Dell commence enfin a recolter les fruits de sa politique de relation client 2.0

Très bon article publié sur [Fortune Magazine]url:http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/, repris par [CNN Money]url:http://money.cnn.com/, sur la façon dont le géant de l'informatique [Dell]url:http://www.dell.com a réussi à renouer la confiance avec ses clients après [diverses mésaventures]url:http://www.mediapost.com/publications/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s;=33307&Nid;=15049&p;=316323 par la mise en place d'une politique audacieuse plaçant la relation client au cœur du fonctionnement de l'entreprise. Pour cela, Michael Dell, dirigeant fondateur de la société, n'aura pas hésité ces dernières années à exiger de ses équipes le développement d'outils de communication 2.0 lui permettant de sonder, analyser et valoriser les participations des internautes tout en développant la "personnalité" propre de son entreprise, au sens employé couramment par [Rohit]url:http://rohitbhargava.typepad.com/. Et je ne parle pas ici uniquement des lancements du blog [Direct2Dell]url:http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/direct2dell/ ou encore d'[IdeaStorm]url:http://www.dellideastorm.com/, mais d'une démarche globale dont les bénéfices concrets commencent tout juste à être visibles, même si la tonalité des conversations entourant la marque semble bien plus positive depuis plusieurs mois... Un cas d'école mêlant relations publiques, médias sociaux et personnalité au service de la performance d'une organisation, un exemple bien sûr à suivre. An example of this collective-design approach in action is Dell's popular new Latitude laptop. Dell engineers granted the wishes of IdeaStorm users by adding keyboards that light up in the dark, a fast connection technology called eSATA, longer battery life, and a rainbow of color choices. The moves earned cautious praise from Jeremiah Owyang, a Forrester Research analyst who has followed the company. "We've frequently positioned them as a case study in letting customers decide where the company is headed," he says. "Very few are doing it as well as Dell."

Consumers are noticing the change too. The latest quarterly figures from the University of Michigan's customer satisfaction index show that Dell is at the top of the rankings again for Windows PC makers, as rivals HP (HPQ, Fortune 500) and Gateway sink. According to a study Dell commissioned from measurement firm Visible Technologies, negative sentiment toward the Dell brand has dropped from 48% in 2006 to 23% today. Even some of Dell's harshest critics are softening a bit after the company's recent online moves. Ben Popken, editor of the Consumerist blog, says, "They've been downgraded from evil to bumbling."

The real question is whether customer-friendly operations like IdeaStorm translate to better financials. The jury's still out on that. (Dell's gross margins have increased to 19.1%, up from 16.6% last year, thanks mostly to cost cutting. Staying at that level won't be easy - Dell has been lowering prices, which helped cause a 17% fall in profits last quarter.) The jury's also out on whether IdeaStorm reflects the opinions of the average Dell buyer. Many of the sites' most popular ideas involve adding the open-source Linux operating system instead of Windows. If IdeaStorm votes were a true gauge of customers, Linux PCs should be flying off the shelves. They're not. "How much better is this as a way to measure customer demand?" wonders Mike Gotta, analyst at Burton Group, a consulting firm. "It's not proven yet."

Michael Dell 'Friends' his customers - Jon Fortt
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