Is Dell following the path of Kryptonite?
I have always had good experiences with my Dells, but recently Jeff Jarvis over at Buzzmachine bought what seemed like a Dell-lemon and blogged about it (here). It quickly spread across the blogosphere (boy, do I hate that word) and a ton of other unhappy customers started to chime in as well. Then yesterday Dwight Silverman from the Houston Chronicle wrote about his interview with some Dell PR person who basically said - we do not respond to online comments and do not need a corporate blog! (here - via Micropersuasion).
Even though I have personally been happy with them over the years, I am sure that I would not have recommended a Dell to a friend - which I did just a month or so ago. And I am sure that I would have done a lot more due diligence into alternative brands when I bought my new top of the line machine 1 1/2 month ago. Don’t marketing people at Dell get this???
And if they let this go a little longer, Google searches for Dell will turn up all kinds of negative stuff…
Dell - wake up! The rules have changed!
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July 10th, 2005 at 10:04 pm
Dell have done the right thing. The rules haven’t changed, they are the same. You can’t run a Tech Support Organization relying on an Internet search engine to find customer complaints!
I think Dells response that we don’t work this way to be great because you know now that if you have a problem, go through the correct procedures! If you have a problem then (and not just that you don’t like dealing with outsourced TS people) they palm you off after you have made fair effort, then by all means put up your experience. But I am definitely not going to get a Dell because of seeing this on the net.
JMTC
Molly
July 11th, 2005 at 7:58 am
If you would have read the history, you would realize that he did go through the call center - that is where everything was messed up!
July 12th, 2005 at 4:07 pm
if only you knew the effort`s made by dell to give great customer experience .
you see internet blogs of few people and join the band wagon.
have you seen a blog saying great customer experience provided. NO!!!
because its human nature to highlight the negetive aspect and leave the good part.
you will never see blogs of customer who have been given free printer or even 200$ just for a simple reason because a customer was unhappy that he recieved his computer one day late because of a delay caused by the courier company.
People lose their jobs at dell just because they tried to hide a mistake they did and tried to hide it because it will lead to bad customer experience.
if there is one company that runs on customer experience it is DELL!!!!(believe it or not).
dont cry about the sun not shining with knowning why it didnt rise in the first place.
July 12th, 2005 at 6:05 pm
I agree that people are more likely to voice a negative comment than a positive one. It is also true that for one negative complaint you hear about there are 10 other people out there that have had a negative experience as well yet do not tell you.
Marketers should know that and deal with that. I was not just “jumping on the bandwagon” - I was merely trying to participate in the conversation - as an interested party (having recommended a Dell to someone else (for their service mind you) and bought one for myself for the same reasons).
Dell should wake up and realize that the rules have changed. Not only are their customers much more empowered than they used to be - but when something goes wrong, it goes wrong way faster! Instead of turning their head away from what happened here, they should embrace this new way of talking with their customers…
July 13th, 2005 at 3:50 pm
i dont know about other companies.
but at dell the mentality is
it is 10 times easier to sell a product to an exsisting customer rather than finding a new customer.
so that last thing as a company dell would want is provide bad experience and lose its customers.
this is where i leave.
i hope my comments have some impact on DELL CUSTOMER`s.
a dell customer support person.
July 14th, 2005 at 9:43 am
I hope your comments have an impact as well - because that’s what it’s all about - engaging in the conversation. I know that Dell has been putting a lot effort into customer service - in fact that is the only reason I bought seven of them so far. The question at hand is a marketing communications question. Why does Dell not respond to a wave of negative commentary about its service problems faster and more transparently? It will cost the company money, customers and reputation!
December 22nd, 2005 at 9:32 pm
dell suck (8:59pm EST Thu Dec 22 2005)
I got my dell inspiron 6000… 2 days new. Keep asking me to fix system time and date after I left the system on and come back. Dell said it is a software relate and have to charge me $99 for software support. I was not aware of fee support for a BRAND NEW DELL. I would rather have that money to pay for the return shipping. NO MORE DELL… SUCK. - by Joe
February 22nd, 2006 at 6:24 am
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