Hello Again - Dedicated Teams

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Hello Again - Dedicated Teams

970 points posted to Service and Support by dell_admin1 05/18/07

Dell wants your feedback on the following idea intended to improve customer service and support:

We're considering a dedicated team approach for customer service, where a customer would interact with the same people whenever they need customer care or technical support.

UPDATE (May 18 at 8pm Central):
A number of people are asking for more information about this idea so they can comment. However, this idea is not a defined “offer” at this point, so many details have not yet been determined. That’s why we want your feedback! Others have asked if this idea would cost extra or not… in this case, that has not yet been determined and we’re hoping to use your comments to help define the answer.

sugarbear 05/18/07	Can this rep. be switched in case they aren`t knowledgeable or understood?
fxmulder 05/18/07	Why Tech Support and Customer Care are 2 different things ? Doesn't Customer Care means you care about me even if I've a technical problem. This split has always gone beyond me. Join the two teams .. as usual some standardization / scaling opportunity will be available aside the reduced ping-pong :)
dell_admin1 05/18/07	@fxmulder - Customer Care refers to things that are not technical in nature – such as invoices, order status, delivery, rebates, returns, and much more. Technical Support refers to thinks like troubleshooting, configuration, drivers and downloads, and more.
kenjennings 05/18/07	Nyuk, Nyuk, Nyuk I'd like to know that if I have to call back for technical support on the same issue that I don't have to run the gauntlet of insipid, silly questions again.
petzymathuram 05/18/07	Hi, The idea is customer friendly but how can the customers call the same rep for customer care/ tech support if they are in a different shift schedule?/ if they are on an off ? E mail will give a better solution for this rather ? Fine, again even if E mail is a secondary option, will every rep check their inbox prior to shift schedule ( when they are taking rest?)/ when they are away??. I have my own doubts about this idea. OPTION I: The solution will be Customers can be given the same Extension number. This will prevent customers getting aggitated when caught in phone loops. OPTION II: The script: Thank you for choosing Dell Home Sales & Financing. This is Melissa... What can I build for you today? Following this script the rep gives his/ her name name once again & extension number. May be with his/ her E mail address as well. OPTION III: An online tool with the rep's name dispayed wherein the customers can login their request corresponding to the reps' name. ( Care needs to taken to avoid confusion over repeating names)
phubert 05/18/07	Sounds like an excellent idea. I believe we must deal through a 3rd party due to our state contract, but personal relationships are always the best and it definitely helps to work with someone who 'knows you'.
akidan 05/18/07	This is a great idea. Keep the good ideas coming, dell_admin1.
tleavit 05/18/07	Err? I already have this now as a "Small/Medium" business. I dont think it works that well. You guys have like 6-7 different people for different sections like our main rep, the "applications" guy... the "servers guy… the “components” guy.. Etc. All of whom want to spam me with emails and phone calls to buy stuff when I don’t need it :) Of those times when I want something and 3 people are conference in who all try to hard sell me stuff and make my 5 minute call turn into a huge 1 hour time fiasco.
akidan 05/18/07	@tleavit: Isn't that more sales? Salesfolks tends to make proactive on the "buy buy buy" front, I agree.. but I don't see that being a problem for service/support.
jervis961 05/18/07	I have only called Dell 3 times for tech support, each time because I knew I needed a part. That means the likelyhood of me actually talking to the same person each time would be just about zero even with a specialized team. If I wanted to speak to that person again I would have to match up our schedules and most likely wait on hold forever to be sure to get the same person. Even then just because it is the same person they most likely wouldn't even remember the last time we spoke. It's a nice thought BUT in reality it isn't feasable.
stevied 05/18/07	How much continuity will you be offering. I talked to ZXY on the Jan 1. Can I talk to ZXY today? Or will ZXY have moved on to another task or team and now I will have to speak to ABC?
dell_admin1 05/18/07	A number of people are asking for more information about this idea so they can comment. However, this idea is not a defined “offer” at this point, so many details have not yet been determined. That’s why we want your feedback! Others have asked if this idea would cost extra or not… in this case, that has not yet been determined and we’re hoping to use your comments to help define the answer.
