Back In Business

Ahh…finally! At last our Intrepid Hero can get back to focusing on the reason he’s in Alabama in the first place – assisting with the oil spill cleanup effort.

[If you need to catch up first, check out Part One, Part Two and Part Three.]

Today he received a replacement laptop direct from Dell courtesy of Linda Kelly, Dell Executive Customer Support Team. And they did put some effort into taking care of him. Careful inspection of the new machine shows it does not match the original configuration for the service tag. They did a custom refit to match the specs for his original laptop…and then some.

The machine felt a little light. It turns out they upgraded his 250Gb Western Digital to a 250Gb Samsung SSD. They also upgraded his CD-RW/DW to a DVD-RW. Nice touch.

An odyssey which began almost two weeks ago, and included dozens of phone calls, emails and faulty replacement parts, has drawn to a conclusion. Special thanks to Dell Chief Blogger @lionelatDell who mobilized some resources to assist the process.

There still is work to be done here. Why does this process have to be so difficult? Without digging into the inner workings and quality control of Dell’s customer support organization there are some interesting issues here:

  • Should customer service be a marketing opportunity?
  • How can corporate get more visibility into the public relations opportunities that may be presented as part of the customer service process?
  • What is the role of social media in relation to management and escalation of traditional customer service channels?
  • How do you empower your support organization to promote your brand?

As Mike Ross commented on my initial post, “Sales makes the first sale, but service makes every other sale.

At the Intelligist Group we apply our Catalyzation Process to delve into what we call Undiscovered Assets, opportunities for strengthening and growing an organization. To assist me, I will be enlisting the aid of some very smart people who have given me encouragement along the way.

Stay tuned…