Google's Move To Temporarily Closed
Google has added a "temporarily closed" setting to Google Maps. That's good for businesses that are now shut down and plan to reopen due to the Coronavirus to eventually restore full retail storefront or office activities.
Reality Is
But that's only half the story. In many cases these "temporarily closed" operations really aren't. They've relocated staff to work from home or are operating from remote work locations. In those cases the business is JWR-Just Working Remotely and that's a far cry from being listed as temporarily closed.
My Real Life Experience
A great example I personally experienced this week was with the Apple Store at UTC in San Diego's La Jolla Village area. For years their small business team has been my go to group when it came to buying new Apple gear or getting an upgraded level of service, not usually offered over the phone. In my case I needed to upgrade to one of the new Mac Book Airs, as my youngest Mac Book was from 2015 and my Mac Book Pro was from 2012. Toss in a 2013 era Mac Book Air, both of which sit around more as paperweights than workhorses for me, and I just had too much deadweight.
Given all the Apple Stores are temporarily closed, I wrote to the UTC Small Business Team by email on Wednesday. By end of day I had an email from my Small Business Rep from Apple, who in his email reported that his team was working from home and he was safely located remotely supporting customers, and for their team it was business as usual. It was a polite, very personal note, not some automated digitally processed looking reply. He also thanked me for reaching out and within a few minutes of follow up email exchanges had me in touch with the "business trade in team." The reason the business trade-in team was needed, was due to the fact that while Apple online store encourages trade-ins via the web store, they only take one device per order. Business doesn't have such a limit.
About an hour after Eric and I dealt with was being purchased, I had a written estimate in hand for the new Air. In parallel, Bri from Phobio, the company that manages the trade-ins for Apple Small Business, had a spreadsheet for me to use that allowed for the submission of what I was trading in, along with very easy to understand set of shipping details, and instructions on how to delete and wipe hard drives and more. I filled out the spreadsheet, returned it to Bri and the next morning I received approval on my trade ins. I accepted the offer, providing banking information, and once the three computers are back with Apple the funds for the trade ins will go directly to my bank by ACH transfer. No checks. No gift cards. Just cold hard electronic cash. While an eCheck is an option, that just adds a layer that's unnecessary. The whole process was easy, as Eric and Bri - thanks to Apple's understanding of simplifying things - a trait Steve Jobs instilled before his passing.
Yesterday Eric and I wrapped up the sale of a new Mac Book Air that will be here in a few weeks. We spent about 30 minutes talking business, small business, the impact of the Coronavirus and more. For me, it was the Apple Store Experience I've always had. So while "Temporarily Closed" may be the new status on Google Maps, and the Apple Stores may show up that way, but in this time of "business unusual" it wasn't closed at all. It was business as usual, just working remotely (JWR).
Maybe Apple Maps should one up Google and add the JWR flag for those businesses like their own because my experience clearly shows that the Apple Store wasn't really closed, just that their team was just working remotely (JWR).
Comments