lenny_eh 05/18/07	Again a good idea long as the customer has the ability to try a different "Team" if things arent working out
petzymathuram 05/19/07	Hi, An online tool by name "Dell Enquiry Drop Box" designed like a huge drop box / an icon indicating dell enquiry drop box. Once the customer's click on the drop box, the pages get displayed wherein the customers can just click on their favorite rep's name and log in their queries. Like how this idea storm displays different people's opinion and can also be viewed by the entire community. The tool need to display reps name, number of enquiries pending. For Tech support: by frequency of issue. For eg. printer failure/ etc etc. Once again I have my own doubts.... lets wait and see for other ideas to pop up. Now with the PC tune up option, Tech support will feel light... don't they? May be tech reps called "service engineers" can be called home for a fee depending upon the issue........ The fee with a split up of basic fee + additional fee depending upon the issue. Perhaps!.....
petzymathuram 05/19/07	Hi, Retail stores can be provided with call home service engineers to quickly fix the issue.
fahim.a.sabir 05/19/07	Good idea, but the option would have to be available if it was felt by the customer that the relevant progress wasn't being made.
jorge 05/19/07	What happens if you get a bad "Dedicated Team"? Can you change your assigned team? Maybe we should have a mote/demote button so we can either agree to keep our team or dump them if they fail. Give the customer the option of voting a team member off their "Dedicated Team Island", this should filter out the bad seeds and give the customer that reality TV show angle to keep them happy. Of course the "Dedicated Team Island" would also have the option of dumping the customer, which we all know can be a big pain in the [BEEP]. But seriously, the team could be a good idea if it was a true team and not some fictional assembly of people who don't even know each other. I'd expect them to actually work within a hop skip and a jump from each other and we could ask for member x and they could pass the phone to them not go into phone transfer city hell where you get dumped after a 5 minute wait. As for a pay for use of having a team, I guess for individual customers the teams would need to support a good amount of individuals to make it pan out (if its free or part of the warrentee support) but for big businesses it would keep the support relationship steady and hopefully needs for the big business customer would be heard (like having servers which report motherboard diagnostics!) and passed on so as to keep the customer by continuing to adopt features needed to keep the customer.
lindahewitt 05/19/07	I don't think that the team approach solves any problems. The solution is to staff tech support with experts. If Dell splits up who talks to the customer by product line (server or workstation), hardware, OS, error message; then the only thing that will happen if the problem is anything but simple problems, is each section will say that the problem is in another area. For example, in the case of a BSOD (blue screen of death), the BSOD error can be caused by malfunctioning hardware, dlls, operating system or a malfunctioning software application. There is no way around the absolute need for creating a highly experienced technical support team. I do not think that this is a good idea because everyone on the team may be inexperienced or the customer could get caught in the "there is another team which handles this problem, so I am transferring this call to them" black hole. This is not the way to solve the tech support problems that Dell customers are experiencing.
glent 05/19/07	Continuity is important, especially if you are trying to resolve a complex, subtle or intermittent problem. This approach might improve continuity
petzymathuram 05/19/07	Hi, There is also one more update on "dedicated teams". What if a member of the dedicated team really involves himself/ herself to do things in a neat and worthy manner, but gets sabbotaged my the manager and the leaders around? thus stopping her/him to extend a good job? Every evil move will be taken in the name of "dedicated team" but actually it may hinder the entire process. Hence I request Dell not to restrict itself to any "dedicated team" propaganda. This will not work. I am sorry! Customers just require simple, clear and easy ways out. "No beating around the bush". Check with the hardware & software departments and instruct them to provide less complicated means just to meet the customers' requirements.
jorge 05/20/07	Well the dedicated team member can tell the customer whats going on so then the customer can call said manager and have it out with him or move it up the chain. This is assuming they're forming the dedicated team to help the customer, if not yea its not worth it.
