Legal Marketing & PR

BEST Customer Service Ever -- from Dell

By Larry Bodine, Esq.

I had bought my Dell Latitude D630 laptop from a booth at ABA Techshow in Chicago in March.  I was so impressed with the booth staff's attention to my needs, that I bought it on the spot for a huge discount.

I never expected the wonderful call last week from Chris Estes in Houston, saying he was my personal account rep. Talk about excellent customer service -- I felt as if I had been assigned a personal shopper for me.  He is a Sales Representative in the Business Systems Division, and spent time on the phone asking how the new laptop was working out.  He said the one I bought is the same one that most Dell employees use for work, which made me feel cool.

Then, like a good salesperson, he interviewed me about my business needs.  I told him I write a lot of proposals and reports, and get a lot of 60-page research documents -- all of which overwhelm my modest little HP C4280 all-in-one printer.  And the cost of ink was outrageous. I was spending $200+ in ink and sending out big jobs to FedEx Kinko's to be printed.

He told me about the Dell 1320c Color Laser Printer, which I could buy for $200 with free shipping -- a special deal from him. What I loved was that its toner cartridges can print 2,000 pages each and cost $59 for black. (Inkjet ink runs when it gets wet; toner pages are waterproof.)  The speed for the laser printer is 16ppm black and 12 ppm color, with a maximum capacity of 35,000 pages per month.  It comes with a 250 sheet drawer.

"Would you like my credit card number now?" was all I could say.

He told me to call him if I was having any trouble with my Dell equipment.  The capper was his email summarizing the order, which stated under his signature block, "How am I doing? E-mail my Manager: ---@dell.com."  The printer arrived two days later!

Law firm marketers can learn a lot from this experience.

• It makes a big difference to a client to know they have a point person they can call when they need help.
• A smart lawyer will interview his client about its business, asking probing questions to find out about latent client needs.
• Always make it easy for clients to give you feedback.

Full post as published by Larry Bodine's LawMarketing Blog on June 27, 2008 (boomark / email).