Dell Customer Advisory Panel (CAP Days) in Austin TX

I am sitting in the lobby of the lovely Aloft hotel in Austin TX waiting to board my shuttle to the airport, after a whirlwind 3 day trip to the first ever Dell Cap Days (Dell Customer Advisory Panel Days). I was invited to be part of this panel because of my complaints on the Social Networks about my Dell’s computer support.

I think this was a I gutsy move on Dell’s part.

Imagine calling 15 of your most annoyed customers together into one room and then just letting them say whatever was on their mind. It can be pretty empowering when you have had a bad experience and you are in the same room with lots of other people who have also had a bad experience. Its is so easy to slip into a situation where everyone is trying to top the previous persons story of woe. I am proud of the fact that for the most part we all managed to stay professional and report just the facts.

Dell was braced for the onslaught and I think they handled it perfectly. They began the day with our problems and they made no attempt to sugar coat the issues and then they just let us go on. They took notes, they asked questions about how they could have made it better and then they apologized for what had happened.

I am not sure I could have been so brave. It is hard to just listen when people are complaining and not respond with buts.

Then they got down to trying to figuring out where they had gone wrong and how they could fix the problems.

I felt their pain, I felt their commitment to bring their company back to its previous place as an industry leader in customer service. I do believe the VPs we talked to are committed to repairing this issue.

But the big question is, can they pull it off? It is going to take a hugh paradigm shift on their part. They will need to refocus their entire business model. They need to get back to where the customer is always right and then they need to find some way to provide everybody with appropriate customer service for the product they have bought.

The main point I got from the conversations is there are some things cannot be outsourced. We customers expect and feel we deserve to talk to support personal who speak their own language (as a first language). We feel if you buy a computer in America you should be able to expect support people in America just like if you buy a computer in France you should expect French speaking support.

How they provide that service is going to be difficult to figure out because they sell computers that range in price from $399.00 to $3000.00. Obviously, there is probably not much profit in those cheap computers and sadly the people that buy them are the ones that may need the most support because they are so new to technology.

I personally feel that they need to raise the price per unit to build in the necessary support and look to the long term. Those entry level products may have no profit but they are building a relationship for the future. Those are the customers will most likely upgrade with their next purchase and then how many computers does each person buy in their life time? It could be as many as 10 – 20 depending on their age. There is no point in selling the cheapest product out there and then driving all those customers away with horrible service.

It is a very complex issue and only time will tell, but nothing would please me more if they could figure it out.

I hope they realize just how drastically the world has really changed. The businesses that are really succeeding right now such as Zappos or Go Daddy are the ones that provide customer service above and beyond what is normal in their industry.

Social Media has fundamentally changed how people communicate with each other and their expectations of what is suitable service from the companies they do business with. It has changed peoples core attitudes and now we expect to not only be heard but we also expect a response, almost an immediate response to any and all complaints.

On top of that, the whole world is watching what is going on because those complaints are made on places like Twitter and Facebook. Nothing happens in private anymore and word travels lightning fast on the social networks

Personally, I wonder if a corporate structure like Dell will be able to move fast enough. Will they empower their employes to make those hard choices quickly or will the necessary policy changes be buried in committee meetings and red tape?

I hope not because I think Dell has a lot going for it and I met some amazing employees who are passionate about Dell’s success.

Only time will tell.