Category: sales effectiveness

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Dell Loses Another Sale

First, the Jeff Jarvis snowball.

Then Dell threatens to close, and then closes, its customer forums.

Now this, from Desirable Roasted Coffee.

“Dell Denmark approached me a half-dozen times over the summer, at least. At minor expense, to be sure, but it adds up. But the hum started by a guy 4000 miles away, whom I don’t even know, who had a bad experience with a Dell subsidiary I’ll never have to deal with, was enough to wave me off. The hum got into my subconscious. And Dell Denmark could do nothing to get back into the front of my brain.”

Still think that interactions between members of a customer community don’t matter?

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The Reach Of Great Customer Service

Evelyn Rodriguez pulls out the stops and writes a gorgeous piece on her recent experience at The Market Grill in The Pike Place Market in Seattle. Here’s a taste:

“I’m reminded of chado, the Japanese tea ceremony, in the way he slides open the drawers, turns over the salmon, and deliberately spreads every inch of the bread evenly with the rosemary mayonnaise. His companion worker’s movements are just as fluid…Everything is fresh. And they let you know it if the time is right. Slicing the bread: ‘We baked it this morning.’ The emphasis wouldn’t work if every bite didn’t salivate wholesomeness…”

No one on the planet would connect with that description of The Market Grill if it were written by a copywriter, and pushed out through the traditional channels. It has to be external, unsolicited, authentic to ring as truly as it does.

Although a great deal of attention is cast on the less-than-perfect customer experiences that can be highlighted through blogs, it’s also true that happy customers blog, too. Shel Holtz points out the RedRoomChronicles, Marriott hotel stories as they are told by Rob Safuto (who has racked up over 350,000 awards points in their perks program). Safuto writes:

“For all the time we spend in these hotels it’s important that we’re in on every perk possible that might make our business travel just a bit more tolerable.”

These aren’t just blogs. They are links to active, vocal, social communities.

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Improving The In-Store Customer Experience

Some thoughts from Noel Franus. My fave line in the article:

“It should be stated, however, that each of these places, these environments, are much more than spaces…they’re more than just furniture, paint and carpet. They’re marketing tools. Relationship opportunities.”

Some suggestions from Noel:

  • Provide a comfortable space. A couch or coffee table is the first step you can take in shifting the mood from annoyed to relaxed. (Relaxed customers usually shell out more money than annoyed ones.) Investment: $2,000 (furniture).
  • Do you have any coffee? A little java goes a long way toward making customers feel like valued guests. Get a decent coffeemaker and good beans. Or outsource the opportunity to a local brandofcoffeebucks that people know and enjoy. Investment: $1,000 per year (coffeemaker and supply).
  • Dish up the fishwrap. For less than a buck a day, you can give them something to read or watch while they pass the time. Newspapers and magazines can keep those rambunctious customers under control. Investment: $100 per year (daily news and magazines).
  • Nothing but net. Most people are missing out on work while they’re in the store. Give them wi-fi, give them access to information, give them back their productivity, give them back their time. Investment: $700 per year (wireless router and high-speed Internet).

Hat Tip: Jake McKee.

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When Customers Blog

Susan Getgood has a great, two-part post on customer blogs (that is, enterprise-sponsored blogs that are written by customers of that organization). Here they are:

Customer Blogs: What type of company should do one? and
Customer Blogs: What you need to do to make it work.

Good stuff, read the whole thing, etc.

Some tidbits, to help stack the deck in favor of success. Susan says consider a customer blog if…

  • Customers love the product
  • Customers are already talking in some fashion
  • Others can learn from the customers’ conversations (Susan calls this “exploting an information gap,” but isn’t it more about conversation and learning, rather than “exploitation?”)
  • The hosting company is willing to give up control

The last one’s the biggie, isn’t it? It goes back to trusting the customer, I suppose…

tag:
(what’s this?)

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PRWeek: Podcasts Open New Doors For Customer Relationships

Keith O’Brien gets it right in this article: Podcasting: Podcasts open new doors for customer relationships. Jason Calacanis has a great quote:

“I think it’s a great channel for companies to go direct to the consumer. I love JetBlue, and if they had a travel show that incorporated where it goes, what you can find at its destinations, and travel tips, I would certainly download it. If you’re a Flash designer and could listen to a podcast each week on Flash design produced by Macromedia, that would be of high value, as well. Just like blogs can engage customers in a conversation, [podcasts] can, as well.”

Additionally, although I normally try to avoid The Mouse at all costs, Disney’s Duncan Wardle also makes a good point:

“Say a single mother from San Francisco is thinking of coming to Disneyland. When she’s planning her trip, what if she listened to a podcast of a single mother talking about what’s good and [bad] at Disneyland? Right now, consumers are in the marketing mix, as they should be. There’s a huge change of focus where you will not be marketing at consumers; you will be marketing with them.”

http://www.prweek.com/news/news_story_free.cfm?ID=239677&site=3

(disclosure: I was interviewed for the article)

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All About DELL – The Social Customer Manifesto Podcast 7JUL2005

click here to subscribe

Welcome iTunes subscribers! Today’s conversation topics include thoughts on Dell’s current customer service and support woes, news on the shuttering of a portion of Dell’s online customer community, and (unrelated to Dell) some upcoming conferences where I hope we can get together in person.

