Is it Possible to be Everything to Everybody?

re: Is it Possible to be Everything to Everybody?

GRiNSER — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 23:20:28 GMT

CORRECTED VERSION:

I think most people wouldn't be annoyed of the segmentation if it was only in terms of services, not in terms of product lines.

For example: I am a so called "Home User" but I want an Optiplex machine because it fits my needs in style and performance - why do i have no choice of this product line in the home user section - instead I have to choose the small office section to get to the product i want.

I know, people can get confused by too much choice, so it would be okay, if you first hint me to traditional home user product lines on specific landing pages. You should however give me the choice to buy other product lines in the home user section too, if I want to.

Now it is a pain for me to calculate - for example - a Vostro 1500 or Optiplex for home usage because in the small business section you don't see the VAT included to prices - i always use windows calculator to get the current price (yes, i know, VAT is included in the basket, but not during configuration progress).

From a business user perspective: I want a new Inspiron 1520 because I don't like the looks of the Vostro 1500, but I only get it in the Home User segment, which includes VAT during configuration that is not needed in case of a company.

As for the product segmentation, i'm talking about current offerings in Austria...

re: Is it Possible to be Everything to Everybody?

GRiNSER — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 21:04:33 GMT

I think most people wouldn't be annoyed of the segmentation if it was only in terms of services, not in terms of product lines.

For example: I am a so called "Home User" but I want an Optiplex machine because it fits my needs in style and performance - why do i have no choice section of this product line in the home user - instead I have to choose the small office section at least to get to the product i want.

As for the product segmentation, i'm talking about current offerings in Austria...

re: Is it Possible to be Everything to Everybody?

Laura Thomas/Pyrrha Dell — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 22:42:36 GMT

Categories or segments are indeed an "interesting discussion" as Allen puts it, so let's see what we can do to facilitate it here and to try to explore some of Paul Banres' and Randy Novel's ideas . . .

In order to find out how you intended to use a product, we'd need to ask some questions - i.e. I want to watch movies while traveling, or I need to connect five computers together in my office, or I want to lower power usage in my data center. But how many questions would you want to answer before you got to a product? How many clicks would a visitor make before becoming frustrated?

There are an enormous amount of products and services available through dell.com, and I fear that many might go unnoticed with this sort of entry point to the site, as well. But, I could be wrong. Let's keep the discussion going.

re: Is it Possible to be Everything to Everybody?

Phil — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 20:51:16 GMT

Why is Windows XP Home offered for Home Office Laptops priced $30 more than ones with Windows Vista?

re: Is it Possible to be Everything to Everybody?

Jason — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 21:15:28 GMT

Can you please give us an update on the XT tablet? When will it be available for order? Starting price?

re: Is it Possible to be Everything to Everybody?

GRiNSER — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 17:50:23 GMT

Well the segmentation could be done otherwise, i don't like it how it is currently done on a per product basis.
If i am a normal customer and want a Vostro or Latitude, let me select this anyway!

Please make a redesign not only by workflow changes but also by webdesign changes. Dell.com needs to look much more modern (current cluttered page is so ugly)! Get rid of all those design glitches (some graphics too big, no clear line, problems with internationalisation (different fonts used in different countries, texts too long to fit into design, text snippets in wrong language...). Care more about design details. Get assistance by professionals such as frog design...

And also get better designers for your programs which you ship with your products. The design is often unclean and lacks style. (apple or others do that much better!)

re: Is it Possible to be Everything to Everybody?

Randy Noval — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 23:08:16 GMT

it seems a lot of effort is being put into understanding what customers want to do with the website (a very good thing) while ignoring the single thing that they consistently say they want (a very bad thing). specifically, dell is still forcing to try to figure out whether their business needs are interpreted by dell as one of a particular customer segmentation.

as an option, dell could create an alternate website that completely removes customer segmentation and instead describes what business needs each product meets. the customers would then be free to find the best match for their particular business need. this is very important for small & midsize businesses whose needs don't fall into neatly described partitions and (usually) cross all-sorts of boundaries. why not get the fluff out of the way and give the customers the power to decide what products meet what they want themselves rather than trying to figure out how dell may interpret what they say they want and end up gaming the system.

it seems to me that an ancillary benefit to this will be that gaps in the product lines (i.e. business needs that are not yet being met because they have not been identified) would become more readily apparent and could help to spur additional growth.

re: Is it Possible to be Everything to Everybody?

Allen — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 16:20:39 GMT

I have 2 optiplexes, a poweredge and a dimension. Sometimes I get classified as a business, sometimes as a consumer. I am not a business. I an customer.

There will always need to be categories. I am not sure what the categories would be. I think it would be an interesting discussion.

Allen

re: Is it Possible to be Everything to Everybody?

Paul Egerman — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 15:17:13 GMT

Yesterday I received a phone call at home at 11:20 in the evening from Dell. The woman wanted to do a survey about how I viewed my interaction with Dell on a disk drive problem earlier in the day. I told her that it was 11:20 in the evening, which is too late for a call. I was polite. She, however, just hung up on me. If Dell is really interested in customer satisfaction, I recommend that Dell not call people at home at 11:20 in the evening. I also recommend that Dell employees not hang up on Dell's customers.

re: Is it Possible to be Everything to Everybody?

Paul Banres — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 10:15:21 GMT

One question and one comment:

Does the new web design fixed tha appalling failure rate of the current one.By my count Dell could have sold me at least 5 laptops if the current site had not had fatal errors that prevented completion of a transaction.

Regarding segmentation: the issue is not that segmentation is not sensible, but simply that it should be about the use and related specification of the machines rather than the owning business type. I buy a laptop for personal use because the office provided machines are insufficient. I find it incomprehensible that I have to look in multiple locations on the Dell website to find the various top of the line models for comparison. Segment by functionality not by stereotype of business ownership