lindahewitt 05/20/07	If the rep told the customer what was really going on, how long do you think he would have a job. Some of things that I have heard from tech support reps is that they are only allowed an average of 7 minutes to solve the customer's problem. It becomes a firing offense if the average gets above 10 minutes. Why do you think that reps tell customers repeatedly that they need to reinstall Windows? Because reinstalling Windows and all software, then makes the problem go away........ or at least go away for a time. If a customer is dealing with a vendor like Best Buy's Geek Squad, their typical solution is to tell the customer that making a new hardware purchase will solve the problem and Windows needs to be reinstalled. Or sometimes, its "You just need to purchase Symantec". I don't know what Dell's policies are in this regard and so they are not being directed at Dell's tech support specifically. But Dell is contracting with these companies in India and what do you want to bet that Dell's contract says that they will pay the Indian company based on the number of tech support calls that it processes. This then motivates the Indian company to make and enforce these types of policies, which have absolutely zero to do with solving the customer's problem. When Dell provided the highest level of service and gained it reputation for excellence, the tech support staff were employees of Dell and they were located in Round Rock, Texas. As an employee, they were motivated to do what was in Dell's best interest and in their own, in terms of stock price and reputation. Dell's goals at the time were focused on being the best in all areas and they were. The first Pentium PC that I purchased was a Gateway because the Dell product was more expensive. Unfortunately, that PC was a lemon with multiple defective hardware. That is when I started purchasing Dell products and recommending themf. My personal philosophy is that it is worth it to pay a little more for excellence. Most consumers HATE to continually be plagued with problems. They want the computer to be like any other applicance and to give them trouble free service. There is a tremendous that Dell could do to educate their customers on best practices, especially why it is the customers' best interest to follow these recommendations. For example, tell the customer that he needs to have backup software and needs to schedule regular full backups, say once a week and do incremental backups once a day, which can be scheduled for 3:00 AM. In addition, a backup needs to be taken prior to any hardware or software upgrades. Then if the customer encounters problems, they can do research on the new hardware - software component and depending on what they find out, they could then revert back to the backup prior to the latest upgrade of their system. Acronis True Image is an excellent product. There will be some percentage of problems (roughly 25% or less), which may be caused by hardware problems or where the customer has not followed best practices. From my experience with Dell hardware for their top of the line systems (Optiplex & Latitude), I have had ZERO hardware problems. However, my experience may not hold true for the cheapest Dell computers, so I can't really comment on those computers. Customers could also be instructed in the best practices manual to always save a copy of every error message that is generated using TechSmith's SnagIt software. The latest version of their software can even capture scrolling webpages and is one of the easiest programs to use. The best practices approach could even be figured into Dell's opening up of its own retail stores and one of the purposes of the stores, could be to provide hands-on training on implementing best practices for a fee of course. This could be a win-win for everybody. Dell could make agreements with the vendors that I have previously listed and sell their software for a profit, then they could make a profit (and increase foot traffic in impulse spending) on retail store training and marketing. Stores would need to be staffed with experts. This approach would also make a lot of customers very happy, especially the newbies. In essence, this is really the whole marketing approach that Apple is implementing. They believe in making the customer feel safe and confident in their decision to purchase an Apple computer.
jorge 05/20/07	I see it working. If they have an 8 minute limit, I must have caused several firings already, I'll make a note to mention that next time and if they value their job they'll give me what I want. Wonder what the limit is for the manager?
lindahewitt 05/20/07	Jorge, Just to be clear, I have no idea what policies are implemented by either Dell or its contracted tech support companies in India or anywhere else. The comments that I have posted are based on how how tech support works in other companies. It also illustrates how the tech support function can be compromised by management and create dissatisfied customers.
eileen 05/21/07	I'm wary of a dedicated tech team because I've typically found techs I want to avoid, not techs I want to talk to again.
jorge 05/21/07	Humm... don't see why you wouldn't want the same team (assuming they're capable to your standards), they would know your setup/config or use and know how to help you out by not asking the same questions over and over again. This is assuming you could opt out of members of the group if they did not meet your needs. I could see having a support team which knows my setup and can help me out more efficiently by not asking the obvious questions and them knowing my current debugging habits which would help them help me. I usually only need replacement parts and I just send them the error code/mode and they could send me my part ASAP and I'd be happy.
lindahewitt 05/21/07	Even with a team, they still ask the same questions each time that you call because they do not spend the time documenting the issue.
jorge 05/21/07	Well I assume their hopes are that if you do have a team that the SOS questions will be reduced or so I'm hoping.
