Dell Idea Storm Website Solicits Great Customer Ideas

In response to my article about Dell, "Is Dell The Biggest Blogging Story Of 2007? ". Richard from Dell posted several comments on my blog, as well as David H. Deans, one of the bloggers who I cited in the original post. The conversation has expanded to discuss the launch of Dell's new product feedback site called DellIdeaStorm.com. I recently asked Richard how Dell will be demonstrating that any suggestions from customers will be or not implemented by Dell. You can pick up the conversation in the comment section of this blog on the left hand navigation. Richard had not answered my question but visiting the Dell Idea Storm site today I see they have a section called “see what we are planning to deliver,” I don’t think it was there last week? Anyway that section really strengthens the site, and will close the loop with customers.

It looks like Dell has responded strongly to earlier criticism about not joining into the blogosphere, and may as a result have a competitive advantage through such initiatives as the Dell Idea Storm website. Though as David Deans discusses in his comment, all of this feedback is on a public site, so competitors can also benefit from any suggestions if they choose to monitor the site. However, for customers its not just the fact that Dell is implementing ideas they want to see incorporated into their products, but that Dell is asking the questions, and wants a customer’s response. Not only does Dell get great feedback from customers and a chance to improve products, but the process increases customer loyalty and gains extra coverage on blogs and the web generally, which will result in lots of extra sales from referrals from blogs and higher rankings on search engines for the keywords Dell targets. This is real marketing in action!