Customer Experience

• Latest on the Graphics Card Upgrade for XPS M1730 Customers

  Tue. May. 13, 2008
  by John Blain, Consumer & Gaming Liaison

  A few months ago, Lionel blogged that Dell had added the NVIDIA Dual 8800M GTX to the XPS M1730. This raised a lot of questions from existing M1730 owners, as you can see from the comments to the post, mostly regarding the possibility of an upgrade program. Given how absolutely amazing this card is, I’m surprised it didn’t generate more churn than it did.

  As the gaming/consumer liaison for the Dell community, I was able to take some of these questions to those in the know and get a few answers.

  First thing’s first: an upgrade solution is in the works, and will hopefully be released later this month. From what I’ve seen, there will be two options, one with an installation package, and one do-it-yourself kit for those die-hard techies. Considering the number of screws holding this beast together, most people will probably want the installation, but the do-it-yourself kit will be appealing to people like me that like playing with computer innards. The price of these upgrades is yet to be determined.

  So what’s taking so long? The core issue is that MediaDirect 3.3 is not compatible with the driver for the NVIDIA card. This incompatibility means that the Media Direct software needs to be upgraded. Unfortunately, the upgrade will require a reformat and reinstallation. Beyond that, it will also require you to repartition the hard disk to make room for the new version of MediaDirect, which is a bit larger. Data loss has been a major concern for the engineers working on a solution. At this point, it would appear that there’s really no way around wiping the drive to make the upgrade work with every feature.

  Since this card is obviously “the r0x0r”, I would think people’s inner gamer would be perfectly fine with a reinstallation in order to make this card work. This card is just that cool.

  I know this upgrade has been long in coming, and I know it's caused some frustration. We're sorry this is taking so long, and are working to get this card into your hands as quickly as possible.

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• Issue Fix: XPS M1330 CD Eject Freezes System

  Thu. May. 08, 2008
  by Bill Bivin, Laptop Liaison

  Thanks to Notebook Review user nexas for pointing out an issue with the XPS M1330. When a user presses the eject button on the optical drive, the system may hang for a few seconds.

  Dell Community Forum users like Vishnu M. issue reported this issue. We've identified the issue and corrected it with the latest BIOS revision posted yesterday, version A10, which will correct the symptoms.

  Again, users that have encountered this issue can click here to download the BIOS.

  There have also been reports of this issue on the XPS M1530. The next BIOS revision is being tested now, and will also correct the symptoms. That revision is slated for web posting in June.

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• Europe Vostro 1310 and 1510 Keyboard Update

  Thu. May. 08, 2008
  by Lionel Menchaca, Chief Blogger

  You may have read about a Vostro 1310 and 1510 keyboard issue that's affecting some customers in Europe, Middle East and Africa. See Bill Bivin's post over at the Small Business blog for more details.

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• More on Upcoming Premium Services for Dell Consumers

  Wed. May. 07, 2008
  by Lionel Menchaca, Chief Blogger

  Since I blogged about some of what’s coming from a customer service perspective, I’ve received inquiries and questions from folks. And last week, I saw Ben Worthen’s post questioning the strategy behind our forthcoming premium services for home users. In a nutshell, I agree with the comment that Dell's Harjit Kaur left on Ben’s post.

  It’s not about where folks are located. The point of the forthcoming service is that it’s a dedicated team of people who will provide support to all family members and the Dell products they own which are still under warranty. For families that call in for support more than average, having a centralized support team that can handle a variety of issues generally means less explanation of the issue and less transfers to other departments. The fact is that it is a different (and more expensive) service model than we’ve ever offered to all customers. That’s one of the reasons why we piloted it in New York first. It’s  a new way of providing support that has proven to be effective.  For many customers though, this service may be overkill. That’s why we’re making it an optional one. 

  In the future, we'll also have some new retail integration services for consumers. Those services will cover both Dell and other-branded components and devices.  It will encompass things like TV installation, home theater setup, technology integration and more. In other words, making Dell systems work with all kinds of digital home devices. Maybe that means I won't have to program my Dad's all-in-one remote after all.

