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Over the past year or so, I’ve read several articles on how Dell has supposedly pumped millions into improving their customer service, among other areas of their business. Their stock was slipping - going from ~$40 in January of ‘05 to ~$20 in June of ‘07, and apparently, they realized that if they didn’t do something, they would get pushed under by their competitors.

Sadly, although Dell’s stock has rebounded somewhat, it doesn’t appear that their service has changed much. My brother purchased a laptop from Dell’s refurbished website a few days ago. After seeing his estimated ship date, he contacted Dell customer service. Below is the actual chat transcript:

09/18/2007 07:26:07PM System: “Your chat session will begin shortly.”
09/18/2007 07:26:09PM Session Started with Agent (Savitha Shetty)
09/18/2007 07:26:11PM Agent (Savitha Shetty): “Thank you for contacting Dell Customer Service Chat. My name is Savitha. How may I help you?”
09/18/2007 07:26:16PM Agent (Savitha Shetty): “Hi Matt, how are you doing today?”
09/18/2007 07:26:22PM Matt: “Good thanks”
09/18/2007 07:26:38PM Agent (Savitha Shetty): “How may I assist you today?”
09/18/2007 07:26:55PM Matt: “I just placed an order for a refurbished Inspiron, and it says on my email confirmation that my estimated ship date is not until 10/10/07″
09/18/2007 07:27:20PM Agent (Savitha Shetty): “I will personally review your records and will obtain the information for you.”
09/18/2007 07:27:30PM Agent (Savitha Shetty): “Please verify the full name on the account.”
09/18/2007 07:27:40PM Matt: “Matt *edit*”
09/18/2007 07:28:02PM Matt: “the billing name is *edit*”
09/18/2007 07:28:13PM Agent (Savitha Shetty): “Thank you for the verification.”
09/18/2007 07:28:25PM Agent (Savitha Shetty): “Is *edit*@*edit* your e-mail address?”
09/18/2007 07:28:32PM Matt: “yes”
09/18/2007 07:28:43PM Agent (Savitha Shetty): “Thank you for the information.”
09/18/2007 07:29:18PM Agent (Savitha Shetty): “I have researched on your order and see that, your order is in production stage with Estimated Ship Date on 10/10/07.”
09/18/2007 07:29:42PM Matt: “right, that’s the problem”
09/18/2007 07:30:01PM Matt: “one of the reasons i chose to buy from Dell Outlet is that the orders are supposed to ship quickly, most within 24 hrs according to the website”
09/18/2007 07:30:02PM Agent (Savitha Shetty): “It is just an estimated date and the order might get processed much earlier.”
09/18/2007 07:30:50PM Matt: “Aren’t the ones posted already refurbished…you can modify / customize them at all, so shouldn’t they be ready to go.”
09/18/2007 07:30:56PM Matt: “can’t modify that is”
09/18/2007 07:31:26PM Agent (Savitha Shetty): “I understand that you are upset over the Estimated Ship date.”
09/18/2007 07:31:37PM Agent (Savitha Shetty): “Whenever you place an order with dell, an estimated ship date is generated depending upon the availability of the item. The estimated ship date is a tentative date and the order can ship on or before the estimated date.”
09/18/2007 07:32:44PM Agent (Savitha Shetty): “I haven’t received a response in over a minute. Please respond within the next two minutes to allow the system to continue our chat. Please let me know if you’re there.”
09/18/2007 07:32:48PM Matt: “I understand that; however, there should not be a question of availability in this case, as the item was posted on the refurbished site. If it was not available, it should not have been posted. It’s not a custom order.”
09/18/2007 07:33:34PM Agent (Savitha Shetty): “Yes that is right but, I apologize for any inconvenience or frustration this matter caused. We value you as our customer and your satisfaction is very important to Dell. As a mail order rule company we can only provide the estimated ship date only.”
09/18/2007 07:34:37PM Agent (Savitha Shetty): “I haven’t received a response in over a minute. Please respond within the next two minutes to allow the system to continue our chat. Please let me know if you’re there.”
09/18/2007 07:35:12PM Matt: “I am going to be very unhappy if it takes three weeks for my computer to ship. I will wait for now.”
09/18/2007 07:35:26PM Agent (Savitha Shetty): “Thank you for your understanding.”
09/18/2007 07:35:28PM Agent (Savitha Shetty): “Are you satisfied with the level of services provided during the chat session?”
09/18/2007 07:36:05PM Matt: “Not particularly”
09/18/2007 07:36:16PM Agent (Savitha Shetty): “Is there any feedback for me or Dell as a company?”
09/18/2007 07:37:18PM Agent (Savitha Shetty): “I haven’t received a response in over a minute. Please respond within the next two minutes to allow the system to continue our chat. Please let me know if you’re there.”
09/18/2007 07:37:53PM Matt: “Sure…I am leaving this chat with no information beyond what I already knew. Some reassurance or explanation of why a product that should be ready has “availability” issues would be helpful.”
09/18/2007 07:38:08PM Agent (Savitha Shetty): “Thank you. We appreciate your feedback.”
09/18/2007 07:38:10PM Agent (Savitha Shetty): “Is there anything else that I can do for you ?”
09/18/2007 07:38:45PM Matt: “Nothing at all”
09/18/2007 07:38:50PM Agent (Savitha Shetty): “Thank you for visiting Dell Consumer Customer Service online chat and allowing me the opportunity to assist you. I have included your case # *edit* to reference our interaction today. Please keep this on file; it will assist you when contacting Dell Inc in the future. Also, feel free to visit us again at support.dell.com.
09/18/2007 07:39:13PM Agent (Savitha Shetty): “You’ve indicated that there are no other issues you need my assistance with. With that in mind, is it okay with you if I exit this chat now?”
09/18/2007 07:39:23PM Matt: “sure”
09/18/2007 07:39:30PM Agent (Savitha Shetty): “It was pleasant assisting you.”
09/18/2007 07:39:31PM Agent (Savitha Shetty): “Good bye.”
09/18/2007 07:39:33PM Session Ended

