Customer Support Strategies

and again, what to learn from Apple.

After another great keynote from Apple’s CEO yesterday in the US, where he presented the new iPod Nano and some other refreshed stuff, which didnt kick me off the chair (German saying), i just had a customer experience with them.
I got an iTunes GiftCard from a mate of mine, and by juddering the seal the numbers and characters that you need to type into iTunes to redeem the Dollars got totally unreadable or least scratched in away that ‚8‘ could be perceived as ‚B‘ and ‚Z‘ as a ‚7‘ and so on. So by typing the wrong number three times by trying different combinations i got a message telling me that Customer Support will contact me.
Amy* (*name changed by Author) got in touch with me and we had a short personal (at least perceived like this) email conversation to resolve the problem.
The outstanding, never like this so far experienced, characteristics have been the following

• personal name as sender
• personal mails by replying to my arguments and wishes
• must have been a part time employee as she managed her office times to be considered when expecting a reply
• the issue was solved and information given was very clear

the above mentioned items are for me perceived as how the apple brand has and is been perceived in the market, attention to detail and absolutely customer centric and oriented.
Whether actually three support staff have been involved or one Amy*, which technically wouldnt have been a problem, doesnt interest me, as the perception is what counts.
Thank you Apple.

Two days later a customer survey with the following 6 simple questions (took me 2 minutes, as multiple choice).

• Overall, how satisfied were you with your recent support experience?
• Was your issue resolved by AppleCare Email support?
• Agree or disagree: Apple’s response(s) to my emails were timely.
• Apple’s email responses were relevant to my question?
  I feel like Apple’s support team understood my problem?
  The email(s) I received from Apple were clear and easy to read?
  The instructions I received from Apple were simple to follow?
• We read all customer comments. If you have any compliments, suggestions, or
  complaints to share , we invite you to use the box below:
• How likely are you to recommend Apple email support to friends or colleagues who
  might have questions?

Bottom line, i agreed with everything beside the response times of mails due to the perceived parttime role fact. What about other customer satisfaction experiences out there? Something similar recognized or even better?