April 2008 - Direct2Dell

Whether we're talking fashion, home decor, or laptops, it's pretty clear that people like pink. Since we unveiled our color Inspiron laptops last June, pink is the second most popular color. And lots of our customers have made it clear that they want to see pink on more laptops.

That's why we introduced pink as an option for XPS M1330 and XPS 1530 customers worldwide beginning recently. For more details, check out www.dell.com/thinkpink, or watch this YouTube clip.

Note: Clicking on the above picture will take you to the XPS M1330 configurator for customers in the United States.

Earlier today, a Dell press release discussed new services we're planning to offer Dell home users. I wanted to take a few minutes to focus on the Premium service piece.

The core idea of the upcoming fee-based service is to provide customers in the United States access to a dedicated support team to provide support for all Dell-branded products that are still under warranty in that customer's household. These dedicated service teams will operate in North America and have the flexibility to address a comprehensive range of issues across Dell's product line.

This all started back in May last year when Dell asked for feedback on how we could improve service to our customers. From that feedback three clear ideas emerged:

• Geeks to Grandmas: Service Customization
• Hello Again: Dedicated Teams
• I'll Pay for It: Price Packages by Service Level

The Premium service that Dell will offer is most closely related to the Hello Again dedicated team idea. But our teams built this program based on a lot of the feedback we got from discussions in IdeaStorm. Comments like these from jorge, glent, and claypidgeon are all a sample of what I'm talking about.

Based on the strong feedback we received in IdeaStorm and beyond,  we kicked off a pilot program for customers in New York City last year. The feedback from that program was strongly positive—customers who were part of the pilot rated the service they received as 91% positive. Many of those customers appreciated the results they got from the team-based approach, and just about all the customers we supported during the process urged us to make it a permanent offering and to broaden it to more customers. That's what we're working to do.

Dell's goal with this forthcoming fee-based service is to provide customers with a team of people focused on resolving the issues that you encounter with your Dell systems and peripherals. Stay tuned for more details in the next several weeks.

Next time you are over at the Dell Forums searching for answers, look for the image like the check mark on the left. It's telling you that there is an solution for that issue. It's part of something we launched in February called Accepted Solution.

The concept is based on a simple premise... that customers who create a forum thread about a specific issue are the best ones to tell the community which post fixed their problem. Said another way, an original poster of a thread can now select the specific post within their thread that answered their question.

Here's how it works:

• Login to the Dell Forum (if you don't register, you can still browse)
• Click on a thread that contains the kinds of details you're looking for (like Desktops and General Hardware)
• Look for the threads with a green check mark labeled Solved!

Note: Clicking on the picture above will take you to a larger version of it.

If you click on one of those threads, you will see the comment that started the thread.  When a customer identifies a post as a solution, the thread gets a special logo in the top right corner that looks like the logo below. Clicking on it will take you right to the solution post.

It also marks the specific comment that fixes the issue with an Accepted Solution icon and turns that comment green like this one below:

This provides a visual way to search through the millions of threads on our forums for an answer to a question, by allowing users with the same question to quickly identify answers already provided by other users. If you spend time on forums like we do, you know that threads can get quite long and quickly! From the usual conversation back and forth to the many steps it often takes to arrive at a good solution, this feature helps users help each other ‘cut to the chase’!

It's taken off faster than we expected: we recently reached over 5,000 accepted solutions, and are averaging about 60 new accepted solutions added each day. Over half a million views of accepted solutions, our database of questions and answers is growing! We are excited and pleased to see so many members of our community using this feature and helping not just the first user with the question they have, but potentially millions of other users who have the same question in the future.

So next time you have a question, whether it’s technical or you’re not sure what to buy, check out the forum. There may already be an accepted solution waiting for you. Starting there will probably save you some time and effort.

For more details on how the Accepted Solution functionality works, take a look at the FAQ.

Right now, Paul Bell is part of a global conference call with the CEOs of TXU, Waste Management and The Climate Group  to announce that our corporate headquarters is now powered with 100 percent green  energy, an important milestone in our commitment to become the first carbon-neutral computer company.

This is an exciting day for the entire Dell team, not only because we’re taking another step in becoming the “greenest” technology company on the planet, but also because we’re challenging other companies to join us in integrating renewable energy into their operations. Put simply, by striving toward a clean energy future, we have an opportunity to further empower the ReGeneration – people of all ages who care about the planet.

We’ve already saved more than $1.2 million and avoided nearly 8,200 tons of CO2 by replacing lights and retrofitting air conditioning units throughout our central Texas facilities. The power-management initiative we’re running with 1E has saved $1.8 million and avoided 11,000 tons of CO2 globally. Also, as a result of the hard work of thousands of employees, we’re running ahead of schedule in achieving our carbon neutrality goal. See the vlog of me below for more details, and if you're interested in learning more, take a look at www.dell.com/greenpowernews.

Our challenge to you: let’s work together to create a clean energy future. Let’s open dialogues and make the environment part of our daily conversation and actions, following the well known advice of Gandhi and ‘be the change we want to see in the world.’

If you haven’t already, be sure to join the ReGeneration and add your voice to the thousands of others working toward a “greener” future. To join, look for this image on the right job section of the ReGeneration.org site. Clicking on the image below will take you to the main site:

Change begins with each and every one of us. Together, we can change the future for our planet!

Note from Lionel: Due to a publishing error, this post that originally appeared at 3am was supposed to appear on the Direct2Dell homepage. Fixing that now.

"Dell is the company which deals with customer requests best"..."Dell shows its competitors how to repair notebooks and how to satisfy customers". Aren't these amazing quotes? Must come from a Dell executive or a PR guy, you think? In fact, these are from c't, one of the Germany’s leading computer magazines for IT professionals; from its recent article "A Question of Trust."

How has c’t come to this conclusion? Actually, this is based on hard facts. Every year, c't conducts a comprehensive survey among its readers to find out how satisfied notebook users are with the service and support received from the key computer manufacturers in Germany.

As every year, we look forward to seeing this impartial analysis of our customers’ feedback. While last year's results were very good, this year was even better - no, actually it was excellent with customers ranking Dell as No.1; with 90% of customers being satisfied with our service and support overall. If you take a look at our Latitude and Vostro support, the scores are even higher with no less than 95% of satisfied customers.

At the end of the day a big part of selecting a technology vendor is about confidence in their products and services, so, we’re also pleased to see that the c’t customers ranked Dell as No. 1 when it comes to trust and brand loyalty. Against the long-term downward trend in the industry, Dell - along with Sony - has been able to improve loyalty scores step by step since 2003 and according to this survey and Dell is clearly leading the way today in Germany.

As you can imagine, such great scores don't appear from nowhere. In fact, they are a result of our continuous investments and focus on customer satisfaction and the ongoing improvement of our services organization. Let me be clear, we are not pretending to be perfect, simply to say that our long-term efforts are paying out now. We have a great team in place looking after our customers every day - and it is our customers who clearly appreciate our efforts.

Note: If you speak German, please check out these two short videos, especially the second one which summarizes the c't survey. It mentions Dell as the great example for excellent service right at the beginning, followed by (at 2:30) a top ten ranking with Dell being no.1 again. The video speaks for itself I guess, and you get the message even if you don't speak German.