brodes18 05/22/07	Let me pose a few problems with this idea, and how this could be implemented correctly: 1) What happens if there is a really good team, people will get hooked onto this team. since people will be dumping their bad teams, hold times for your team will go up. Then lets say Dell sets a limit to how many people are assigned to a team, people will get assigned to a bad team. Then they end up dumping their bad team only to get another bad team. The only teams with openings will be the bad ones. It would be difficult if not impossible to keep only perfect teams, leading to unhappy customers. 2) From Dell's standpoint, I see this as a very difficult business move. The costs would be very high. While I think customer support is something companies should spend money on (it improves brand image), this does not seem efficient. I think customers don't want to repeat their story over and over again with hit and miss tech support staff. I don't think customers are looking for a personal one on one relationship. Since the whole point of this idea is to not have customers bring the agents up to speed on what is going on, Dell just needs to improve their case taking experience. Here is an example. With the old system: [Dell:] "Hello, and thank you for calling Dell, please enter your model number, serial number, etc." Enter it. [Dell:] "Please hold for the next available representative".........[Dell:] "Hello and thank you for calling Dell tech support, my name is John, can I have your model number, serial number, etc". [Customer:] "But I just entered it!"Give him the number AGAIN. [Dell:] "Ok what can I help you with?" [Customer:] "Well I called yesterday and we did......." [Dell:] "OK let me see how I can help you." Then John starts from the beginning. The way it can be done: [Dell:] "Hello, thank you for calling Dell, Please enter your model number, serial number, case number, etc" Enter it. [Dell:] "Please hold:" ..... [Dell:] "Hello [Customer Name] and thank you for calling Dell, my name is John, and I see that you have an existing open case with us, is that what you are calling about?" [Customer:] "I am, can you help me with it?" [Dell:] "Sure just let me look over your previous correspondence with us." ........ [Dell:] "OK lets continue where we left off." That is a simple and ease way to implement this idea without implementing teams. What do you guys think?
jorge 05/22/07	Well dell_admin1 wanted to propose an open idea and we build on it, but feel free to dismantle it. I think its a great idea, because the customer can aid in helping themselves by helping form and mold their group/team. The call could go like this: [Dell]: "Dell {company X or Group X} Support, how can I help you on this glorious day!" [Customer]: (thinking to themselves, whats this guy on?) "Yea, its Bob, the Dell Workstation we bought last year has a faulty hard drive and is making that whinning screechy sound like they do when they go belly up and the system won't boot anymore and well the Dell Diag reports all else is fine and can't mount the drive" (again thinking to themselves, damn another drive! Segate you blow!) [Dell]: "Let me look up your machine list, yea, there it is, verify the serial number." [Customer]: "FF55FF55." [Dell]: "Yes thats it, lets see it shipped with a 250 Gig SATA drive 7,200 RPM, correct?" [Customer]: "Yea thats it, when can I get it?" [Dell]: "It will be out tomorrow and get to you by 2 days or do you need it expidited?" [Customer]: "It can wait, I need day off anyway. Later." [Dell]: "Later Bob, looks like ^insert customers favorite team^ took a dump last week, our Dell Sponsored ^insert Dell sponsored team^ really killed them, haven't seen such a slaughter since your Idea got demoted into the negative 1000's :) :) :)" [Customer]: "I'm gonna kill you!" "Just ship the drive Dell Boy!" [Dell]: "Owned!" [Customer]: "click" as he hangs up.
brodes18 05/22/07	@jorge, What are the chances of training all of Dell's tech support to be the customer's buddy?
jervis961 05/22/07	That would be AWESOME.
jorge 05/22/07	Chances are extremely high! They want to work as much as the customer does.
madell 05/23/07	This is a great idea to offer to large customers...like a university. I wouldn't dare do it for small organizations or individuals, despite as much of a warm fuzzy it may give them. I do think individuals and small orgs should have options on native language support.
claypidgeon 05/25/07	Ditto @lindahewitt: Service tech's get graded on many items, including average handle time (mine averaged around 27 minutes and I didn't tell the customer to reinstall the OS and then hangup, I had upto 5 hour calls but that was the last call the customer had on that issue). If the center gets paid by "call", then management at that center is going to manage the process to get the most calls through, "duh" and another prime example of Dell not actively managing the center. Ownership can be good, but the don't really think this will help the customer at all. The better "team" concept might be a "regional" team and I stress might. Warm and fuzzy doesn't fix the issue.
lindahewitt 05/25/07	Claypidgeon, "Warm and fuzzy doesn't fix the issue." I agree completely.
claypidgeon 05/25/07	Here is how the customer wants the conversation [Dell]: Hello, how can I help you? [Customer]: My internet doesn't work. [Dell]: Certainly we can try to find the cause of the issue. ....[go through steps I would do if it was on my tech desk].... [Dell]: Opps, it appears your motherboard is bad, let's send a tech and motherboard. [Customer]: Great when can I expect the tech? [Dell]: Tomorrow [and the tech actually shows up tomorrow with the right part and it fixes the issue] ** Do you guys really understand how phenomenal this NBD service dell actually provides you?? Yes it could be a lot better but it is still the best. Try it with Apple - good luck** What can Dell do to make this happen?? With this idea?? With any of these three ideas?? I have an answer, does anyone else?
