I am a longtime user of both DELL and Apple. I’m writing this post from my MacBook Pro and I designed the graphic above on my DELL desktop (I moved from office to couch to watch the BCS Championship Game otherwise I probably would have finished this on the DELL). I’m a fan of Steve Jobs, I’ve had two iPods die (post warranty expiration) and I experienced DELL hell firsthand in 2004. I’ve experience the best and worst of both and don’t feel that I lean one way or the other when it comes to Mac vs DELL.
However, watching the disappointment from the final Macworld this week and hearing the success of DELL at CES, I believe the momentum is changing between Apple and DELL. Social media being the component that differentiates the two apart. Here are three reasons why 2009 will be “The Year of DELL.”
1) Real People
Big business is faux pas. I dislike big companies for the same reason you do (e.g. Corporate greed, CEO scandals, unprecedented bailouts). Edelman’s Steve Rubel wrote an excellent post on his Micro Persuasion Blog titled “Three Reasons the Internet is Eroding Apple’s mojo,” explaining that in today’s economy, “employees and ‘a person like me’ are far more trusted, according to data from the Edelman Trust Barometer.”
DELL has people like me. Apple…? None that I know of.
Richard Binhammer (aka RichardAtDELL) is DELL’s “person like me”. If you have ever voiced a problem, concern, or complaint online about DELL, you’ve probably heard from him. He is a senior manager at DELL yet spends his entire day interacting with people on blogs, Twitter, and other social networking applications. He’s just one example of how the entire company has shifted it’s focus on embracing the global conversation. Here is a recent sample from RichardatDELL’s twitter account:
This type of response is immediate, authentic and genuine. If you continue reading RichardatDELL’s Twitter page you’ll see personal messages mixed customer service responses. You get to know him. You learn that he’s Canadian and has a good sense of humor. This type of transparency shifts the perspective from corporate, to personal. When companies apologize, nobody cares. When RichardatDELL apologizes, its an entirely different story.
2) Community
Dell has invested a tremendous amount of resources in building communities online. Ranging from the award winning IdeaStorm that allows DELL customers to make suggestions and product recommendations, to ReGeneration.org, a community built on spreading environmental awareness, DELL is redefining what it means to be a customer.
If you’ve never visited one of DELL’s online communities, I strongly recommend their new Facebook page created for small and medium sized businesses to learn about using social media to grow their business (2,500 fans and growing). Here’s their introductory caption for the page:
Based on our experience at Dell and conversations with customers, we created a series of “Social Media Guides” to help small and medium businesses effectively use these tools to grow and better serve customers. Each guide includes an overview of the approach, the opportunity, tips for getting started, examples of best practices and case studies. We hope these guides help take the mystery out of social media and also spark conversation and idea sharing. Please join the conversation on the Discussion Board below.
In 2009 you will see these communities explode (in a good way). DELL will make new friends, new followers, and continue building genuine relationships with people online.
3) Products
Apple has set the bar extremely high for tech products. To catch Apple in 2009 is would be impossible however I am predicting DELL to close this gap significantly (gap being the delta in stock price. See graphic to the left). Unlike most tech predictions, mine will be tested within the next 24 hours since DELL is scheduled to debut at CES TODAY! Look for high quality aesthetic design at a price that makes sense. This will be their game changer. I’m also REALLY excited to see how DELL has incorporated the suggestions generated from IdeaStorm into this new generation of products!
The end game
DELL is listening, engaging, and communicating with customers like no other company in the history of business. Their doing this at a time when traditional one-way advertising and messaging have become unwanted and unfashionable. 2009 will be the Year of DELL, paving the way for social media and a new set of marketers.
Your Thoughts and Feedback?
What do you think? Does DELL have it in them? Can they close the gap? What about Apple? I didn’t mention anything about Steve Jobs but how does his health factor into all of this?
Update #1
First glimpse of DELL’s new game changing product line — the Adamo! (From Engadget)
Hoping to do some fun and useful things up at the server end too, start at Dell on Monday. Thanks for posting an interesting perspective!
I hear that they have some pretty amazing things rolling out on the server level! I lack the technical know-how on that level so I dare not to venture…
So you starting at DELL on Monday? Cool. Congrats.
AND great blog too! http://cathcam.wordpress.com/
I have always been a fan of Dell but recently switched to Mac for several reasons. One of which is Dell’s 1-800 customer service line and the hours on end I have spent talking to someone I can’t understand who keeps telling me things that I already know. I think it’s great that they are trying to communicate with their customers through social media. I don’t however, think social media is universal enough for their twitter and facebook accounts to replace the 1-800 customer service so I would hope they would try to improve it. I’ve heard complaints from many people about having to call Dell.
It does seem like they are moving in the right direction by embracing social media. I look forward to see how Dell develops throughout 2009.
Dave
this is great… but Apple “innovations” seems to be much more authentic (it´s just me or the Adamo computer looks like a Macbook?). I wish Dell could try to be a step ahead and give a shot on incorporating new real features, materials or anything into their products, that in fact would be something that could make the company beat Apple.
Btw just adding to what David Spinks said, it´s really cool to have all this initiatives and drop loads of money on it but if you call them and can´t get your problem solved it simply don´t worth the cost.
Thank you for the feedback, Derek. Mark, welcome!
Social media — all forms — are great for listening, learning and engaging in direct relationships with customers and others. Hopefully we continue to get better all the time and address some of the matters raised by Denis and David
Thanks for the feedback
WOW! What a wonderful group of people that responded! Thank you all for sharing your thoughts, this is really great. My B School teacher tells us that this is blog to read! Do you agree?
I have to admit that it is kinda fun to watch something grow from it’s first post. I’m hoping Derek (The author) takes this thing big time!
As a user of both Apple and Dell, I wonder if David S has tried contacting support or has dealt with the “technicions” at Apple or Apple stores, respectively? If you think Dell is poor, after those experiences, I believe you might reconsider your position.
The thing about tech support — regardless which company provides it — is that the initial layer of support is staffed with, well, for lack of a better term, unskilled people. These folks, as nice as they often are, are not actual technicians or engineers and mostly are just reading from keyword driven scripts.
Dell’s support is very self-help centric, which I, personally, prefer anyway. I can typically cut-to-chase, without having to call anyone and resolve my issue(s.) Which btw, are almost always, self-induced. (Upgrading to Vista, installing SuSe or RedHat, etc, etc.) However, in those rare occasions that I do need to speak with someone at Dell, I have easily gotten my calls “escalated” to highly skilled Engineers! That, however, has NOT been the case at Apple!
And although I have no huge love for Dell, I have been impressed with their level of expertise! Apple, for all intents and purposes, deals with ONE OS. Dell supports all the flavors of Windows, Unix, Linux and I’ll betcha if I asked for help with OS2/Warp or some other obscure OS, I might find help there as well. I’ve been quite impressed!
Social media allows individuals to gain exposure and interact with other professionals in a particular field. Great networking resource!