I’m sure I’m not the first to say I’m excited to see you back leading the company you built. It’s been discouraging to see an organization that had pushed innovation so far, for so long, get lapped: first by lower cost manufacturers, then by the transformational forces of tablet computing and platform as a service. All of a sudden, your company is stuck with a bunch of laptops and servers that no-one needs, and nothing in the pipeline that’s going to move the needle (Venue tablets and consumer electronics? Meh.). I’m sure it’s an uncomfortable place to be.
Note to you, Michael Dell: if it’s a great deal, and it’s in someone’s cart, it’s a safe bet they’re going to buy it.
Not to add fuel to the fire, but the whole online commerce / integrated supply chain thing you had going is also no longer a competitive advantage. I bought my first two laptops (in 2001 and 2004) using Dell’s online “configure to order” capabilities that everyone else benchmarked against, just so I could brag about how easy it was to my peers. Nowadays, I can build everything you had in the early/mid-2000s using off-the-shelf solutions (e.g., Salesforce.com, BigMachines), yet it feels like your ordering experience hasn’t evolved since then. Forget features—the visual design feels like something a second-tier reseller would run.
Even with all these challenges, the Dell site was the first place I went this year to purchase a Christmas present for my teenage son. My wife was tired of him monopolizing the family laptop for “homework”, so I decided to take the plunge and get him a machine that would last him a couple of years. When I got your newspaper circular announcing your CyberMonday deals, I saw my opportunity—an Inspiron 15R Touch for $499. It was a PC Mag Editor’s Choice to boot!
Imagine me, sitting at my desk in the leadup to the 6pm ET Doorbuster launch, clicking refresh in anticipation. Woot! Right on time, the deal was active! I excitedly added the laptop to my cart, and spent the next couple of minutes selecting options—productivity apps, security, warranty, protection plans, etc. Then, I realized that he was also going to need a mouse, so I spent a few more minutes selecting one. When I was ready to order, no more than 10 minutes past the hour, I realized I didn’t remember my Dell.com password, so I requested that a reset email be sent to me. I waited five minutes for the email to show, to no avail. By this time, I was starting to get a little antsy, so I decided to "order as guest" instead. Success!
However, once I rushed through the ordering process and submitted the order, I realized that I hadn't received the doorbuster price. It’s hard to tell, given the way that Dell's ordering system bundles some of the add-ons with the hardware cost, while others are split out with no discernible logic. After working through some higher math, I was able to confirm that I had been charged about $200 more than expected. If was frustrating that there was no warning given that the doorbuster offer was close to stockout (Amazon does a great job of solving this). But hey, there’s a “click to chat” link right there on the confirmation page—the wonders of modern customer service! I was sure that the issue could be resolved quickly and efficiently, as I was certainly not the only person that ran into it throughout the day.
After 20 minutes of back and forth with customer service via chat—interspersed with radio silence while waiting for systems to respond—my CSR confirmed that I had indeed missed out on the doorbuster price by taking too long to complete my transaction. Note to you, Michael Dell: if it’s a great deal, and it’s in someone’s cart, it’s a safe bet they’re going to buy it. There are a lot of fights on Black Friday because people try to grab doorbusters out of other’s shopping carts, resulting in the forcible removal of said jerks from brick and mortar stores. Your eCommerce design basically enabled cart raiding in an online environment. If you want another example of a company that's solved this issue, look at TicketMaster. Yes, everyone hates their service charges and monopoly positioning, but at least you know how much time you have to purchase those Rihanna tickets before they're released.
By this point, I just wanted to cancel the purchase and move on. Unfortunately, your company’s systems don’t allow you to do that online. In a statement full of unintended irony, my chat CSR informed me that he couldn’t process a cancellation either; instead, I have to call an 800 number and speak to yet another CSR in order to cancel my order. Thanks for shopping with Dell!
Since today’s retailer can’t be sure which channel a consumer is going to choose to engage with your brand, she has to be ready to provide a consciously designed, positive brand experience in every channel.
Something to which you’ll want to pay attention over the coming months is “Omnichannel Engagement”. The term is overused, but the underlying concept is critical to succeeding in modern retail. You see, Omnichannel Engagement is the successful retailer’s response to the “Always Connnected Consumer”. Since today’s retailer can’t be sure which channel a consumer is going to choose to engage with your brand, she has to be ready to provide a consciously designed, positive brand experience in every channel. In my case, a poor brand experience in online commerce was followed by a worse “click to chat” experience, as the CSR was unable to provide any meaningful goal fulfillment. It’s important to realize that customers don’t distinguish between CSRs on chat and CSRs on the phone; to us customers, they are all brand representatives upon whom we rely to fulfill our goals.
I could go on about the 40 additional minutes I spent on the phone, either on hold or providing two more CSRs all of the same information that I had already reported to the first. I could talk about how one CSR offered me a $50 account credit to keep the order when she knew that what I really wanted was the $200 discount I should have received. (Actually, I do have something to say about this; there’s some integrity missing from a company that would adopt this tactic.) I could share my frustration with being asked “is there anything else I can help you with today” when it was clear that the entire experience had been a case study in unhelpfulness. But I won’t, because it’s your company, and I know you understand that customer experience is brand experience, and that they are both critical to the continued viability of any business.
That’s what it boils down to, isn’t it? For all of the glowing case studies on Dell’s use of social media, for all of your JIT supply chain practices (that others have now mastered), for all of your consistently good (not great) hardware, it’s really about the consumer’s experience of the brand. For a long time, Michael Dell was the brand, and your customers and employees were invested in your success (and, by extension, the success of your company). But when you left Dell you took the brand identity with you, just like when Steve Jobs was forced out at Apple. It’s the fundamental risk (and opportunity) of a personality-based brand.
For a long time, Michael Dell was the brand, and your customers and employees were invested in your success.
What changed when Steve returned to Apple was that the brand evolved. Product design, retail experience and support experience all became co-equal with the personality cult. While we all mourn Steve’s passing, he built an innovation-driven brand that is capable of standing on its own. In order for Dell (the brand) to remain a going concern over the long term, you’ve got do the same thing: build a compelling brand experience that isn't all about you. I don’t envy you. But, if anyone is up to the challenge, I’m sure it’s Michael Dell. If you haven’t already, you may want to chat with a fellow Texan—Roy Spence. I’m sure he’ll have some ideas to help.
Oh, and if I could get that doorbuster discount, I’d really appreciate it.
Best,
-sb
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