  It's also worth noting that any customer worldwide can reach out to us on our sites like the Dell Community Forum, Direct2Dell and IdeaStorm, or they can also reach out to us in their own blogs, or other social media tools they use. In terms of social media, we make an effort to support customers based on where they are located. Lots more to talk about there soon.

  Bottom line, as all of these services (and new service models) evolve, I'll make sure we share more information here and on other Dell blogs in the growing Direct2Dell family.

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• Have a Question? Our Community May Have an Answer!

  Mon. Apr. 28, 2008
  by Natalie Davis, Manager—Global Ops Community Team

  

   

  Next time you are over at the Dell Forums searching for answers, look for the image like the check mark on the left. It's telling you that there is an solution for that issue. It's part of something we launched in February called Accepted Solution.

  The concept is based on a simple premise... that customers who create a forum thread about a specific issue are the best ones to tell the community which post fixed their problem. Said another way, an original poster of a thread can now select the specific post within their thread that answered their question.

  Here's how it works:

  • Login to the Dell Forum (if you don't register, you can still browse)
  • Click on a thread that contains the kinds of details you're looking for (like Desktops and General Hardware)
  • Look for the threads with a green check mark labeled Solved!

  

  Note: Clicking on the picture above will take you to a larger version of it.

  If you click on one of those threads, you will see the comment that started the thread.  When a customer identifies a post as a solution, the thread gets a special logo in the top right corner that looks like the logo below. Clicking on it will take you right to the solution post.

   

  It also marks the specific comment that fixes the issue with an Accepted Solution icon and turns that comment green like this one below:

   

  This provides a visual way to search through the millions of threads on our forums for an answer to a question, by allowing users with the same question to quickly identify answers already provided by other users. If you spend time on forums like we do, you know that threads can get quite long and quickly! From the usual conversation back and forth to the many steps it often takes to arrive at a good solution, this feature helps users help each other ‘cut to the chase’!

  It's taken off faster than we expected: we recently reached over 5,000 accepted solutions, and are averaging about 60 new accepted solutions added each day. Over half a million views of accepted solutions, our database of questions and answers is growing! We are excited and pleased to see so many members of our community using this feature and helping not just the first user with the question they have, but potentially millions of other users who have the same question in the future.

  So next time you have a question, whether it’s technical or you’re not sure what to buy, check out the forum. There may already be an accepted solution waiting for you. Starting there will probably save you some time and effort.

  For more details on how the Accepted Solution functionality works, take a look at the FAQ.

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• What's Next for Dell Customer Service

  Mon. Apr. 21, 2008
  by Lionel Menchaca, Chief Blogger

  Earlier today, a Dell press release discussed new services we're planning to offer Dell home users. I wanted to take a few minutes to focus on the Premium service piece.

  The core idea of the upcoming fee-based service is to provide customers in the United States access to a dedicated support team to provide support for all Dell-branded products that are still under warranty in that customer's household. These dedicated service teams will operate in North America and have the flexibility to address a comprehensive range of issues across Dell's product line.

  This all started back in May last year when Dell asked for feedback on how we could improve service to our customers. From that feedback three clear ideas emerged:

  • Geeks to Grandmas: Service Customization
  • Hello Again: Dedicated Teams
  • I'll Pay for It: Price Packages by Service Level

  The Premium service that Dell will offer is most closely related to the Hello Again dedicated team idea. But our teams built this program based on a lot of the feedback we got from discussions in IdeaStorm. Comments like these from jorge, glent, and claypidgeon are all a sample of what I'm talking about.

  Based on the strong feedback we received in IdeaStorm and beyond,  we kicked off a pilot program for customers in New York City last year. The feedback from that program was strongly positive—customers who were part of the pilot rated the service they received as 91% positive. Many of those customers appreciated the results they got from the team-based approach, and just about all the customers we supported during the process urged us to make it a permanent offering and to broaden it to more customers. That's what we're working to do.

  Dell's goal with this forthcoming fee-based service is to provide customers with a team of people focused on resolving the issues that you encounter with your Dell systems and peripherals. Stay tuned for more details in the next several weeks.

