How Dell Has Reinvented Itself

A successful company just doesn't sit on the "fruits of its labor". Successful companies are never satisfied with their achievements; they are always trying to improve because there are always competitors ready to move in. The buyer utility map and six stages of the buyer experience are good frameworks to assess a company's offering and how they are perceived in the eyes of a buyer. The mix-and-match of utility levers and stages is a very creative way to increase the value of one's offering. In recent years, Dell Inc. has used this concept to reinvent itself and the way it provides customer service.

http://www.fastcompany.com/1768894/dell-reinvention-update

In May 2010, Dell formed a Customer Advisory Panel (DellCAP) to improve its customer experience by leveraging the power of social media. Dell realized that its customer support was falling short of expectations; customers were waiting too long for an agent and many support issues were left unanswered. In an effort to shorten the response time and quality of service, Dell has incorporated Twitter into its customer support. Now, customers can go on Twitter, voice their concerns, and receive immediate feedback. Dell is hoping to simplify the customer support experience so that they can improve customer productivity (i.e. give them more time to do other things).

My only concern with this method of customer support is Twitter's limited character content. Unless the issue is extremely simple, I can't see Dell customer service agents resolving computing issues in less than 140 characters. Overall, I think that this is a very creative and unique way of providing customer service. It's definitely a business model that can evolve with the growing social media industry. Dell's incorporation of social media into its business is a great example of how companies should look for different ways to capitalize on the different utility levers or stages of the buyer's experience.  How can your social venture exploit the six utility levers and six stages of the buyer experience?