While I agree with Matt that refurbished units that are not available for shipment should not be displayed, it wasn’t Dell’s response to his concern that surprised me so much; it was the fact that his feedback seemed to have so little impact on the customer service rep. I mean, if you are going to sound concerned enough to ask for feedback, at least sound concerned when feedback is given - especially when the customer has just stated that you were of no help at all!

I read this article in Business 2.0 magazine the other day and was amazed not only by how many domain names Kevin Ham owns, but also by his ingenious idea to grab traffic for unregistered domain names. Basically, he struck a deal with the Cameroon government to direct all of the traffic from unregistered .cm domain names to his company’s website where he hosts Yahoo ads.

If you’re like me, I’m sure you’ve fat fingered a URL and missed the ‘o’ in .com. So, for example beer.com becomes beer.cm. Now that this deal has been made, all Ham does is sit back and collect a check and kicks the Cameroon government a few bucks.

I found a very interesting article that suggests that Google could be digging its own grave with the perks it gives its employees.

Check out The Final Days of Google: It is going to be an inside job..

Guy Kawasaki seems to be catching a lot of heat for his latest endeavor, Truemors - a site that allows the anonymous public to post late-breaking news (or rumors) for the world to see. The site reminds many of Twitter with its mini-blogging posting style (limited to 250 characters per post) and allows users to post via the site itself, email, SMS, or even phone!

Although others have thrashed Guy on various counts such as lack of focus, lack of registration, and the fact that the site was built on WordPress, I think people are missing the genius in the whole project. Sure, on the surface, to the average person, it may not seem like anything revolutionary or even profitable, but who thought myspace, Digg, or 43 Things would take off when they first launched? Even though countless sites have capitalized on the same behaviours, people don’t seem to realize is that there are a few things that we as humans love to do - gossip and compete.

First off, let me say that after reading Guy’s responses in this post over at pronetadvertising.com, I think he is doing a great job defending a site that he surely feels has strong potential. Now, here’s why I think Truemors will be a huge success:

The reason why people will use Truemors is very simple - We thrive on information. If it’s little-known information, we feel privileged. If we provided the little-known information, we feel empowered. Consider this - Tabloids can afford to pay tens of thousands of dollars for that one picture of a single celebrity doing something that they weren’t supposed to. Why? Because thousands and thousands of supermarket shoppers will pay $5.00 a pop to find out that Paris Hilton was seen walking down the street on yet another guy’s arm. So what? Who cares? Apparently we do, or the tabloids would be out of business.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not insinuating that Truemors is a publicly driven tabloid site (although it may be just that). I’m simply attempting to convey the message that we, as humans, like to know the latest breaking news, true or not, as long as we know it first. Because Truemors forgoes any type of registration process and has so many ways to post, it provides a medium for the public to do just that - provide the latest news, true or not, to the public. And what makes it more appealing is that the poster gets credit - which brings me to my next point.

When submitting to Truemors, you are asked to provide your name. This name is used to identify the poster once your post has been submitted. This is where my earlier reference to competition comes into play. Even though posts are, for all intents and purposes, anonymous, and (to my knowledge) there is no real way prove that you are the person who submitted the post, I guarantee the site will see tons of posts, followed by traffic, just because everyone wants to make it to the top of the “Greatest” list. How do I know this? Look at how many bloggers brag about making it to the front page of Digg. Why? Because we like to be #1. It’s all about competition and being able to say that you are the best - that you beat out everyone else.

