Dell: Keeping the Supply Chain well oiled via Social Media

Joel Ayer    February 23, 2012

Dell, long known for having excellent supply chain avenues continues to develop and keep great chains growing and still listens and engages with customers, employees and supplies through social media.

In 2008, Dell started to move their thinking from regional to global supply chain consisting of 3 global customer units (large enterprise, public and consumer/small and medium business). To achieve this they began to seek advice from leading supply chain academicians, various industries as well as looking at other best practices form leading companies.  

Furthermore, Dell has over two billion direct customer interactions each year. This allows Dell to continously improve their customer service. They use media such as five-star user reviews, channel partner surveys, Dell forums, EmployeeStorm and IdeaStorm.  They have over 1.5 million followers on Dell Outlet on Twitter (e.g., Dell has 7 different people to follow). Dell Computers has over 1 million fans on Facebook.

They have been recognised for their Voice of the Customer programmes. In 2010 they created Social Media Listening Command Center which receives over 26,000 mentions a day. They made Social Media a fabric of their organization. They use Chatter to internally engage over 100,000 team members.

They also opened their first Dell Supply Chain Management Institute in China, which will focus on staying on the cutting edge of supply chain management.

Dell community

Dell Supply Chain Info

2 thoughts on “Dell: Keeping the Supply Chain well oiled via Social Media”

  1. David Green

    Hi Joel,
    Dell are certainly a marketing engine… but that’s their main business. Even I am tempted to order from them when the flyer comes in the newspaper. But in my job of ordering computers for a University I rarely order Dell. After you read all the fine print in their ads a properly equipped a Dell computer, buy a reasonable warranty, and pay for shipping it will total as much as any one else’s computer.
    That along with the issue that their after market service and support sucks makes it a no-go for me. They do have a professional line of laptops and desktops that perform better but they are also much more expensive. If you buy their 5 year Gold Warranty you will get routed to a North American support call centre which is much better than the regular one but you pay for that as well.
    This is just my opinion of course. You may want to analyze the process Apple uses to ship custom orders from China in less than a week and if you buy their AppleCare service plan, you don’t have to worry about Apple hardware problems for three years.
    Cheers,
    Dave

  2. Nadina Ayer

    Hello boys and girls,

    I liked reading the article about Dell’s activities. We own 4 Dell computers in our house and have purchased 5 total since I’ve learned about them. To add onto Dave’s point, I have heard mixed feedback from people regarding Dell’s customer services, but that it appears to be affecting the models of computers you purchase. I personally have had very positive experience with them, I even got to replace a keyboard on my laptop with their help (they sent all the tools necessary and walked me through it step by step over the phone). In terms of their marketing efforts, they do keep in touch with their customers on a regular basis. I regularly receive notifications from them (e.g., on new products, sales, and coupons). Overall, I think Dave brings up a valuable insight on the fine print, regardless of the product you purchase, it is advisable to read the fine print in order to make a well informed decision, so that way you know what to expect (no surprises). In terms of your website (SMBP) I really enjoy reading your articles and direction you have taken. Thanks for the valuable info!

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