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• New Dell.com Home Page

  Thu. Apr. 17, 2008
  by Laura P. Thomas, Global eCommerce

  When I last discussed our Dell.com home page here, I said that we would not be going forward with the page we had beta tested last year due primarily to an issue with findability. A recent look at HP’s new home page design, however, presents a good opportunity to look at some of the other problems we identified with our test page, and to update you on how we continue to look for improvements to our page.

  If you followed me on Twitter back in February, you might have seen me note some similarities between the design we thought about last year and the one that HP was beta testing at the beginning of this year.

   

  I tried to find something about it on HP’s blogs to see what their thought processes were behind the new look. After all, they face the same challenge we do of trying to craft one page to suit a wide variety of customers – from individuals to large corporations. But, the only thing I found in the web design category was a brief note in January that mentioned they were testing the page.

  At least one author on the WebGuild Blog thinks it “missed the mark … by over-designing and foregoing usability.” He noted that the segment navigation panels popup after a delayed mouseover, which is an issue we identified in our beta page as being very annoying to our users. He calls out three links that have no mouseover effect and on mouseover automatically take you to pages without you clicking. We had a similar functionality in our beta page and found that users reacted very negatively to the feeling of being taken to a new page without choosing to do so by clicking.

  He also lists as a negative the fact that the page scrolls down “beneath the fold”. This is still a bit of an ongoing debate in web design, and something Milissa Tarquini at AOL calls a myth. We found from our beta page usability testing that if the main navigation was above the fold, users were “ok” with it. Getting all the main navigation above the fold was very important to our users, however, and was another reason we did not push our last beta design.

  All of these, plus the findability issue led us to make a call to pull back from the direction we were going last year. That didn’t mean we stopped looking for improvements, however. You may have noticed some subtle changes to our current page design. We’ve been adding a bit more color and style variety to the rotating banners, and in the U.S. we are trying the addition of navigation elements that let you control the rotation. These are only minor adjustments, though. The really big stuff is still out there to come.

  We’ve taken the lessons learned last year and started working on new ideas to make it that much easier and faster to navigate from the home page of Dell.com to what you really came for. We’re looking hard at traffic patterns on the current page to make sure the top things our visitors seek can be easily found. And, while segmentation of customers might not go away all together, we are trying new ideas to simplify it for you and make it as invisible as possible.

  The feedback you gave us last year spoke clearly against some of the design elements that HP’s new page incorporates. Rather than follow the competition, we will keep our focus on what our customers tell us they want. Watch for a chance to provide input on something totally new soon!

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• Dell Notebook Support - what our customers really think...

  Fri. Apr. 11, 2008
  by Michael Rufer, Communications—Dell Germany

  Note from Lionel: Due to a publishing error, this post that originally appeared at 3am was supposed to appear on the Direct2Dell homepage. Fixing that now.

  "Dell is the company which deals with customer requests best"..."Dell shows its competitors how to repair notebooks and how to satisfy customers". Aren't these amazing quotes? Must come from a Dell executive or a PR guy, you think? In fact, these are from c't, one of the Germany’s leading computer magazines for IT professionals; from its recent article "A Question of Trust."

  How has c’t come to this conclusion? Actually, this is based on hard facts. Every year, c't conducts a comprehensive survey among its readers to find out how satisfied notebook users are with the service and support received from the key computer manufacturers in Germany.

  As every year, we look forward to seeing this impartial analysis of our customers’ feedback. While last year's results were very good, this year was even better - no, actually it was excellent with customers ranking Dell as No.1; with 90% of customers being satisfied with our service and support overall. If you take a look at our Latitude and Vostro support, the scores are even higher with no less than 95% of satisfied customers.

  At the end of the day a big part of selecting a technology vendor is about confidence in their products and services, so, we’re also pleased to see that the c’t customers ranked Dell as No. 1 when it comes to trust and brand loyalty. Against the long-term downward trend in the industry, Dell - along with Sony - has been able to improve loyalty scores step by step since 2003 and according to this survey and Dell is clearly leading the way today in Germany.

