American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Results

re: American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Results

Networks — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 21:56:18 GMT

,,,,my timing was ontarget --- immediately after I made the "performance standards post" -- a Relevant Post appeared on the AOPA Website -- I chose to not bring it here until I received a sense that you had seen the Original:

" B+ for Lockheed Martin's AFSS performance "

http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/newsitems/2006/060823lockheed.html

---- its important to note that 'everybody' understands that it takes time --- but stepping up to the plate and setting standards followed by:

"Lockheed's managers told AOPA that they are serious about responding to and resolving pilot complaints. Any complaint — whether by phone or to their Web site — will be investigated by the facility manager, and the pilot will get an answer, usually within a day or two."

,,,,goes a long way to smoothing "ruffled feathers" (pun intended )

re: American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Results

Lionel_Menchaca — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 04:05:10 GMT

Susan: Sorry about the frustrations about contacting XPS support. Please re-issue a comment with your contact info (not to be published) and I'll have someone contact you.

re: American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Results

Laura_Bosworth — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 03:58:41 GMT

Fellow Bloggers: lots of great points that you are bringing up.

Networks: great ideas around performance standards. It is definintely not something that we are doing in the consumer side of our business. And, as many of you are attesting to, we need to get our performance a bit higher before we are meeting any "standards" we would want to measure ourselves to. Rest assured that internally we have these types of targets... but I know that doesn't help you much. We need to deliver and beat them for you all to feel the difference. But, I think this is a really cool idea and something we ought to consider in the future.

Having said that - it is relatively common for us to have these type of contractual agreements with our business customers. They are usually referred to as Service Level Agreements (SLAs). In most cases there are regular "account reviews" where the customer and the account team walk through the details of the performance on next-business-day or 4-hour parts replacement, for example. So you are right on track with the need to have these.

KerryK: you have definintely hit on something that is a big concern - a dissatisfied install base. We are doing all that we can to "right the wrongs" for people contacting us now - because we know that each customer is far more influential on their freinds and family than any one of us "high profile bloggers" can possibly be. We know that we are on a journey of improvement and we feel like we need to start talking about it...even though we have a long way to go. Hopefully positive word of mouth can help bring back customers that we have, regretfully, lost.

re: American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Results

Networks — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 18:16:02 GMT

Kerry K, I agree with your major points ...and (as I have communicated to Dell in at least one of my posts) am refraining from purchasing or referring clients until I get some reassurance that they can resolve some of their issues.

The major problem I have is that I have some Clients that I referred (based on a previous Dell environment) that are getting caught "between a problem (purchase?) and a totally non-responsive vendor (Dell)." Do I "try" to be heard and hopefully effect some change or do I "swallow real hard" and "take my licks." My world is sufficently small that I can't afford dissatisfied customers.

As I have expressed elsewhere, I think Dell should be spending some energy working on Dell's Problems ...am I encouraged by what I see on his site: No!!!

Do I think this site is going to influence "people to buy DELL" ..Not the way its going.

Do I think Dell has the ability to make this site "work" ....yes(~~), (Lionel is working really hard, I also sense that he's getting really frustrated) ...BUT, I think the window of opportunity is closing really fast (it's getting really nasty (hostile))

re: American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Results

Networks — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 17:51:17 GMT

Dell should set performance standards, publish those standards,
provide the customers with a means of reporting failures to meet those
standards.

**And, then go the extra step: when the customer reports
the failure ,,,respond in two ways: (1.) Contact the customer and
communicate that you care, and (2.) Contact the 'unit' that failed to
meet the standard and (a.) administer the appropriate consequences and (b.) tweak the system so the standards are met or the standards are changed.

I understand failure --- I don't understand continuing to make
the same mistake over, and over, and over

I explain to my clients that the warranty on the hardware is
simply an admission that making the hardware perfect is simply too
expensive -- "if it fails,we fix it" and we do it within these
"performance standards" (e.g. next-day-on-site, gold support, standard
support)

*** interestingly, I'm not seeing complaints about the hardware
or warranty (battery recall excluded) -- what I am seeing is
complaints about the "performance standards" (e.g. unintelligible
techs, messed up orders, failure to enter into a dialogue) ---- I
think what I'm suggesting is a "Performance Standards Warranty"

A example would be:

http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/newsitems/2005/050203fss.html

"FAA announced that Lockheed Martin had won the contract to run the
flight service system"

"...pilots are going to get a contractual guarantee that a live
briefer will answer their phone calls within 20 seconds and
acknowledge their radio calls within five seconds. Flight plans will
be filed within three minutes. It's in the contract."