Dell “support” stories

The original Jeff Jarvis post: Dell Hell (more here, here, here, here, here, etc.)
Steve Rubel’s post (with the now-infamous “A-lister” comment)
Technorati tracking
Blogpulse tracking
Blog Business Summit is running a Dell ClueWatch
Forbes: Dell Slashing Customer Service [Costs]
Jory puts Dell on the CSL

Motherboard Chronicles (brilliant writing, in 7 parts…highly recommended)

Dell to terminate their Community Forums tomorrow, July 8

Dell Customer Support Forum (link likely to be inactive after 8JUL2005)

SocialCustomer: I may have missed this in another thread, but has Dell given a reason *why* they are shuttering the non-technical customer service boards?

rickmktg: No reason was stated. One can conclude that Dell continues it’s business focus combined with reducing its expenses. The moderators were expenses. The support and help they gave wasn’t measured, and therefore to the big corporation has no value. And with the India support willing to take the calls real cheap and recommend formatting for every solution, all is well in the Dell corporate world…

Why is Dell killing the forums, after being open for years?

Let’s go straight to Dell and ask, shall we?

Welcome to Dell Chat. Please wait for an available agent. You will be notified when your chat is accepted by an agent.

The session has been accepted.

{Pooja 12:29:21 PM} Thank you for contacting Dell Customer Care chat. My name is Pooja, how may I assist you today?

{CFC 12:29:58 PM} Hi. I noticed that it appears the Dell Customer Service forums are being retired tomorrow. I was wondering why?

{Pooja 12:30:46 PM} Please give me a moment to review your question.

{Pooja 12:32:54 PM} Christopher, as of now there is no information in this regard.

{CFC 12:33:18 PM} Any idea of who within Dell might have the answer?

{Pooja 12:33:27 PM} May I know from where did you get this information?

{CFC 12:33:53 PM} Sure. Let me find the URL.

{Pooja 12:34:10 PM} All right Christopher.

{CFC 12:34:21 PM} link

{CFC 12:34:38 PM} “The Customer Service boards on the Dell Community Forum will be retiring at 3:30pm this Friday, July 8th. Customer Service FAQs will still be available to help answer your questions. If you need further assistance, you may contact our customer service team via Chat or e-mail for any non-technical issue you may have.
Thank you.”

{Pooja 12:36:08 PM} Christopher, I did go through the URL you provided me. Please allow me 4-5 minutes so that I can provide you with further information in this regard.

{CFC 12:36:39 PM} Thank you. I’ll wait.

{Pooja 12:41:02 PM} Thank you for your time.

{Pooja 12:41:55 PM} Christopher, we are closing the Customer Service boards on the Dell Community Forum for the time being as there certain updates which needs to be taken care of.

{CFC 12:42:31 PM} I see. When are they expected to be available again?

{Pooja 12:42:41 PM} Once the board starts the function again their would be a notification on the web site.

{CFC 12:42:59 PM} Do you have a list of the updates that are being made?

{Pooja 12:43:25 PM} No Christopher.

{CFC 12:43:38 PM} Ok. Thank you for your help.

{Pooja 12:43:40 PM} Meanwhile, you may contact our customer service team via Chat or e-mail for any non-technical issue you may have.

{Pooja 12:43:45 PM} You are welcome.

In Other News: Upcoming Conferences

AlwaysOn (July 19-21, Palo Alto CA)
BlogHer (July 30, Santa Clara CA)
GO! (Sept. 18-20, Leesburg VA)

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Blood and Turnips

Chuck Salter has decided to end his relationship with Ameritrade. He informs them of this decision. What do they do? Do they try to make things right? Do they try to learn from the experience? Negative.

Instead, they decide to levy a “termination fee,” against him, virtually ensuring that he’ll never want to do business with them again.

When a customer finally makes up his or her mind to leave, especially from a situation where there is some degree of history between the parties, is it ever a snap decision? Possibly, but more likely there’s been a series of incremental dissatisfactions that have lead up to the final decsion. Ameritrade should using this opportunity to examine the failure in the relationship, and learn from it, and try to keep the line of communication open. But no, instead they’re trying to extract that final transaction in a desperate attempt to maximize short-term profit.

(hat tip: businesspundit)

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Discussing Haystack

Chris Selland takes a look at Haystack, and has an initial reaction:

“For some, clearly this is an idea that makes sense. The type of engaged customer…and forward-thinking executive…should find the idea hugely appealing.”

He also asks a couple of great questions about Haystack, regarding “who’s going to pay?” and “what if the customer doesn’t want to be engaged in this process?”

Valid points, all, which we’ve tried to address. The conversation is happening here. C’mon over…