Apple customers are now able to have their iPhones and MacBooks repaired at any of about 1,000 Best Buy locations across the U.S.
Both companies are framing this major expansion of the existing Apple-Best Buy partnership as a win-win, providing more repair locations for Apple customers while potentially driving lucrative foot traffic to Best Buy stores in an era of online purchases. And, as CivicScience’s data point out, those in-store customers will be a prime market for other Apple products like iPads and Apple Watches.
In a June poll of nearly 2,000 U.S. adults, CivicScience took a closer look at the partnership to determine how big those potential benefits will really be for the two businesses. For starters, it seems that the majority of iPhone owners are at least somewhat interested in having their phones serviced at the big box tech store.
As far as prospective iPhone owners go, the results are a bit more mixed:
Best Buy Fans Are Into It
Wrapped up into this partnership are all kinds of customer preconceptions about each of the two brands.
As expected, consumers who are favorable to Best Buy were far more likely to be swayed toward buying an iPhone by this news than those who aren’t Best Buy fans. While most were unfazed by the news, 15% of those who feel negatively toward Best Buy said the new arrangement makes them less likely to buy an iPhone. Those with neutral feelings were roughly split, with a slight tilt toward the negative. (Luckily for Best Buy, only 13% of consumers said they don’t like the store over the past year, compared to 38% who said they do.)
When it comes to current iPhone owners in need of repairs, the agreement may allow Best Buy to reel in up to a quarter of those unfavorable to the brand — and possibly give the company a chance to change their minds.
Don’t Upset The Apple Cart
It turns out that enthusiasm for this move is rather tepid among Apple’s famously loyal customer base.
While only 30% of those who are favorable toward Apple said they were “not at all likely” to use Best Buy for their iPhone repair needs, only 14% said they were “very likely” to do so. That’s equivalent to the same group in the “neutral toward Apple” category, and not even that much higher than the “unfavorable toward Apple” group.
When it comes to buying a new iPhone, though, Apple fans who currently don’t have iPhones largely viewed the new agreement as an enticement to buy them.
… But Do Up-Sell The Apple Cart
One more important factor for both Apple and Best Buy to make note of? There’s a surprisingly large amount of correlation between customers’ opinions of this new repair agreement and their desire for new Apple products. In other words, while they’re sitting around waiting for their iPhones to be fixed, try to sell them an Apple Watch or an iPad — there’s a good chance they’ll be interested.