“It’s free. How will it make any money?”, you ask. Well, they’ve already started running ads in the sidebar, which I’m sure will increase in cost for advertisers as the site receives more traffic. They could probably litter the page with a couple more ads and users wouldn’t flinch as long as they were able to get their gossip fix. Then, of course, there’s the possibility that it might get snatched up by one of the big boys for a couple million, provided they would want to deal with the moderation involved and/or the potential for lawsuits. Hey, Google bought YouTube in the midst of lawsuits for copyright infringement, so who knows?

My disclaimer: Based upon the opinions I’ve read so far, if I’d stopped writing at the previous sentence, I’m sure I’d have gotten a ton of comments about how Guy is evil, that he should pursue other endeavors, and that he’s failed in the past. I’m not here to argue those points. As for Guy’s values, past accomplishments or failures, I have no opinion. Quite honestly, I didn’t even know who he was until yesterday. Will Truemors be a success? Time will tell. The point of this post is not to cast moral judgement, it is simply to point out that the team behind Truemors has a firm grasp on what drives us and exactly how to capitalize upon it. And for this reason, Truemors will be successful.

The recent fiasco involving Engadget and Apple has caused more than a few people to get more than a little curious. At first, I thought, “Wow, Apple is going to be pissed! Engadget’s post cost them 4 billion!”. Although I’m sure Apple isn’t exactly ecstatic about the whole situation, a post from htmk.com raised an interesting question that hadn’t occurred to me. Did someone at Apple who knew about the FCC approval of the iPhone intentionally leak the email so they could buy low and then profit when the stock went back up?

Seems to me that the SEC needs to look into this if they haven’t already begun to. Even if this isn’t the case, it’s a very interesting and all too coincidental series of events. Hopefully Steve-o isn’t behind yet another stock scandal.

It seems like I’m constantly looking at different sites and thinking, “Man, if I had only come up with that…”. Businesses with a ridiculously simple business model are all too often ridiculously successful, especially in the Internet realm. Over at NicheGeek, they came up with a top 10 list of just these kinds of businesses. You’ll be shocked by some of them; I was.

If you’ve ever worked on a project with a large team, you’ll appreciate this cartoon at linuxkungfu.org.

http://www.linuxkungfu.org/images/fun/geek/project.jpg

Well, at some point today, my Analytics account got flipped over to the beta of the new version. If nothing else, it’s prettier than the old one.

A few things that I noticed right off:

The Executive, Marketer, and Webmaster views are gone. Reports are broken into Dashboard, Visitors, Traffic Sources, Content, and Goals.

The default date range for reports changed from one week to one month and the calendar was redesigned.

You can now select your date range by calendar or by “Timeline”, which is a cool little slider that you can expand and/or slide to select your range.

You can customize your dashboard by clicking on the “Add to Dashboard” link on the details page for a given report. Once the report shows on your dashboard, you can drag it to wherever you like it best.

The Map Overlay has become interactive, allowing you to click on a part of the map to refine your report criteria.

Almost every report shows your results in an easy to read line graph (a huge improvement over the old one) by date, in addition to showing the details below.

There’s a new “Visitor Trending” sub-section that includes “Avg. Time on Site”.

I’m still digging into it, so I’m sure that there are plenty more changes that I haven’t noticed yet. Overall, it looks like they focused more on the readability of individual reports, which is a very good thing. It seems promising so far; it’ll just take a bit to get used to the new layout (although I’m already starting to).

If you haven’t logged into your Analytics account in a few days, go check it out. You might have been converted as well.

Found a very interesting article entitled ‘10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job‘ by Steve Pavlina. Even if you aren’t planning on making the jump from full-time employment to your own gig, head on over and check it out; it’s an interesting read.

Before you buy a domain name and plaster it all over the place, check out ‘Top 10 Worst Domain Names’ from Unofficial Dreamhost Blog. Of course, these names are already taken, but it gives you an idea of what to look for in your own so you don’t send the wrong message.

Here they are:

1. A site called “Who Represents” where you can find the name of the agent that represents a celebrity. Their domain name… wait for it… is
   www.whorepresents.com
2. Experts Exchange, a knowledge base where programmers can exchange advice and views at
   www.expertsexchange.com
3. Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island at
   www.penisland.net
4. Need a therapist? Try Therapist Finder at
   www.therapistfinder.com
5. Then of course, there’s the Italian Power Generator company…
   www.powergenitalia.com
6. And now, we have the Mole Station Native Nursery, based in New South Wales:
   www.molestationnursery.com
7. If you’re looking for computer software, there’s always
   www.ipanywhere.com
8. Welcome to the First Cumming Methodist Church. Their website is
   www.cummingfirst.com
9. Then, of course, there’s these brainless art designers, and their whacky website:
   www.speedofart.com
10. Want to holiday in Lake Tahoe? Try their brochure website at
    www.gotahoe.com

Make sure you check out the original post to see 20 more and also a few extras in the comments…