  As you can imagine, such great scores don't appear from nowhere. In fact, they are a result of our continuous investments and focus on customer satisfaction and the ongoing improvement of our services organization. Let me be clear, we are not pretending to be perfect, simply to say that our long-term efforts are paying out now. We have a great team in place looking after our customers every day - and it is our customers who clearly appreciate our efforts.

  Note: If you speak German, please check out these two short videos, especially the second one which summarizes the c't survey. It mentions Dell as the great example for excellent service right at the beginning, followed by (at 2:30) a top ten ranking with Dell being no.1 again. The video speaks for itself I guess, and you get the message even if you don't speak German.

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• New Graffiti Contest from ReGeneration and Facebook

  Mon. Apr. 07, 2008
  by Todd Dwyer, Community Liaison - Environment

  Over at ReGeneration.org, we just launched a follow-up to the “What Does Green Mean to You” Graffiti contest on Facebook.  The theme of the new global contest will step beyond ”What Does Green Mean to You?” and head to the next step: what actually “Going Green" means.  We’ve evolved the categories by which the entries will be judged to get some different responses.

  The new categories are:

  • Best Overall
  • Most Inventive Green Technology
  • Sustainable Architecture
  • Most creative vision of a green future
  • Show us how you can improve the environment now

  After the submission round is complete, users will vote on their favorite entries.  The deadline to submit entries will be Monday, April 14, and user voting will begin the next day and end the following Monday, April 21st.  A panel of judges will decide on the winners from of the entries receiving the most votes.  The winner in the “Best Overall” category will receive a Green Dell Inspiron laptop!  The other category winners will receive Dell backpacks.  The winners will be announced on Earth Day, Tuesday, April 22.  Be sure to explain your art in words when prompted because another Green Insprion will be awarded to the entry with the best overall text.

  Sign up for the ReGeneration movement while you’re at it.  There's a cool new section on the site called Café Re which encourages dialogue and self-expression…you can chat with others participating in the contest and view the latest art being submitted by Graffiti users across the globe. Like Dane mentioned in his recent post, look for this image on the right hand section of the ReGeneration.org site to join. Clicking on the image below will take you to the main site:

  

  On a related note, a long time ago, I had seen this post from Shel Holtz where he reacted to a report that many companies block employees from Facebook and other social media sites. We were one of those companies until last week. Now, we can open up this contest to Dell employees worldwide.  

  ReGeneration's challenge to us: Share your ideas about what going green really means through graffiti, text and Cafe Re's new live chat. Exchange thoughts with other participants by posting in the comments section.  The world will be watching.

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• Dell and Goodwill Offer Free Recycling in the Houston Area

  Thu. Mar. 27, 2008
  by Todd Dwyer, Community Liaison - Environment

  In a move similar to what is already being offered in Northwest Ohio, Central Texas, the State of Michigan and San Francisco, Dell and Goodwill Industries of Houston announced today that they will be offering a free computer recycling service in the Houston area as a part of the Reconnect alliance.  The announcement was made at the openning of a new Computer Works store, a retail outlet for affordable refurbished computer hardware and software, located at 12230 Westheimer.  The free drop-off service will be offered for any brand of computer in any condition.

  "Goodwill Industries of Houston is very happy to begin the operational phase of our partnership with Dell," said Steve Lufburrow, Goodwill Houston’s President and CEO. "Responsible recycling of e-waste is critical to our environment and we are excited to offer this program to the communities we service. We join Goodwill/Dell Reconnect partners around the country in this beneficial community effort while supporting Goodwill’s mission of serving people with disadvantaged conditions."

  "Dell wants to make computer recycling easy and free for any consumer, and ReConnect is an important program that helps make that possible," said Joe Strathmann, head of product recycling services for Dell. "Becoming the greenest technology company means partnering with communities, stakeholders and customers to help protect the Earth. Our latest Houston partnership is an excellent example of that effort in action, and brings free computer recycling to even more Texas citizens."

  So in addition to the fantastic tax benefits you already get for donating to Goodwill, you are also joining our effort to remove 1.5 million pounds of used computers and computer equipment from Houston area landfills.   

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