A while back, I wrote about BuzzMachine’s Jeff Jarvis and his problems with Dell’s customer service, or the lack thereof.
He’s finally got their attention:
While BuzzMachine frequently receives more than 5,000 visitors a day, one recent post–Jarvis’ “open letter” last week to George and Chairman Michael Dell, excoriating the company for ignoring online criticism–was the third most linked-to post on the blogosphere on Thursday, according to Intelliseek’s BlogPulse. The post was also either linked to or discussed by at least .01 percent of all blog posts written Wednesday, according to BlogPulse.
Davis added that Dell hopes that the improvements that the company has begun to initiate in its customer service department will also head off some of these issues. Starting in the fourth quarter of last year, Dell has opened more call centers and hired more staff, trained or hired more experts to resolve particularly technical issues, and reduced the manager-to-representative ratio at their call centers. Their online support has also been beefed up, Davis said, and a previously closed message board–the customer care board–has been recently reopened due to popular demand.
Other marketers had better start paying attention, too. The blogosphere isn’t large, but it’s full of Influencers who could help a brand, or hurt it. And why did it take so much chatter to get Dell’s attention in the first place?