In the past month Apple has begun to change the times that one to one sessions are available in retail stores. Decreasing the amount of “one to one” sessions while increasing the number of “Personal Projects” I originally thought it was at my local store but after looking at other stores availability I have seen the trend occurring at stores across the country.
What Is One To One?
The one to one sessions were the best deal provided in an Apple Store. For $100 a customer can have most of their data transferred from an old mac or pc to a mac purchased from the Apple retail store and then for the next year the customer receives the ability to have an hour of personal one on one training each day in the retail store. These sessions cover anything from the basic of finder to trainers certified in apple pro applications. These sessions are incredibly popular in many retail stores and can find users coming in even every day as eccentric as it sounds.
Personal Projects were added to the One To One service after its initiation as a way in which up to 6 customers could come together and work on projects while sharing one trainer for three hours. It was meant to be utilized after a customer has done several one to ones on the application they are working on, it is often refereed to as a study hall for Apple Users.
Why The Change?
Apple has begun to take training time away from its one to one sessions and is shifting users in the afternoon to the Personal Project setting. The Personal Project with my personal experience has never been a popular tool because why would one choose to be in a group setting of 6 when they can have personalized training for an hour. Apple shift from training to collaboration is showing a change in the overall atmosphere in the Apple store. There have been many changes in the past year to the structure of the Apple store from the addition of positions such as: Business Partner(Business Manager), Family Room Specialist, and Expert. Apple Retail Stores have also merged specialists and concierge together. The change to the training schedule is part of an over all change in Retail Stores that has been occurring and we will continue to follow as Apple continues to restructure the Retail Environment.