sle2 05/27/07	Last year my XPS Gen 1 notebook died- fried mother board. Sent it back to Dell. What I hated about this is 1) cost $500 to fix with $100 refunded after complaining 8 times that my pc was not fixed in one month's time. 2) took a whole month to fix.when it was supposed to take only 10 -14 days. My pc was placed on hold for 2 weeks during service without them notifying me so the promised 10-14 days hense the 4 and 1/2 weeks. 3) was sent to my home via DHL while I was away on vacaton after I had called 3 times to tell them not to delver it while I was away. India told me that this was not a problem but oviously it was. Talked to a manager about this because the 2 weeks turned to 4.5 weeks. India could not personally speak to Tennessee where the Dell tech center is locateed. There was no direct number for the tech center. 5) Not only was my pc sitting in my driveway while I was away (could have at least put it on the front porch) but it sat in the rain until my neighbor saw it and took it in. 6) Paid $3500 for pc that only lasted 2 years. 7) Called the customer serv number and got and got a different person each time who could only look at posts on their terminals from my previous calls. TALK ABOUT FRUSTRATION!!!! That was my only pc at the time. Every time I called they told me it was going out in 2 days. which turned into a month. THis experience totally angered me against Dell. I will never pay dell top price for such an awful experience again. There was NO ONE IN THIS COUNTRY TO COMPLAN TO!!! WHY CALL INDIA TO COMPLAIN ABOUT SHABBY CUSTOMER SEVICE WHEN YOU ARE TALKING TO A SUBCONTRACTOR!!!!!!!
jorge 05/27/07	Owned!
lindahewitt 05/27/07	RE: sle2's problem If Dell had retail stores in urban areas, then this problem computers could be delivered to the storefront and the customer would have a contact person, who would certainly know how to get things expedited. Instead of having the retail storefronts building computers, why not have them repair. Again the key is hiring top notch experts. Does the Dell management have any idea how many customers that they lose forever because a customer is frustrated and there is no one at Dell that they can contact about their problem to get it resolved. This is just another problem with outsourcing everything to subcontractors, who are certainly not going to provide an unhappy customer the contact information, so that the customer can complain to Dell about the subcontractor's lack of performance. When is Dell going to step up and commit to the changes that have to be made, if this situation is going to get better. FYI .... I find it very interesting at sle2 promoted this thread, even though this would not have solved his problem. The only thing that it would mean is that there would be a team of Indians, who provided support. This is just another example of a short cut solution being advocated, when a overhaul of technical support needs to take place.
jorge 05/28/07	I find it that its not the technical support but the process to getting it. Also, users error in handling or mishandling the support, they are not the problem (tech person) they are helpers, whinning to them or miss communicating what you want is not their problem. If the user would to just up front say what they want they can better aide the user. Guesses lead to a general mess up on both sides. I want teams, I can work with my team no matter where ever on the earth they are as long as they are Dell people working for Dell on Dell product. Those who don't want teams want it like it is now, which means they're happy with what they have. Otherwise they need to come up with a better idea, which I have not seen.
lindahewitt 05/28/07	When a customer calls up and says I am getting a random blue screen of death and my computer automatically reboots itself. Tech Support focused on the NIC card and had me running diagnostics, which came up clean every time. I had already spent 2 months trying to trouble-shoot it myself, where I was trying to identify if there was a pattern to these the occurrence of these BSODs. Unfortunately, I didn't see anything. Sometimes the error would occur within minutes of turning on the computers, other times, I could work for several hours before getting a BSOD. After I did multiple tests of the NIC card, the only remedy that tech support provided was to re-install Windows, because my OS must be corrupted. Since BSODs can be caused by anything from malfunctioning hardware, dlls, OS or software applications; these are the toughest problems to trouble-shoot; unless you have been trained about the typical causes for BSODs. I talked to multiple people in India and I got the same level of service from all. Deciding to have a tech support team, which did not have any additional training or experts would still not have solved my problem. If Dell's tech support was meeting its prior level of expertise, then I would not be against teams but teams of not the solution, if tech support continues to operate at its present level of knowledge and expertise. As a result, this just sounds like a solution that sounds nice but it does not really address any of the tech support issues that Dell has. What I care about is the bottom-line, "Did the Dell tech support solve my problem?" All other things being equal, I do not see how talking to the same people would have gotten my BSOD problem solved. I talked to perhaps 6-8 tech support staff and I got the same song and dance from every one of them. Re-install windows; i.e., they didn't know what was causing my problem and didn't care. I cared because it could have been hardware and the Microwsoft website said that the error code that I was getting was caused by malfunctioning hardware 95% of the time. The only part of the team approach that I think would be an improvement is to integrate the customer's contacts with customer service with tech support. However, I do agree with you that tech support people need to work for Dell. I also think that Dell needs to place a higher value on its tech support personnel and define a career path within Dell for its ambitious tech support staff. This could be a major motivator. IMO, top notch tech support staff do not get the respect that they deserve. Management should view the tech support function as their primary front line. Unfortunately, most companies view their tech support staff as being at the bottom of the pyramid in terms of importance and financial rewards. This is very unfortunate for both Dell and its customers.
