Hello Dell

I work with numerous Dell sites in Asia supporting the US military. While we have had a few initial issues in working with Dell to ramp up our parts replacements and support procedures they were all very quickly resolved once we got the right people in in the loop.

As I directly have responsibility for sites ranging from Alaska to Korea, I cannot express my appreciation for the diligence that the Dell team has shown in assisting me with our issues.

"Things" break, "Stuff" goes down, it's the nature of our business and I look forward to working and improving the process with the Dell team. Sniping does not improve the process, it does not help in "Getting Things Done". Sometimes improving the process is a frustrating evolution but all companies have similar issues, it's in how they/we respond with the over all goal of reducing the effects of the next occurrence.

Thanks!

For Dell, Conversation = 20 minutes with an Indian CSR reading a question and answer flow chart.

They need to address service at all levels, not just their big customers.

Well, I am just about to delete you from my google reader because:
1. You sh*t on Apple and dare to call names to Steve Jobs who created "Silicon Valley" while you pee in panties
2. That was not because of your son laptop but planned DELL PR
3. You smell like s*it

My Dell experience, as a small business customer has been excellent. The only complaint is that actually getting my computer took forever.

I'd stay with Dell if it wasn't for Apple on Intel.

Wait...so Apple doesn't have to actually FIX a problem, they just have to BLOG about it, and that's the same thing in your world?

Holy crap Robert, you just jacked profits all over the computing industry..."GUYS...check this shit out...we don't ever have to FIX anything ever again, we just BLOG about it and ACT concerned! We can get an INTERN to do THAT! BONUSES FOR EVERYONE!"

@5 Cue the Johnny Carson music... "Goodnight, Everybody"

Brilliant, John. Absolutely, Brilliant!

So, Dell's plan is to find dissatisfied customers in the "blogosphere", via Second Life, and get feedback at CES???? What genius at Dell thought this up? That will likely reach probably !% of their customers. Great plan!

make that 1%

That's right, LayZ and John would close all retail stores and, instead, would just put in vending machines (hey, I've already seen THOSE for iPods!!!)

Why? Cause only one or two people per hour can be helped by a salesperson.

Oh, while we're at it, let's get rid of PR folks. After all, Apple's PR makes sure that Steven Levy and Walt Mossberg get a look at the new iPod. Why do that? Isn't THAT a waste of corporate dollars? To spend $10s of thousands per month (probably more) just to keep a small number of people happy?

And get rid of advertising on TV shows. After all, only a small percentage of people will watch any one show.

Oh, and what about all that outdoor advertising that someone spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on (in San Francisco alone). Only a small percentage of people will see that too.

And definitely get rid of anyone who tries to help customers. Definitely do that. Yessirrreee. Promote John and LayZ to CEO instead!

:-)

Your anti-Apple jihad is really getting tiresome, Robert. You've not offered anything substantive to support it, so the situation reflects badly on you, not Apple. Furthermore, you're teaching your son two terrible lessons:

• He who whines the loudest will win.

• Daddy will diss anyone who Daddy thinks dissed Patrick.

I suspect all of this is actually a scheme. You begged Steve Jobs to give you an interview. That failed. So, now you are trying to bully him into giving you an interview by trashing Apple. I hope that fails, too. That's likely, since even as you rant and rave, S.J. is busy hobnobbing with Pogue, Mossberg, Levy, etc., about MacWorld.

Podesta: interesting that you think this is about Apple. I don't see I mentioned Apple anywhere in this post. Oh, yeah, I mentioned an iPod, but then, that's something I've seen sold in a vending machine.

re: "Podesta: interesting that you think this is about Apple. I don’t see I mentioned Apple anywhere in this post. Oh, yeah, I mentioned an iPod, but then, that’s something I’ve seen sold in a vending machine."

What?

"Whoa, a company that wants to have a conversation with its customers and improve the experiences they have? Excellent!"

You weren't referencing Your recent Apple posts?
hmm, heheh, hmm.
Blogs are conversations and all that.
what what.

LayZ wrote "So, Dell’s plan is to find dissatisfied customers in the “blogosphere”, via Second Life, and get feedback at CES???? What genius at Dell thought this up? That will likely reach probably !% of their customers. Great plan!"

I believe the point that Robert is trying to make is that while Dell's blog might only reach 1% of their customers, it is quite likely that the 1% they are reaching has a greater influence on other Dell customers than any other 1%. The negative experience that Jeff Jarvis wrote about (over a year and a half ago IIRC) on his blog was read by a lot of current and potential Dell customers. The fact that we're still talking about his experience a year and a half ago should tell you something.

