So you may have heard that Dell set up a website called IdeaStorm on 16 Feb and it looks like that’s just what it has created. Unfortunately, just like the UK government’s recent online petition, you only get one side of the story. In this case, the storm came from the leading edge users who wanted Dell to ditch Windows and adopt Linux. Less radical but still a popular idea was replacing Internet Explorer with the leading alternative browser, Firefox.
Clearly, Michael Dell needs to think about the direction of the company. Embrace the tech heads with leading edge products (which they would find hard to support) or pander to the conservative mass market, Microsoft led world. Who did they think would respond on IdeaStorm?!
It’s just another example of an ill thought through customer feedback ‘campaign’ that generates a lot of the wrong publicity by giving Dell so much that they are unable to act on. It would be far better if they listen to everyone on a continuous basis – both staff and customers – about how they can improve the basics rather than looking the wow factor.
Read the full article in Business Week at http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2007/tc20070226_415604.htm?link_position=link1