maniacal1 05/29/07	A dedicated team will do no good unless it is competent. I have a M1210 that failed 61 days after I received it, and I'm without a working computer today, over 6 weeks later. On the second attempted repair, when a motherboard and hard drive were supposed to be replaced, first, the parts were sent to different addresses, and second, a 60 GB drive was sent when I had bought a 160 GB drive. I was then called a liar by your representative when I told him the wrong size drive was issued. On the third attempt (currently still underway), I was given two different dispatch numbers, one by e-mail and one by telephone. If this is the dedicated team I would be stuck with, no, thank you.
jorge 05/29/07	All these examples are great! They currently don't have dedicated teams which means you will like dedicated teams due to your current dissatisfaction. Thanks for the reenforcement of how non-dedicated teams won't work and dedicated teams will!
lindahewitt 05/29/07	Various posters have stated a lot of conditions, which will determine whether or not dedicated teams will work or not. Unfortunately, I have not seen anything about Dell bringing the tech support function back in-house, or upgrading the training of every Dell tech support person. I also think that a certain amount of time needs to be set aside each week, say two hours, for additional training and collaboration. A system of sharing the expertise and educating the staff and to what the problem really was in critical. Dell also needs to take preventive measures, which will help the customer but also balance out any additional costs, which may occur as a result of bringing the tech support function in house. Forming a team all by itself is not the solution. As someone stated earlier, the customers could end up with a team of level one support, which is the most basic level of support. Now it is up to Dell as to which way it goes. Dell needs to this process. Tech Support also needs feed back on the occurrence of specific types of errors.
jorge 05/29/07	Wrong. Another Example: I never request OS support so having a team of a hardware only savy team would make me happy, the team could know nothing about any OS and I'd keep them as long as they knew their hardware. Where as some people still need help finding the "any" key and the power button, my team would be useless to them. Expanding: If company X standardized on one OS and basic model, the team could specialize on that and give that company top support by knowing ahead of time the restrictions and avenues that company needs to keep going. I can't believe that after reading all those posts on this Idea and countless other "Whine" ideas that you think the current Russian Roulette Support is better in any way.
badblood 05/29/07	God I hate this idea and discussion stream. i wish i could remove myself from the list of contributors so it didn't keep appearing in 'recent' section and cluttering up my interface.
jorge 05/29/07	Hey complain to dell_admin1, dell_admin1 started it. On the bright side my comment started a new idea.
