have your # of successful downloads… far outnumbering the number of problem downloads. And of course Apple has a responsibility to those customers – and has better customer service than anyone will get if they’re upgrading Linux or Windows, from their respective hardware providers, I might add. I’d say you need some perspective, sir.
My reply
That’s right, discount my findings. You still don’t get it. It’s not the number of successes or failures that count but the way the customer is treated. For Apple to say take it or leave it, given the various skill levels of users and the variety of download speeds they have, is insensitive to the customer. I really don’t care how many were successful, I care about how the company treats those least able to do the job and the policy Apple put in place is insufficient to give people an alternative. THAT is the ONLY perspective you need if you are in a customer service business. You don’t get to declare victory and abandon your customers who can’t keep up.
I’ll be happy to provide more as it becomes available. I just love this internet thingie.
(Cross-posted @ Beagle Research, LLC.)