What you need to keep in mind is that bloggers tend to be the type of people that stay on the "bleeding edge" of technology. They're also the kind of people that Mom and Pop and Auntie Sue tend to go to to ask for advice when they're buying a new computer. In know this is a somewhat general/vague statement, but my point is that this 1% of the market tends to represent or reach out to a larger portion of the market.

Oh look, it's that time of the year, Robert's getting whiny again. I thought it had been a while.

Dude, stop being a prat, and just admit that in your world, if a company isn't blogging about everything, then they aren't communicating. You don't care if they DO anything, they just have to BLOG about it as if they were.

Here's a great example: I bet you just think the Port 25 blogs are the coolest things ever. "Microsoft is blogging and having a conversation with the open source community"

This started up in March of this year. Conversations man, conversations.

The big "agreement with Sun was in what, 2004? What has MICROSOFT released since then to make integrating with Solaris as easy as pie?

It's easy: Not a fucking thing.

See dude, you're so wrapped around the idea that "conversation is the same as results" that you're incapable of seeing that it's all bullshit. Port 25? Microsoft *as a company* has not changed its stance towards Linux or open source one bit. In fact, since the much-ballyhooed Novell Agreement, it's probably gotten worse, with Ballmer making vague threats to sue everyone not using Suse.

That's a part of your "great blogging legacy" dude. You made it easier for companies to let people blog and let "conversation" take the place of "results".

"We don't actually have to DO anything for interop, we can just blog about it, make a few smoke and mirrors bullshit announcements every two years, and then Scoble and all the rest will do our work for us. Hell, him leaving was fantastic. He still gives us as much great PR as ever, and we don't have to pay him anymore. Sweet!"

You can whine and bitch all you want Robert, but the fact is, a BLOG is not the same as a FIX to a problem, or a PRODUCT.

Oh yeah, and dude, you really, really, really suck at the whole strawman thing. Just stop. really.

Dell has posted about what they are doing to fix thier issues, this will lead to better service. You people love to ripp into anybody that is:
1. Popular ( A-lister)
2. Has an Opinion
3. Thinks differently than you.

Who cares why Robert does his post, it has accomplished what he wanted. You folks are now talking about it and it will spread. Apple does not have an avenue that I can interact with, Dell does.

Guy

@13. Sure the conversation is continuing...in the echo chamber. Amongst the Mom and Pop and Auntie Sue's there is already the perception that Dell has decent customer service. I agree that for spoiled brats like Scoble and other elitist bloggers the believe they should get American Express Black Card service it's not at that level. And I know bloggers WANT to believe they are influencing people outside the echo chamber. Not happening to the level they think...yet

@9. Scoble, do you deliberately TRY to be ridiculous with your repsonses? I thought you said you had a debating background. Did you fail to tell us you failed those classes. Didn't they teach you anything about strawman arguments?

I'm not saying what Dell is doing is wrong..just won't be all that effective with the majority of their customers is all. I know you WANT to believe blogging will solve every issue, from politics to putting metal in a microwave.

@11 How naive do you think we are? The whole reason for your post had its genesis with your "bad experience" with Apple. So, at least be honest about the motivation of your post.

No Guy, what will fix Dell's issues is the WORK they are doing to fix their issues.

A blog about said work doesn't fix anything, it is only PR. You do understand the difference between "PR" and "work", right?

I can blog about how I'm going to release a warp drive engine next halloween, however, that blog will not magically create such a device. Dell actually FIXING things so that the next time I call them for support? great. Dell giving me PR about this? Not so great.

Apple has quite a few avenues to interact with them, including one that Dell does not, namely, in person tech support.

Yet, because they don't have a blog, as far as you're concerned, they have nothing.

So I will now submit that "*you* people" love to rip into any company that:

1) Doesn't Blog
2) Doesn't kiss A-list blogger ass
3) Doesn't think blogging is the end - all and be - all of communications
4) Doesn't think blogging is a magic spell for making things better.

I submit that the "blogosphere" is now so firmly impressed with itself that it is completely, and totally guilty of ever single crime of arrogance, exclusion, and short-sightedness that it has gleefully accused mainstream media of for years, and that they have in fact, become that which they hate. They can talk all the shit they want about "oh, anyone can blog", but we all know that's crap. We all know that unless you are in with the A - list, you don't get the boot-licking that Robert et al get.