lindahewitt 05/30/07	Jorge, BSODs can be caused by malfunctioning hardware as well as dll, OS and software applications. In my discussions with Microsoft representatives, I have been told that the OEM is responsible for supporting the OS, but I do not know what the legal agreement is between Dell and Microsoft. This is just what I have been told by several Microsoft reps, when I was trying to solve my BSOD problem. Why not take a negative and turn it into a positive, which would also give Dell a competitive advantage. Why not provide best practices documentation, training classes in urban areas, then Dell should train their tech support staff or a team to handle BSODs, if the customr has signed on to the Dell Best Practices program. This gives customers a safety net, if they cannot figure it out and it reduces the costs of tech support. Then market this concept far and wide pertaining to these expanded features that customers get with Dell tech support. Most of your moderate to expert customers just want to have a safety net. You would still need to have a program fro newbie grandmas but I think that you could convert a lot of these newbies to implement the best practices guidelines. Dell would also make money by selling the recommended products, such as Acronis True Image, TechSmith SnagIt, Kaspersky Internet Suite, Raxco PerfectDisk RX Suite, etc. FYI... I do not have a business relationship with any of these companies, but if I were designing this best practices document; these are the products that I would use because they are best of breed. Package all of the products together with a training CD or training in a Dell retail store; assuming that Dell decides to open its own retail stores. Make the offer where it is financially beneficial to the customers, who implement best practices. For instance, I paid almost $1,000 for the extended 3-year warranty for premium tech support. During that time, I had only two problems that I called Dell about. One was I got a cable with my workstation and there were no instructions as to how this cable was to be used. It turned out that it was for 2 monitors but I only had one. The other calls were about my BSOD problem on the workstation. If Dell techs had been able to point me in the right direction, this problem could have been solved within a matter of days instead of 2 months. If Dell had implemented a Best Practices guidelines, then I would have been able to figure out the problem myself. This is a win-win situation. Happy customer, happy Dell because they have reduced their tech support costs for local tech support and they would also have gained a competitive advantage. IMO, tech support has to be about more than just the hardware. The question is how to do this, yet control costs. If Dell decides that tech support is only going to cover hardware, then they need to disclose that to prospective customers. If that were the case, then there is not a sufficient benefit to me, for me to ever purchase the NBD support or extended warranty. Then Dell would also be competing based on price and the quality of the hardware. There are many people that might just decide to either build theiir own computer or to have someone to build it for them. Then if there were a hardware problem, they could deal with the vendors directly. When I make a buying decision on anything, I look for quality of the product and the customer/tech support. Just a thought.
badblood 05/30/07	When will it end?
jorge 05/30/07	I started a new Idea to reduce the noise but apparently the rattle is still in here.
zeavott 05/31/07	This can be a fantastic idea if it includes providing Dell Customer Care/Tech support reps with their own extensions where the customers can get a hold of that single person.
jorge 05/31/07	Extension number will get you to your Group, not one single person, which is better especially if one member is out sick or on vacation or playing hookie for the day.
claypidgeon 06/02/07	I put a little more thought into this one, and I still don't like the idea, but: If your "TEAM" is a specific call center, then let the customer pick to which call center the customer goes to (or which most people here would say, where the calls will NOT go to). What would this do, essentially award centers where service is king, and punish those centers whose service is crap. Yes, this would lead to centers having longer queue waits until staffing could be adjusted, but long term, this form of competition could drive service quality. What say you?
izach 06/02/07	I like the general idea, becoz it will create a relationship between the customers/suppliers. Over time the supplier support team is becoming knowledgeable with the customer environment, which make solving problems an easy task. /IZ
jorge 06/02/07	@claypidgeon : Dude you just described the concept of "Dedicated Teams", did you read the Idea?
claypidgeon 06/03/07	@jorge: yes i did and the idea left the definition of "Team" up in the air on purpose. If team meant a "few" people, then this is a bad idea. If "team" meant a specific trained person (OS/Hardware/etc) anywhere (say India) i say this is a bad idea. If "team" is as I described, then it might be a good idea. No mater what the "team" is, how would the person select the "team", could they change their "team", how would they know the other "teams", etc. The currect call routing approach is to divert you to the shortest queue for you specific service tag (your Russian Roulette).
badblood 06/03/07	when will this idea just go away. GO AWAY IDEA. BAD IDEA, GO AWAY>
jorge 06/03/07	@dell_admin[X]: Move this idea to "COMING SOON"! I think there has been enough discussion and from even the complaints and rants its obvious thats what these people need. Now where is the line up for picking teams? I'm picking first.
claypidgeon 06/03/07	what is the "team"?
jervis961 06/03/07	Can't say, its a secret team.
jorge 06/03/07	I'm getting Kobe, Lebron, Duncan, Wallace (both).
fxmulder 06/05/07	I do not understand all this fuss about this idea ... it appears to me it has been already implemented .. and in a better format in Europe. When I call Dell and I speak with an agent I'm then re-contacted .. or If I call bak I'm transferred to ... the same agent ... and this until problems is fixed. Of course .. new problem will move to a new agent .. but s/he know about my past history through the tool used for CRM. Why US apply a different approach then Europe ... I also keep trying to understand why all this discussion about customer service, my experience and the ones around me says that Dell support is outstanding. Is this because all my experiences are just with French and Italian tech support ? If so then Dell ... have a look at what your people are doing in those two country and paste elsewhere !
