Goodbye Dell Hell!

18 months ago was the point that Dell really moved away from servicing customers and started to focus on delighting customers. The concept that drives this is the demand from customers that Dell "deliver technology solutions that enable people everywhere to grow and thrive." Not products - but solutions.

In moving to delighting customers, Dell chose to use the Net Promoter metric and implement the discipline of ongoing improvement that is monitored by the central team but driven by the business. Net Promoter is simple and effective and today, the Net Promoter scores achieved by Dell are reported side by side with the share price.

The program at Dell is very encompassing. Covering not just B2C but also all of the B2B segments, the feedback gathered is very focused on the customer journey and the key touchpoints that impact customers. And this is not the internal view of the journey, but an external, customer perception of the experience.

Side by side with NPS, the central Customer Experience team have introduced the concept of a Net Satisfaction score. By drawing correlations between the scores, this actually helps the organisation to focus on the specific pain points that drive a customer towards a Detractor status. It enables the organisation to really focus on the areas that need most improvement.

Direct feedback from customers has driven the company towards providing the right choices to customers, to simplifying the products and to eliminating cost and complexity. This has been embraced across the organisation. Although 70% of the impact on NPS is driven by Product and Support, the other functions within the company are also cognisant of the need to improve. Change and improvement programs have been adopted throughout the Dell organisation, including in:

• Design
• Planning and Pricing
• Purchase and Delivery
• Service and Support

"Consumerization" is the key. Focusing on the consumer requirements, how they interact - and this includes a large focus on social media - is central to the transformation happening at Dell. Using a great example from the tech4mommies.com website, Gary was able to demonstrate how the organisation is working to turn detractors into promoters.

And it is working. The efforts led by Gary's team, with the direct support of the CEO, Michael Dell, are really changing the way in which the business sees their customers. One customer - one interaction - one promoter. And it's not just the direct business that's impacted. Dell give back to the world. From developing technical solutions for emerging countries, building learning classrooms in China and providing Breast Cancer detection support in the US - Dell is truly transformational.