Social Media Engagement That Works

Helping customers solve problems is the reason Dell got into the social media game back in 2006 and what has inspired its continued evolution. I’ve been at Dell since 1995, spending most of that time working to improve internal processes that impact our customers. When I had the opportunity to take my passion for our customers and knowledge of the business to participate in social media, I seriously thought I had won the lottery. When my team got the green light to deploy a robust listening and engagement global program, we were beyond excited.

Thanks to the commitment from a small team of experts, our ears just got a whole lot bigger, so has the number of customers we serve.

Dell’s social media support team, a group of 26 employees in the U.S., China and Latin America, now listens to customers across Twitter, Facebook, Renren and other online communities and forums across the Web. Through these interactions, we’ve built relationships with our customers and help solve their problems where it’s most convenient for them. Here are a couple of my favorite listening stories that make me proud to go to work and be part of this fabulous team.

Customer David Needham was about to take a trip and needed a netbook fast. He found the right system on our Dell outlet site and placed his order. Unbeknownst to David, someone else beat him to the punch and purchased that same netbook. Unfortunately, due to a system glitch, Dell didn’t realize it either and left him waiting. Once David recognized that he had a problem, he tweeted about it:

@DellCares, I'm having some issues with my order that I'm really not happy about and am not getting any answers from the right channels.

@AmyatDell saw his tweet and responded. After working to solve his urgent need and getting him a system in time, David became a fan and made sure to rave about it:

@DellCares, thanks team for helping with my order as well! Very happy to see Dell customer service taking this media front head-on!

He even went so far as to send a virtual thank you note to Amy.

When customer Susan Payton’s mom received conflicting information regarding the warranty for her monitor, she told her social media savvy daughter, Susan (@EggMarketing), about it. Susan decided to see if Dell would respond to her in Twitter. After doing a search, she found an article by @RichardatDell and asked him for help. Within an hour, @RichardatDell responded and helped to get a replacement ordered that same day. Susan’s company, Egg Marketing, has blogged about how engaging with customers can be good for business.

These are the stories that inspire me to do more. It has been amazing connecting with our customers and knowing that we are making a difference every day. I look forward to engaging in more customer conversations around the world. It is through these authentic relationships that we create an environment to be more than a computer company.