What DELL Has Done Differently To Find A Loyal Customer In Me
Working a part time job at Dell Financial Services, Hyderabad, I was first introduced to the concept of Customer Service. But this isn’t a story about me as an employee from when I was a teenager. This is a newer tale.
Rave reviews are unusual, reserved for only the truly outstanding. And this one is well-deserved.
For the first time since my teens, I had no job! The freelance projects that came my way gave me enough financial padding to satiate my travel yearnings and take impulsive trips to anywhere I wanted. Which also meant I needed to trade my Dell Inspiron 1525 for a newer model that I could carry around with me.
Being old-fashioned in a lot of different ways, brand loyalty comes to me easily. I still have the same hair stylist that I did when I was nineteen. It hardly matters that I have to travel almost 100 km within the city, every couple of months to get a snip.
So when I knew it was time for a new laptop, it had to be a Dell.
I have to say that I don’t overall have much experience with buying electronics online. After a couple of days of research, I walked into Chenoy Trade Centre (CTC) on April 19. It was the first shop that I had walked in, to inquire. In about an hour, the smooth-talking salesperson had sold me Dell Inspiron 3567 for Rs. 45,000.
What I bought
Inspiron 3567
7th Generation Intel Core i5, Ubuntu Linux 16.04, 4GB Memory, 1TB HDD, Microsoft?Office Software Not Included, 4GB additional memory (sold separately).
Though I cannot be certain, this is where the problem started. I trusted this stranger to upgrade the laptop with the additional RAM. Which in turn meant, I expected a salesperson to play the role of a hardware specialist. And when I powered up my spanking new laptop after getting back home, all I could see was this bright white light on the screen.
Angry and upset, I called up the salesperson to explain to him the problem. He refused to address it. Since the sale had been made, it no longer concerned him, he said.
A friend advised me to call Dell and see what solution if any, they had for me. I never had any prior experience with Dell customer support staff. The reason for this is that I’ve never had any of their equipment break down on me. First, this is truly due to the quality of products that they make and I have bought several laptops and printers in the past and second is the kind of user that I am. I am very careful with how I handle my electronics. In a typical middle-class scenario, the remote to my car stereo still has the plastic on, that it came in five years ago.
On April 29, my call was connected to Nerin Chetty, a Dell tech support executive. Upon running a few regular tests, my case was identified as what was known to be ‘out-of-the-box’ complaint. I was asked to submit a copy of the purchase receipt to see if the unit could be replaced.
A few days later it was brought to my notice that the salesperson that I had bought this unit from, was not an ‘authorized’ Dell sales dealer and his sale receipt had no credibility. After a couple of phone calls, the salesperson agreed to resend a computerized copy of the receipt. This time, from a dealer who is an authorized seller.
In an attempt to ‘fix’ this bad situation, Poorna G, a Dell Whole Unit Replacement (WUR) Specialist, on my request agreed to give me a free upgrade. Now, the laptop that was being put together for me had 8GB memory and had preloaded Windows 10 and Microsoft Office 2016!
Long story short, Dell picked up the faulty unit and shipped me a brand new laptop in less than 2 weeks!
In a time where a lot of companies want to just weasel out of providing that extra service due to the costs attached, Dell has managed to revert the damage to reputation, and retain a loyal customer.
I would really like to thank the staff that was involved in taking care of this case and sincerely hope that all employed in service operations are exposed to similar kind of training that goes beyond superficial courtesies.
Originally written and posted here.