AlexGUru

The $54M Notebook

Posted by admin

I read this article a couple of days ago, and have been thinking about how something like this could have gotten this far.

Having been in this industry for over 5 years, I have seen fair share of similar incidents that have turned into customer service nightmares. Working for a system builder, that isn’t as big as Dell, HP, Compaq, or even Alienware, I have come to learn that the most valuable asset a company has is its customer service. Anyone can build a machine and make it run. Anyone can throw together a system and make it look semi pretty. Where most of these companies have a chance to shine is in their customer support (be it technical support, customer service, or even post sales support).

The line that struck me the most in this whole article was from the email sent to the customer from the Best Buy Manager.

“For every customer that has had an unpleasant experience I can show you hundreds who have had a great experience. I have been in retail for a long time and the one conclusion I have come to is that not every customer can be satisfied,” he wrote in an e-mail supplied by Campbell. “Does my store have opportunities? Absolutely! What I can say is that we strive to deliver the experience that every customer deserves to receive.”

This is where the scary truth lies. The end user lost a notebook with tons of personal and financial information on its hard drive. This is much more than just a bad experience with a purchase or a repair. The fact of the matter is, Best Buy has forgotten that a person’s notebook is much more than just a piece of merchandise. Of course, they could have saved themselves all this trouble by either replacing the lost notebook in the first place. They could even have just issued her a refund if she did not want the store credit. I am sure that the customer would have had some more understanding had Best Buy been up front with her and let her know what happened, and tried their best to remedy the situation. Instead, they acted with callous and wrote her the response above.

I ran into a similar situation where a person’s system was lost in transit. My company filed the claim with the proper carrier, and quickly replaced the notebook with a current model (as their system had been discontinued, but still under warranty). Again, my company is vastly smaller in comparison to a large chain megastore, but in being a boutique PC system builder, we understand that the customer comes first.

The simple fact is that in todays market, people are being increasingly more techno-savvy. They do their research and know what to look for in computers as well as in most of their electronics purchases. They know where to look at customer reviews. I have noticed that people will go with one particular vendor over another strictly on how the customer support / customer service has been rated; at times regardless of price.

The Boutique PC industry knows that word of mouth is what keeps their sales numbers high, and even more importantly customer satisfaction has become their key selling point. Maybe Best Buy should take a page from the boutique PC industry’s leading companies and put the customer first. Maybe then a simple notebook repair won’t end up costing them $54M.