by on 17 February, 2007 - 14:50
By: Stefan Kolle
Dell lately really seems to get it. After their Direct2Dell blog was launched last year, helping to ease a lot of the DellHell pain, now Dell Ideastorm has been launched. Ideastorm allows visitors to make suggestions to improve the Dell experience.
The current top rated suggestion is 'No extra software' option, a request to be able to get a clean OS installed, without AOL, Earthlink and other additional software.
Dell promises to listen to the suggestions, and, critically, keep a conversation going - reporting on which suggestions are being considered for implementation, and tracking those that have been implemented for their results. Imagine the buzz a poster will get if his idea is being honoured by this enormous company.
In a similar move, Yahoo added a voting element to their suggestions boards. Both companies give due credit to Digg for introducing this very efficient way of allowing visitors to provide their input.
In a further move to get closer to its customers, Dell has launched StudioDell, a video site, containing how-to's, tips & tricks, case studies - but also allows Dell's customers to upload their own videos. I'm curious to see what will happen - whether many people will actually feel compelled to upload positive stories; and whether Dell will be able to handle the negative posts that undoubtedly be made too in a responsible way. If it becomes a purely promotional site it would surele either backfire or simply fizzle out. But for now, the tips & tricks actually look pretty good.
It remains to be seen if these new sites are cynical window dressing or authentic attempts to become more customer centricity. For now, let's give them the benefit of the doubt. I definitely think Dell is on the right track here, and these recent moves should be copied by a lot more companies.
This blog reflects the personal opinions of individual contributors and does not represent the views of Futurelab, Futurelab's clients, or the contributors' respective employers or clients.
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alan patrick says:
18 Feb 2007, 01:43
What is fascinating about this is that it is hardly rocket science, yet hardly done - so far.
Stefan Kolle says:
18 Feb 2007, 04:01
Alan,
Couldn't agree with you more.
"Hey, let's enable our customers to give us suggestions on how to improve their experience and our products, and let them rate the value of the various suggestion so we know which ones could be really valuable"
Sounds rather obvious, doesnt it? But, indeed, I don't really know of any mass consumer goods company that has implemented this before.
Roger Wong says:
20 Feb 2007, 00:17
This is the right direction for Dell, a company which has seen it's share of bad PR in recent months.
In my opinion, the biggest challenge lies in actually being able to execute on the most popular suggestions. Dell runs the risk of soliciting feedback without actually being able to do much about it. For example, a quick survey shows "No more Outsourced Call Centers" and "Indian call centers" as 2 of the Front-Page suggestions. Obviously, outsourced tech support is not something that Dell aspires to, but is instead a business necessity in order to remain competitive. How much can Dell bend before it is forced to give up cost competitiveness?
Another issue is one that the Digg model itself is facing which is whether or not there will be a vocal core (aka. Digg Mafia) which holds enough sway to determine what's important and what's not on Dell's site.
Finally, I think for years many companies, including the dot-com I used to work for "Newegg.com", have been using 3rd party feedback systems such as merchant review boards (pricegrabber, resellerratings.com, bizrate) to improve internal operations/policies to meet the customer's needs.
In any case, I still think it's the right move as engaging the customer is the first step towards building a next-gen brand.
RichardatDELL says:
19 Feb 2007, 21:30
Hi Stefan
Appreciate the commentary and perspective you have offered on both Dell's Ideastorm and StudioDell.
I can assure you that we don't see these as window dressing nor does Michael who launched them. Fundamentally, these initiatives are at the very foundation of Dell -- the direct 1:1 connection with customers. Web 2.0 creates new and better opportunities to build on that direct connection, just as the emergence of the Internet provided an opportunity to further build the direct business model.
Give us a week and I think you will see some early indicators through the Ideas in Action part of Ideastorm.
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