Guerilla Marketing, meet Guerrilla Customering

Johnnie Moore points us towards YouTube video of Howard Beale with a stencil. Apple's design chops do fail when it comes to customer service experience. Seems they're still rassling with those Lithium Ion batteries and their pesky ~300 charge-cycle lifetimes. (Go here for their info and tips on battery life.)

Now, you can't change the physics 'bargain' that allows iPod's size, convenience and quick-charge grab-n-go. But you can take the reality of limited life cycle and explain/amortize it in some way so folk realize that a $275.00 battery replacement is in the offing for heavy users somewhere down the road.

Isn't this an old problem? Do they expect that many won't come to this crossroads because of all the irresistable new versions coming available every 6 months? Is $275 a truly market- and labor cost-reflective price, or just their way of pricing to encourage replacement purchase rather than repair? Who knows (okay, we know), but why not find a way to build up credit toward replacement with people's i-tunes purchases? How would you tier prices or add-in options? Do you code the machine to estimate remaining battery life based on usage so folks can save their pennies accordingly?

Seems customers only go guerilla on you when companies insist on surprising them or, worse, they discover you've had your thumb on the scale. Just because the surprise may be 'clearly advertised' in the fine print doesn't make you any less 'evil', malicious or greedy in their minds. You know things that they don't, therefore you have advantage. If you work in a penny-stock boiler room, you can leave that equation as it stands and do your best to sleep at night. But that wouldn't be too wise if you're into prepeat business* or the marketing of experiences. Getting it right, and "being right" are two different things. Even Apple forgets that sometimes.

*prepeat business - tilling and sowing the ground in anticipation of a customer happily replacing what they're buying today. Google sez you heard it here first. =)