既然微软的第一个苹果样商店在斯科茨代尔亚利桑那州开业，微软终于进入了直接消费者零售销售世界。由于我不住在该国的那部分地区，我必须依赖他人的报告，到目前为止反馈是商店很像苹果一样，对它有点不那么酷，并炫耀硬件运行窗口之间的一些价格差异与Apple硬件相比（没有惊喜）。它仍然为时尚早，才能识别Microsoft Store如何票价，但是从我的经验访问Apple商店，成功的关键不仅是酷炫的硬件，许多软件，或电脑的伟大配件。它最终用户支持零售客户。在Microsoft世界，零售客户在支持方面有限。最常见的是人们依赖于一个家庭成员或朋友，他们是“计算机精明”来过来并解决他们的计算机或网络问题。另一种选择是极客队。我的儿子在镇上最好地购买了Geek Squad，他们做了跳投计算机支持业务。总人们总是站在一线方面，准备要求帮助一些计算机问题或软件问题。但是，Geek Squad是一个比真正的帮助中心更多的维修中心，就像苹果商店一样。同事最近开始遇到他认为他的苹果笔记本电脑的粉丝问题。 He made an appointment to meet with an Apple guru at the Apple store. Turns out it was a hard drive and a fan issue. The Apple folks worked with him to replace the failing hardware, load his requested operating system configuration and left him with guidance how to recover with his Apple Time Machine backup. I've seen many others make appointments at the Apple store to have someone sit down with them just to answers their questions about how a particular program works or how they can complete a task they want to do on their Mac.I haven't heard much yet how the Microsoft store is doing in the customer support department, but my assessment is if Microsoft wants to learn from Apple's success, there's a lot more to it than just being a computer retail outlet. The key is patient and reliable end user support. Software, hardware or whatever the end user needs. Microsoft's got additional challenges there since they would have to deal with a vast array of third party hardware and software, so I suspect Microsoft will stick closer to Windows 7, Vista, XP and other Microsoft software. Still, helping the customer is what will bring customers to the Microsoft store, not just shelves filled with stuff to buy. That's my $0.02 anyway. I'm looking forward to visiting a Microsoft store soon.
