I decided to wait a few days before writing this piece, or it would probably have ended up as a rant. I wanted to serve this up more as a considered and thought-provoking posting about the importance of the “total brand experience” and not just the product.
However, the fact that a rant caused me to think about jotting thoughts down on the topic is important - and significant - as I do believe that marketers can never think enough about the “total brand experience”.
So what cause me to fly off on this topic? This time it was Dell.
Being the optimist that I am, and wanting to give Dell a chance after a previous frustrating and painful experience at buying a computer from them, I found that the first pain was just as bad as the second pain. You would have thought that, like a child that puts their hand on a hot stove and burns it and learns not to come back a second time, I should have learnt. But it did teach me about the power and importance of how the total experience is key and not just how good the product itself is.
Here is my Dell Story. The short version is after nearly a month I still did not have my laptop delivered and was being messed about by their delivery firm and so cancelled the order via long and complex calls with lots if automated “press 1 for X”.
Below (in italics) is the longer version that you can skip if you would find the gory details too painful and read what it means for marketers:
- So on 15 July, as my current laptop is starting to chug rather than process and a nifty leaflet that fell out of my newspaper, I went online and walked through their easy to use and specify the features I wanted. I click to order and the site crashes. So I do it again and get an order number. 2 weeks later I still have no PC despite checking the updates each day online. A nice feature but if nothing is happening not that helpful as all it says is nothing is happening. So call Dell, 15 minutes later and lots of “Press 1 if you want X, Press 2 if you want Z” I speak to someone who tells me they can’t help me and will transfer me. So after entering on the phone my order number and twice telling people a helpful lady in India tells me my PC is being made, that the online update system is wrong and I will have it soon. I suspect that call triggered something and my Pc got made after that.
- 3 days later a message from the delivery company saying it will be delivered to my home 2 days later in the morning. I cannot be at home that day as I have meetings in the office and they will only deliver to the place the credit card is registered. I call and change it to the Friday (as they don’t do Saturdays when people are more likely to be at home…). I take time off and am at home. No PC and when call they advise is it coming on the Tuesday. They tell me that is when I asked for it, I have a record of when I called and I did even get the chap at the time to confirm back to me the day.
So after much to and fro, I cancel the order of around US$2000/ UK£1000 (they offer me less than 3% discount to take it!). I go to Harrods the next day, buy and walk home with a new Sony Vaio (which cost 60% more in the end as well).
The Dell product is a good one, if not a great one. They are reliable and take a fair amount of beating and bashing, which my laptops get from all the travel I do. They are the line we also have at work and so using the same make at home makes it easier and consistent.
However, it was not the product that has made me swear to never use Dell. It was the total experience makes it hard to actually buy the product, for example:
- The website can be unreliable and crash when ordering and specifying the equipment
- The call centre takes ages to answer and you walk through a tortuous automated system to finally get to talk to someone, who then screens the call and redirects you. You have to give your order number at least 3 times
- The equipment can only be delivered at the credit card address, which for most people is home and they only deliver during work times and not weekends. You cannot get it delivered say to work.
- The delivery agents take at least 10 minutes on the 3 times I called before they even answer and then are very inflexible, and did not call back as promised.
I am sure the marketing people at Dell focus on ensuring great product and ways of attracting people. What about the total experience? Who is looking after the experience from interest through to using? Who is looking after that?
Who for your brands looks after that? Anyone?
There is a lot of talk about the “360 degree communication” experience and the need for marketers to focus on that. But surely they should be more and more focused on the total brand experience from interest through to using?
What do you think?
1 comment:
I agree with you totally. I have had several Dell laptops at work and know they are a good product. With a son going to college this year, I checked out the Dell website and found very reasonable prices -- but I became quite frustrated with the variety of different website (education, preferred employee, home and business, various coupon site) each offering different promotions. Tried calling customer service to determine what was the best buy -- the told me I could not combine offers the website would allow me to combine so it seems they don't know the system any better than I -- but they did provide a tidbit that Dell specials start on Thursday. At that time I commented that if I didn't know that Dell has a good product, I would not even consider ordering from them. But order I did on 7/24 and was given an estimated ship date of 8/7. Being the bargain hunter that I am, I've checked their website every Thursday since to see if a better deal has become available. So today, Thursday, 8/9, I again go to the site, configure the exact same PC and no, the price is not any better but I do notice that it is now showing an estimated ship date of 8/28 for the newly configured (but identical) laptop that I have priced. My ship date of 8/7 has passed and the web still shows my computer in "build" status with an estimated ship date of 8/7 although today is 8/9 so I call customer service. BIG MISTAKE! Person in customer service tells me my ship date has been delayed to 8/28. Now I am furious -- I place the order over two weeks ago and now they are telling me I have the same estimated ship date as though I were placing the order today? I tell the person that if I'm being told 8/28 for an order placed two weeks ago, why does the website show 8/28 for an order placed today? Of course he can't answer me and I insist on speaking to someone who can tell me how these dates are derived. After a 25 minute hold (I timed it), a SALESPERSON answers the phone and promptly tells me I must have the wrong department. I ask to speak to a supervisor. After about a 10 minute hold, someone else comes on the line -- this time it is a person who managers servers that aren't operating properly!!! But he was the first person that was American and that seemed to honestly care about the customer experience. All I can say is Dell isn't the only company that makes good computers and I can't imagine that anyone else's customer service could be worse.
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