Samsung wants to outclass Apple's Genius Bar with 'care centers'

Last updated: November 1st, 2017 at 12:46 UTC+01:00

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 aid and advice. The feel is supposed to be simple for customers, at least in theory, only information technology virtually never is. Customers frequently take to wait a long time for their plow, particularly on decorated weekends when the stores are crowded.

Mick McConnell, the vice president of design at Samsung Electronics America, felt during a recent visit to 1 of Apple tree'south Genius Bars that "there'southward gotta exist a better way to do this."

Samsung Care Centers

Samsung has launched a airplane pilot program in the U.s. in a bid to outclass Apple'south Genius Bar. It has teamed upwardly with coworking startup WeWork to launch three "care centers" in WeWork locations in Detroit, Miami, and Williamsburg, New York.

Any Samsung customer tin can head to a care center to get help. Fifty-fifty if it takes a couple of hours, they won't be wasting that fourth dimension pacing around a store. Customers tin take full advantage of WeWork's coworking space. This allows them to go work washed while the techs sort out their problem.

"The concept was, if I have time out of my 24-hour interval, at least I can sit in a conference room, make phone calls, and do work, every bit opposed to sitting in a decorated 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 equally well.

The company clearly points out that this is only an experiment right at present and in that location's no guarantee if it will exist scaled upwards. If Samsung does decide to calibration up these intendance centers, there are 235 WeWork locations in the United States where it can potentially establish these centers.