I'm not even saying that's bad, but please, let's stop with this faux "power to the people" crapola. It's a lie. If you're a new blogger, the way to A-list success is clear, and it involves your lips on a rather specific set of asses. The only reason I'm pissing you off is because I'm not playing the game and going along with the illusion that the "blogosphere" has so carefully orchestrated, and while "the emperor has no clothes" is a great story, they never finish with that little truth-telling kid getting his ass hung and his head on a pike outside the castle walls as a warning to others.

Use your illusion man, but don't get pissy when others don't play

John,
Cute, here you are, responding to this and other posts, just to vent your anti-blogging, with the very media that you say is ineffective.

You must be right, the blog does absolutly nothing, and the only way a manufacture can find out what people think is through their own PR efforts.
What was I thinking, a little ole tripple small case z-lister.

Guy

Heh Robert do you enjoy "Naked Conversations"?

You deserved it! Bunch of people above are right we should not forget all those new information channels are just tools for getting things done, not bullshitting like you do most of time.

As Steve Jobs said "I do not care about being right I only care about being successful"

I guess there is a direct correlation between people who don't like Robt. Scoble and people who use bad language. You learn something new every day.

>And I know bloggers WANT to believe they are influencing people outside the echo chamber. Not happening to the level they think…yet

Well, let's see, in the past 12 months I've been in 140 newspapers worldwide, the Economist, BBC, and BusinessWeek is calling today.

So, if those are all inside the echo chamber then this is a damn big echo chamber.

What you miss is the power of Google: most "normal people" (and Dell customers especially) know how to use Google. A lot of them find blogs even if they don't know they are reading blogs.

The influence is a lot wider than you realize. I've seen many articles that were discussed on blogs first regurgitated on the front pages of newspapers and on CNBC too. When I was in Seattle recently Zillow had a front page newspaper story that was almost wholly ripped from blogs.

Again, you don't need to influence very many people to cause ripples throughout the world.

John: you're right. A blog isn't a fix.

Neither is a phone, but I don't see you telling companies to stop answering their phones.

Neither is a store with a "Genius Bar." I don't see you telling companies to stop doing those.

Neither is a company with a PR department that deals with maybe 50 people in the world. I don't see you telling companies to stop doing those.

None of these things "fix" problems, but they are the way companies have conversations with the outside world.

Blogging is just a great new way to do business -- cause your one answer can help thousands of people thanks to search engines like Google.

Also, it's very scalable. I can have conversations with thousands of people on my blog, where on a phone I can only help one person. Or, in a store, I can only help one person every 15 minutes or so at the Genius Bar.

Welcome to Jan 07 edition of the blog-antiblog war.(It's fun to be here)

However, i don't really see a conflict between Scoble and JCW&LayZ. Blogging does help companies. But 'NOT blogging' doesn't affect companies as scoble strongly feels.

"Aspirin helps during headaches. But it's not that you will have headaches if you don't take aspirin"

Also, if blogging really helps MSFT wouldn't enjoy the rare double of 'most hated company' and 'the most bloggingest company'.

(On the importance of phone - you really don't need
it when your customers are really satisfied. In places like India nobody even thinks it is possible to talk to the vendor over the phone about a product issue. And it's not that 1 billion people are forever dissatisfied with the service they get)

Robert, you said:

"Well, let’s see, in the past 12 months I’ve been in 140 newspapers worldwide, the Economist, BBC, and BusinessWeek is calling today."

When I was a reporter for the Associated Press, I was in thousands of papers each month. BUT, I had enough sense to know that what was important was any useful information I conveyed, not me. Ditto for when I was among the top one hundred bloggers a couple years ago. Your lack of judgment is amazing. The same is true of people you impress, like that sycophant Guy Pelletier. They are a vacuous lot.

And, what's with this?

"Or, in a store, I can only help one person every 15 minutes or so at the Genius Bar."

Just a couple comments ago you said Apple had nothing to do with this thread.

OMFG. I don't understand how people fall for this and believe that it makes people think that a company is actually treating everyone differently. The blog for Dell is under the PR department, not the support or quality areas. It's pandering. Pandering to the most vocal and influential people. A smart move, yes. A move to make the company better overall, no. Don't fall for it. Ridiculous. Lip service.

Dell says they want to talk about innovation and you pat them on the back?

*scratches head...

Talk is cheap.