jorge 06/05/07	What its been implemented in Europe! DELL_ADMIN1 !!!!! You stole the idea, what a thief! You're supposed to make your own ideas not copy them, geezze! Hey fxmulder, what if we sell a few Ubuntu laptops in Europe can we swap out for the group support? Come on, don't be a wanker! Mate?
fxmulder 06/05/07	@jorge ... there is also the alernative where US support calls would be routed to some other place ... I think there is a lot of people doing support in Great Britain , and Ireland ... can't comment on how they perform ... but perhaps the european standards are the same ? This would be the first time the EU mean something to me ... Dell you may be the first company to show the real value of United Europe :):) joke aside, reading through comments here and in other ideas + direct2dell - I really find US customer service is totally different from what I've experienced on this other side of atlantic - I'm curious at why they can't figure out this is working here and so apply what has been decided here elsewhere .. the only I can think about is cost or management in US not willing to accept they've been surpassed ? Anyway the questionnaires I get about how much I'm satisifed comes from an U.S. company .. so I guess they must know how happy we are here. ??? BTW ... along the line of this idea .. why not bundle a sales person in this "team" as well ? So we have tech support, customer care and sales folks ... that would make for a "purely you" approach I think !
jorge 06/05/07	That brings up another thing. I have users from all over the globe and if they buy a laptop at home they can't get it serviced (warranty) in the US and if they buy it in the US they can't get it serviced in Europe or where ever. Yet, Dell has people supporting people from all over the place, whats up with that?
badblood 06/05/07	why can't this idea just go away........leave me in peace.
jorge 06/05/07	I wanna know!
claypidgeon 06/06/07	Jorge, stupid legal non-sense. You can get service up till it is time to dispatch parts, then legal stuff prevents dispatch of parts to non-country of origin but you can get international service contracts.
jorge 06/06/07	Is there some doc with the actual legal non-sense?
liraco 11/30/07	This would be great, especially if provided online (at least for the tech support) to allow people to troubleshoot or find help even when out of the country. Would a dedicated team mean that you'd become familiar with the person or people providing you with tech support (and maybe even avoiding all the usual questions and get down to what the problem really is)? It'd be cool if it were somewhat tied to the support center where you automatically provide them with the hardware info and maybe even allow them to see the status of the drivers and updates you have (and not much else however to avoid privacy issues/whining). Any comment on how this idea is faring?
sugarbear 11/30/07	I read somewhere( I forgot where) that Dell was doing a test case on the upper east coast of the US. I believe it was 5000 people they were trying this on.
creativeguy Feb 24	Your sales teams have been horrible so far. They never get back to you after the sale, and you are constantly bounced between then. Getting issues resolved after the sale, especially due to their neglegence, is impossible. Half the time when you look for the staff, they are in some other department now. You still have to deal with the staff changing specs on parts, and you still have to check every order. Your competition is starting to look like a better option.
lindahewitt Feb 25	Almost any competitor (other than Gateway) is starting to look like a better option. This ideastorm website is a perfect example of Dell's policy of benigh neglect.
jackie_c Apr 21	FYI: What’s Next for Dell Customer Service
sugarbear Apr 21	Interesting.
jervis961 Apr 22	But how much does it cost??
jackie_c Apr 22	@jervis: I am sure details on the price will be coming soon :)
jervis961 Apr 23	Why make the announcement without the pricing?
phubert Apr 23	I think it's essentially a 'pre-announcement' not the formal announcement, so-to-speak...
jervis961 Apr 23	Oh, in that case I would like to announce that I will make a comment later. Stay tuned for further information.
phubert Apr 23	:-D Hey, Jervis, don't you feel privileged to have such early information from Dell???? Don't you think you _should_? We DID ask for communication, y'know! :-)
jervis961 Apr 23	I just have a few problems with this one announcement since they say information is coming in the next few WEEKS. 1. What happens to everyone buying a computer between the pre-announcement and the actual announcement? I see the possibility of some unhappy customers who were not advised and miss out. 2. The people who do know are now waiting with baited breath for the pricing. If they wait too long people become frustrated and purchase elsewhere (like with the long wait for the XT tablet). 3. They are building anticipation but if the cost is considered to high the anticipation leads to more anger than if they had just announced it when it was available. (XT tablet as example again) On another note why is this only in 1 year? You would think Dell would say add "X" number of dollars based on how many years warranty the customer buys.
sugarbear Apr 23	Those details may not be worked out yet.

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