An experience that I had involving the web where it made my life easier was when I had to contact Dell to replace a broken drive on my laptop. It was shortly after I had just purchased my first laptop and so I was pretty excited about having it and what I could now do since I wasn’t chained to my desktop computer. I was looking for a cd on my dresser, moving everything around, shuffling stuff from here to there, when by the shove of my elbow a small hardback book fell off the dresser onto my ejected cdrom drive. The impact bent the drive downward and I couldn’t even close it anymore. I bent it slightly back to the way it should be, but the drive still wouldn’t close all the way and my day was pretty much ruined. I had just used all of my money to buy the laptop and hadn’t really earned much money since then, so I didn’t have anything left to purchase a replacement module.
So I went onto Dell’s website looking for any information on what I could do to fix my problem and I came upon their Technical Support contact info. One of the options they had was to speak with a representative live through an instant messenger on their site. I figured this would be the most effective way to do this because it would allow better communication between us than it would be on the phone where we might not be able to understand each other because of various factors. I was able to easily reach somebody on the instant messenger and it turns out they were able to help me out and send a new drive within a couple of weeks. The whole process went very smoothly and it saved me the time and frustration often associated with phone calls where you usually have to push 7 or more different numbers to get to the right department then listen to bad quality music when they put you on hold for 25 minutes.
This method of service wouldn’t have been possible without the internet. It shows how far some businesses have evolved and adapted to the web and what can happen when they truly put some effort into their customer support. Having an instant messenger on the website was even more convenient than sending emails, because it was in real time and I didn’t have to wait for a response to come in hours later. I could explain my problem right then and there and I would get a response back immediately. Being online has another advantage over phones when checking the part numbers and serial numbers. On the phone it would have taken a while to say all 20 letters and numbers for the product key and then the representative would have to verify each one making sure they heard me correctly. Whereas online, I can just type the key in and there wouldn’t be any confusion or hassle.
Having access to the internet, as addressed in the latest chapter of Wood and Smith, is crucial to these types of services. It allowed me to fix a problem much easier than it otherwise would have and it most likely saved Dell quite a bit of money since they could reduce the amount of time each representative was spending with every customer. If somebody didn’t have access to the web, they wouldn’t be able to do this and they’d be forced to use a different method that wouldn’t be nearly as efficient.
March 4, 2009 at 5:28 pm
I have a Dell desktop and a laptop. Dell has always been great at customer service. Their service level is the main reason I bought a laptop from them. They did a great job helping me out with a problem on desktop and then again when I bought surplus laptop from Boeing and had to change the ownership registration. They just seem to go the extra mile. I used both their online and phone service.
March 4, 2009 at 5:40 pm
I also had a similair experience with Dell. I can’t remember how it happened (it was my fault though), but the “d” face key feel off. I couldn’t just click it back on, it was really over for the “d” key. I tried to live with a missing key, but like you, I had just purchased the laptop and was frustrated that already I had to live with something wasnt working. I also used the Instant Message feature Dell’s support page and within a short conversation, they were able to help. They shipped a replacement keyboard and instructions on how to replace it myself. It was very easy. I didn’t have to wait for hours on the phone and then explain myself and sitation repeatedly. This is a great example of the Internet making customer service much easier!
March 5, 2009 at 1:05 pm
I’ve used those instant messenger customer service programs before too and you’re totally right – WAY better than being put on hold and being “accidentally” disconnected right after you’ve finally made progress with someone. It seems like more and more companies are utilizing that same service and I’m glad about that.
March 6, 2009 at 8:19 am
That is really awesome, I’ve always been scared to used the instant messenger type customer service things but I have about had it with phone customer service. It keeps getting worse and worse and more convoluted. I never knew that they actually responded to you quickly. I thought it was going to be a lone like emailing a question and having to wait, and half the time no one ever responds. Or it’s just some mass produced response that may or may not have anything to do with your original problem. I think next time I will try the messaging customer service.