Dell Ditties are too.

the conversation is well and good... for those guys who happen to know that there exists such a forum... but still, there would be portions of dell-gruntled that d2d can't reach. i suggest a more active support. d2d should be complemented with other things.

@26, Podesta,
Given your wide range of exposure both in MSM and as a top blogger, I have to assume that your evaluation of me is correct.
What I do not unbderstand is what I am doing wrong as a Sycophant, because I am obviously trying to suck up to Robert to improve my own page views with my blog.
The problem is that I average 6 views a day. How will I every get to the exaulted position that you have achieved.
maybe that is what I am doing wrong, i should be sucking up to you, not Scoble. he did drop last week in the ratings to a UFC blog.

Guy the Sycophant!

>And I know bloggers WANT to believe they are influencing people outside the echo chamber. Not happening to the level they think…yet

Well, let’s see, in the past 12 months I’ve been in 140 newspapers worldwide, the Economist, BBC, and BusinessWeek is calling today.

Translation: My Penis brings all the boys to the yard, that's right, it's bigger than yours, so much, damned bigger than yours....

The influence is a lot wider than you realize. I’ve seen many articles that were discussed on blogs first regurgitated on the front pages of newspapers and on CNBC too. When I was in Seattle recently Zillow had a front page newspaper story that was almost wholly ripped from blogs.

I love it when they do that..."OMG, it's on a BLOG, it MUST be true. Hey Robert, remember that dude from Microsoft Australia you hung out to dry before you bothered to talk to him? Did you ever see if your half-assed apology for that when you found out how wrong you were ever got more play than the original "ORF WIF HIS HED!" post? I'm curious, since it's obvious you never learn from those mistakes, I just wonder if the apologies get as much play as the fallacies.

Neither is a phone, but I don’t see you telling companies to stop answering their phones.

Again Robert, let me state this clearly:

You

Suck

At

Strawmen.

I did not ever say that a blog was not a valuable PR tool. It is however, not a replacement for work, however, you and the rest of the acolytes are happy to accept that Blog = Problems B Gone, in spite of the fact that there is no reliable data that a blog ever fixed a single technical issue.

They are a method of communication. Nothing more. Used correctly, they can, as in Dell's case, allow people to communicate with a company that is literally impossible to deal with in person. Apple is not Dell. You can, in many cities around the world, directly interact with Apple on a problem. They have other means of communication that Dell does not.

Repeat after me: Everything is not exactly the same

If you have a problem with that, find a small child to sing you the "one of these things is not like the other" song. I'm sure that will help.

As well, you forget that blogs, like all other PR can be effectively used to mask inaction, such as Port 25 used to mask Microsoft's growing hatred for Open Source and Linux.

It is a tool robert, not a magic spell, not a new religion. The sooner you internalize that, the better.

Oh, and Guy...why not show a little spine and reprint all of my rebuttals, not just the convenient parts. If you like, I can put up a post or two that will really give your (profanity) macro a workout. I'm quite good at swearing, and recently started in on adding chinese to the mix. If I can get some Korean in there, that will truly rock.

John,
I reprinted the one comment to set up how we got to what Podesta said. If you clicked on the link to my blog you would have seen you entire comment was quoted. I did not copy all of your comments because this was not about you.
Yes, you are proficent at profanity, you blog is filled with it to the point I do not know what you are trying to say.

The basic premise of this entire thread seems to be what Don says @22.

Blogs are a communication tool that will allow one person to express his opion to the world and allow everybody else to reply and express their opinon about that thought.
With this global freedom, it brings out the best of minds and you.

Guy

Don't be silly Guy, blogs most certainly do NOT allow the entire world to reply. That's just ridiculous, unless you have proof of internet access for every human on the globe.

Blogs are a toy for the tech-enabled. That's all they have to be, but let's dispense with this silliness of worldwide democracy via blogs. They're a tool for the connected, and that Guy, is a rather small number. Your blog is in english. Care to guess how many people are left out?

In fact, were you not to link to your blog, I'd not know you have one, not that you care. But you have to go LOOKING for blogs. They don't just come to you. If that weren't true, then there'd be no need for Technorati, or Digg.

As well, the comments on Digg show that ten thousand monkeys will never create Shakespeare, just more crap on the walls.

I would love to know where this idiocy granting blogs nigh-magic powers came from. Whoever started it needs to be mocked, severely and mercilessly.

"Blogs are a toy for the tech-enabled."

Bravo, John!

