Dell to change their business model?
Seeing a Dell store which actually sells product on the spot might not be that far-fetched after all. Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of Dell, has been asking his employees to begin thinking of other business models for the company to use, besides its basic direct selling method which has been quite successful for some time now, but seeing revenue starting to slow bit by bit.
Although not calling for a change in its current way of doing business, Mr. Dell does mention that “We will continue to improve our business model, and go beyond it, to give our customers what they need.“ Thus providing some hint that there might be upcoming changes to the way Dell offers its products to customers.
The New York Times article does mention that one of the reasons Dell’s profit is slowing down, is due to a market shift towards notebooks as opposed to desktops; which are more difficult to customize than desktops. In my opinion, the emergence of things like the Common Building Blocks program (allowing interchangeable parts) for notebooks should alleviate much of these assembly problems from Dell. Even though Dell allows customization of certain parts of the notebooks, they might be limited by ability to use only certain manufacturers due to how the notebook is designed. By modifying their notebooks to allow interchangeable parts, there would be much more flexibility and ease in customization for customers.
Personally, I think a lot of Dell’s issues are not due to how they sell products, but their service. It’s not hard nowadays to find customers complaining about Dell’s outsourced customer service in India, as well as frustrations with waiting on the phone trying to get their PC fixed. If Dell wants to gain back those lost revenue, it probably should open Dell Service Centers for people to walk in locally instead of opening retail stores to compete with other PC retailers. Just my 2 cents worth.
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Couldn’t have said it better myself. Dell’s decline is solely due to abysmal customer service. Their tech support is a joke and the subject of many spoofs. Let them sell their wares to Indians, at least they will be able to understand the tech support people when they call in for help..Dell called me the other day trying to sell me an extended support contract, I told them I wouldn’t take one if they gave it to me. Not worth my blood pressure.
on May 22, 2007 at 07:17 PM - LINKDarrick, thanks for the perspective, feedback and suggestion. Have you thought of posting your idea at our Ideastorm?
Rick…I am very sorry to hear your frustrations and obviously bad experiences. I understand we have to earn your confidence back, and that is a long tough journey.
However, I want you to know we are trying. Last year we added $150 million to improve various aspects of customer support, including additional new operations here in North America, more staff, retraining and a myriad of other changes.
While we are starting to see some overall improvements, we are not where we want to be. Right now I can simply say we are working hard to regain our leadership in customer service and support.
If you are interested in additional details you might find the recent 3 part interview with Dick Hunter our head of customer support at http://www.serviceuntitled.com blog of some interest.
Also, you might want to check out Dick’s request for feedback on some ideas here:
http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2007/05/18/15194.aspx
My apologies Rick. Thanks for the chance to be in touch and hear from you guys.
on May 22, 2007 at 11:13 PM - LINK