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250

Dell needs to service the customer wherever they FIND her (or him)

250 points posted to Service and Support by phubert 10/18/07

Recently, a participant here complained about a customer service issue that would cause him and his company to take their $half million business elsewhere.

One of the dell_admin's responded well enough but for the remark "this isn't the place for this".

I know that wasn't -meant- badly, but it DOES provide an illustration (and it's also why I've asked for a "customer service" -category- in IdeaStorm):

EVERY Dell employee, like the assembly line worker at Saturn, should be able to "stop the assembly line".

Meaning, they should be able to communicate a customer problem to the RIGHT place no matter what -their- position is in the company.

phubert
10/18/07		 There is a corollary to this: every Dell employee should be able to communicate COMPANY problems to someone in the company who will LISTEN... and see that any action needed is addressed!!
phubert
10/18/07		 I've never been in favor of rewards or recognition for such ... the best recognition is getting the thing FIXED or DONE... then, perhaps, making note that you have an employee who is doing more than 'just their job'... you might want to use them more effectively some time in the future.

GOOD supervisors and managers (extremely rare) KNOW their staff and SEEK to -develop- (or better utilize) their skills and promote them! (never promote something into something they really aren't fit for... they won't be happy and it won't benefit the company).

GOOD supervisors and managers are -advocates- (not apologists) for their staff.
jervis961
10/18/07		 It would be easier to do if the Dell community sites had a common log in with the main site. All they know about us here is a user name and email and have no way to look into our account. I could say that my company is pulling its $5,000,000.00 account from Dell and they have no way of knowing if it is true or not. Of course I talk to much so they know I'm lying but thats not the point.
phubert
10/18/07		 Easier, yes, but that isn't the point here. The point here is that a company and its staff should be both responsible enough and FLEXIBLE enough to HANDLE unexpected input from customers or out-of-sequence (organizationally) 'input' from -employees-. Sometimes, it's called 'empowerment', though I really don't like the term at all.

I would call it a company ATTITUDE and commitment.

It really means that employees, supervisors, managers, and executives must be willing to be VULNERABLE. To accept "oops, I'm wrong" and THANK YOU for LETTING ME KNOW!!!

It should never be about BLAME... because blame and punishment (humiliation is a form of punishment) go together.
It should always be about "Let's ALL get this RIGHT"

Like IdeaStorm, Dell should be its own community. This doesn't come about by just SAYING it.
jervis961
10/18/07		 I agree I was just adding that it would be easier to do if the site was set up correctly.
sugarbear
10/18/07		 Most communication at Dell is through email, not pnone calls. Dell admin reports to her dept. Which I believe is marketing. Any ideas other than marketing is sent to other depts. She will not hear anything from other depts on an idea unless they want more info. One dept. doesn`t know what the other dept. is doing. It all leads to the top 12 dept. heads and M. Dell. It`s call the stovepipe effect. As far as empowerment is concerned, Dell admin can only go to her supervisor in her dept. She would also have to have permission to get any major changes done on here. I read on another post about moving chat to the blog. If you follow the blog, there is no chat on there either. If you start moving things off this site to the blog, why would you need to keep Ideastorm.
phubert
10/18/07		 people should get out of their cubes and now & then PURPOSE to TALK face-to-face... MUCH better than email!
jervis961
10/18/07		 So if everything goes up the stove pipe to the executives, what do they send back down? (yes this is joke bait)
sugarbear
10/18/07		 does it come back down!
phubert
10/18/07		 soot?
jervis961
10/18/07		 two outside letters may be right(joke wise)
phubert
10/18/07		 Well, I wasn't keeping it -absolutely- clean... (soot IS dirty, isn't it?...tho it is interesting that it might well be sterile dirt...)
phubert
Jan 24		 Well, in a non-paperless environment, if they gleefully BURN your ideas, ashes & soot would be what comes back down (purposefully ignoring alternate interpretations)
aaron_h
Jan 27		 The problem is that Idea Storm does not have a secure method of transmitting customer information to Dell for us to provide assistance. It isn't that we cannot, or will not help someone posting issues here, we will, it is just very difficult to protect their privacy and provided individual attention.

Aaron
Consumer Resolution Center
jervis961
Jan 27		 If Dell combines the community sites they will have the proper information and a secure method to transmit customer info.
sugarbear
Jan 27		 aaron_h, you could send them to forum, help them get logged in and then use the IM.
aaron_h
Jan 27		 sugarbear, I do try to point customers towards customer care or tech support and the Dell Community Forums. If I have missed someone, please direct me to their post.

jervis961, easier said than done, the forum has no voting functionality and it would probably be difficult to add it in. I know some of your complaints about the Idea Storm software, but for what it is doing, it is far better than the DCF software for this purpose.

@all, I apologize if it appears I was against this idea, I am all for it, we should help our customers, wherever we find them.
But you can help, nothing says you can't point customers to the moderators, or the forums yourself. :)
jervis961
Jan 27		 We do point them in that direction aaron_h. I think I should have explained it better. If Dell uses a common log in and better integration of the community sites. I think they are trying to work on it already.
 
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