S.G. (Sycophant Guy), even here in the U.S. , more than 30 percent of the population does not have regular access to the Internet. You and Robert have a similar tendency to confuse opinion with fact. I recommend that you actually read some material about Internet access and usage. Start with the very useful research from the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

http://www.pewinternet.org/

John, Podesta,
You are right, I used a sweeping statement without checking any facts. John I am curious, is blogging a toy or a tool, you mentioned twice in this post that blogging is a tool (a PR tool) and you state that it is a toy for the connected.
As far as using facts go, I use the CIA's World Fact Book and it states that a little over 15% of the world is connected (2005 figures).

My opinion is that if you have a computer, chances are pretty good that you will have an internet connection.

Blogging is a tool for PR and for anybody with a connection (Thanks again for the correction). If you do a Google search you will find several blogs, for instance, search Sears Sucks, you will find 396,000 results. Now I did not count them all, but my opinion is that a very large portion will be coming from blogs of z-listers.

Again, the whole point of a conversation as Robert describes it, is to remove the barricades from between the consumer and the producer. If you can tell the VP of operation of Dell that you have a problem, and you show this statement on a media that people will find with a simple search, you are going to get results.

Podesta, thanks for the new source, the only problem I see with it is that it appears to be based on surveys, not facts. Use CIA.org and look for the World Fact Book, it is updated regularly be people that actually count and investigate in the field.

Guy

John I am curious, is blogging a toy or a tool, you mentioned twice in this post that blogging is a tool (a PR tool) and you state that it is a toy for the connected.
As far as using facts go, I use the CIA’s World Fact Book and it states that a little over 15% of the world is connected (2005 figures).

Don't be so binary. It's both of course.

My opinion is that if you have a computer, chances are pretty good that you will have an internet connection.

It's my opinion that most people are too stupid to live, but that's meaningless too. The plural of speculation is not data.

If you do a Google search you will find several blogs, for instance, search Sears Sucks, you will find 396,000 results. Now I did not count them all, but my opinion is that a very large portion will be coming from blogs of z-listers.

If no one reads a blog, then does anyone really care about it?

Again, the whole point of a conversation as Robert describes it, is to remove the barricades from between the consumer and the producer. If you can tell the VP of operation of Dell that you have a problem, and you show this statement on a media that people will find with a simple search, you are going to get results.

See, you were doing good, and then you started hitting the blogpipe. You don't know who you're talking *directly* to at Dell. The comments to posts may EVENTUALLY end up in a VP's hands, or they may get a precis/digest of the comments. I also don't see ol' Lionel's email address in the post, or anywhere on the site. In fact, there's no actual email address, just a "suggestion box".

So other than blog comments, there's no "conversation", just a "lecture". There's no one you can directly contact. How is that ANY better than the feedback email addresses on Apple's site. Oh wait, you can COMMENT IN A BLOG. Damn, you're right, that's like being IN THEIR OFFICE.

Wait, no it isn't, it's a PR manipulation for people with more blog religion than sense.


Podesta, thanks for the new source, the only problem I see with it is that it appears to be based on surveys, not facts. Use CIA.org and look for the World Fact Book, it is updated regularly be people that actually count and investigate in the field.

Really.

You have links to the raw data and details on the collection methodology? Not seeing them on the site. Oh, and it's https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/i..., not cia.org, by the way.

John C. Welch,

It’s my opinion that most people are too stupid to live, but that’s meaningless too. The plural of speculation is not data.

I guess that says it all

Guy

It does indeed Guy.

If you're going to offer up opinion as fact, how about actual supporting data.

Lessee..I have a Mac with a bad CD-R. It's under warranty, so that's good, but in order to fulfill this warranty I have to jump through Apple's hoops of registration, fulfillment and then schlepping the box over to the mall to drop it off with the "genuises" for service. If I'm lucky, really lucky, I'll get it back in a couple weeks.

Today, one of my low-end Dell servers through a shoe. I called Dell, did some troubleshooting over the phone and the parts were at my office in an hour. It looked like a memory stick was bad, but it could have been the memory slot too, so they replaced both the RAM and motherboard, no questions asked. The tech arrived in another 2 hours. The server is happy now, and so am I.

Yeah, there's a problem with support alright, just not at Dell, at least not from where I'm sitting. Now if only the RDF would get potted down to somewhere below IMPUDENT, that might be more apparent.

I guess there is a direct correlation between people who don’t like Robt. Scoble and people who use bad language. You learn something new every day.

bye