"First and foremost, pilots — the "customers" — must be satisfied
with the "quality, timeliness, accuracy, customer service, and
relevance of overall and specific services received." The FAA is
requiring the contractor to regularly survey pilots to make sure.

A senior Lockheed manager told Boyer, "We want to hear from AOPA.
Anytime your members have a problem, let us know. We want to fix it.
You have my pledge."

re: American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Results

Diverse — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 00:15:20 GMT

I would rate my "customer experience" with a Dell defective computer as a two on a scale of zero to ten. Dell gets a two only because my calls were answered relatively promptly without that exasperating wait that starts out any conversation with the caller in a bad mood. Everything else about the experience was filled with frustration and grief. And, I mean everything!

The price of Dell's stock, gone down from 32 to 21 and falling, and the analysts negative reports, shows that regardless of how well Dell may say they are doing, the company is having lots of problems with sales. If my unpleasant experience is anywhere typical then dissatisfied customers are using the only means the have of getting even. Why aren't you using that means instead of griping about it here?

I understand the purpose of this blog is to give badly treated customers a place to vent where they think that someone really cares. But, what I want to know is who are the rest of the "500 readers" as stated by the executive in her blog? I mean, what could you possibly get from the patronizing platitudes supposedly written by a globe-trotting busy executive? Or, are you just company shills pretending to be customers? I would be really interested to read your posts as to why you would bother to return to this vanity blog if you had no gripe.

As for me, I'm going to show my dissatisfaction by hitting 'em in the pocketbook.

re: American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Results

Kerry K — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 14:35:18 GMT

Networks, while your advice to Dell seems sound and your attempt to offer them help is admirable, both you and Dell have overlooked one important factor, listening to customers now, does nothing to soothe the customer base that has been Dell’d in the past. Like you, Networks, I had one (and all it took was one) extremely frustrating experience trying to get my Dell computer repaired. I won’t bore you with the details, but I have never bought a Dell again, and I’ve prevented the sale of literally hundreds of Dell computers to clients simply by recounting my (now 4 year old) example of Dell’s customer service. I’m not trying to get even with Dell, I’m just trying to save my clients the frustration (and expense) of dealing with a company whose service model is simply broken. I suspect there are a lot of other people who are in the same boat as me and collectively, it seems, we may be having an impact on Dell’s bottom line whether intended or not. Dell has attempted to right the wrongs they’ve committed with several high-profile bloggers whose visibility provides them with the power to influence many other people’s buying decisions, and that’s smart business, but Dell really has no other way of identifying random customers like me, who also, to a greater or lesser degree, have the ability to steer business away from Dell. Dell’s challenge is further complicated by the fact that there are plenty of readily available, suitable alternatives, so why would I even need to take a chance by buying anything Dell again?

That IMHO, is the biggest challenge that faces Ms. Bosworth and Dell.

re: American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Results

susan — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 18:41:13 GMT

i am completely dissatisfied with the quality of support. i have an xps top of the line system with premium support and extended warranty service. still i get routed to india. i thought dell brought tech support back to the us. you should really consider doing that. it would go a long way toward reducing the hostility people feel toward dell.... or perhaps you want to go the way of gateway.

i am tired of repeating the same question over and over again... and hanging up over and over again until i finally reach someome with whom i can communicate.

i cannot even find a telephone number for the executive office to register a complaint or reach the senir tech i had worked with at one time since only 7 digit extensions are now accepted.....

after 4 dell desktops and 3 lap tops, my next machine will be a mac....

re: American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Results

Networks — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:31:51 GMT

Ms. Bosworth:

..in the middle of the night I realized that maybe it wasn't your staff that "we" most need to get involved ----maybe it would be useful to involve the technician that takes seven days to meet the "next day on-site" commitment, or the manager (after taking more than 45 days to respond) who defends the tech by saying the customer "misperceives" what "next day on-site" 'actually means', or the Rep that says 'there is no corporate office' to direct a complaint to

....I have a suspicion that they might be able (if willing and motivated) to provide insight into the "Customer Experience"

p.s. ooops!!!! ,,,but "we" need for you and your staff to listen and respond ....surely, Dell doesn't believe what I described above is an 'acceptable' "Customer Experience"

PC Magazine Reader Satisfaction Survey

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