Fail and Win together

[synecdochic]

Copied from the feedback I just sent on the how'd-we-do form for today's visit to the Apple Store:

Kelly's conduct and customer service was absolutely fabulous, and I don't even think she recognized the thing she did that pleased me the most, because it was clearly instinctive. I use a wheelchair for mobility, and the Annapolis store's Genius Bar is completely wheelchair-inaccessable. Not only is there no counter segment at chair-height, the counter is artificially elevated to the point where even a standing person would have difficulty if they were at all shorter than normal.

When I arrived for my appointment, Kelly took one look at me, came out from behind the Genius Bar, commandeered the nearby computer table where the kid software is out for demonstration, sat down on the chair-ball so she was at my eye level, and proceeded to take care of my repair issue: all without drawing any attention to the situation, fumbling around for the right thing to do in the situation, or making me feel like I was inconveniencing her. Most people, when confronted with a situation like that, will remain standing, looming over the person in the wheelchair and making them considerably uncomfortable. I was already considerably irked about the lack of chair-accessible counter space -- which, by the way, is *really* poor design, and I've seen many of your stores that have a chair-height counter extension that can be pulled out when required; I'm highly annoyed that Annapolis doesn't. Kelly moved right past it and found a solution that let her treat me not only like a valued customer, but as a fellow human being.

Her technical skills were great, and her solution to my repair problem was above and beyond both what I was expecting and what I had hoped for, but it was her conduct and treatment that I was most happy with. I certainly hope that someone reading this feedback can find a way to reward her for her customer service and people skills.

The reason for my poor rating on the final survey question has nothing to do with the service I received, and I remain not only a loyal Apple enthusiast but a passionate advocate for both your products and the technical-assistance service your Geniuses provide. I am unable to recommend the Annapolis store to friends and family members because of the complete lack of accessibility at the Genius Bar, and will continue to search for an Apple Store in the area with architecture that doesn't perpetuate ableism.

We then went into the Williams-Sonoma store (they were having a sale, okay?) The store's nice and open, but they'd put baskets and boxes on the floor, to the point where many pathways/turns were really tight (to the point of just making it) and a few were impossible. I mentioned this to one of the floor associates. Not two minutes later, the floor manager came over, apologized profusely, said that she makes it a policy to take out the measuring tape every time they rearranged things to make sure all the 'aisles' were 36" clear, and the reason things were out of sorts was because they were redoing all the displays that day because of the sale.

She promised that she'd move the ones I'd had the most trouble with immediately, and mentioned that she was really embarrassed and felt awful, because she does make it a point to fix those problems in the store; both her mother and her brother were in 'chairs and she tries to pay really close attention to accessibility details.

(We then talked about kitchen mixers for a while. *g*)

So, the spaces I encountered today were accessibility fail, but the people were pretty much a win.

Eye clinic win?

[aedifica]

I recently made an appointment for an eye checkup, and I just got the info packet and health history questionnaire for it. Most of the stuff is in what I would consider a normal type size for that sort of thing, but one of the sheets was in a much larger font size. What that one said:

Visual Rehabilitation Services

Does your vision make it difficult to read, write, do your job, do school work, cook or clean?

If your vision cannot be improved, special services are available at the Eye Clinic to help you do these things again.

Ask your doctor or their staff at your eye appointment about Low Vision Services.

And I thought about it for a moment, and thought how neat it is that they made an extra effort to let people know about these services, both by including it in the packet and by making sure it was in a larger, easier-to-see type. Very cool!