This is a story of greed and running a business using the customer as a mean to an end. There are many lessons to be learned from this story so let us begin.
Until recently Dell provided hosting services to small businesses under the brand of Dellhosting. Recently the company decided to exit the business and as such decided to sell the business to another company.
Rule 1 - You never own the customer, therefore you never sell the customer.
Dell, obviously, had a different idea regarding the nature of its relationships with customers. They clearly assumed ownership of the customer to the point of selling them to a third party without customer consent. In addition, Dell never prompts the customers in advance to the fact that they are being sold. In the name of greed, it made more financial sense to sell customers than to let them make a choice or even inform them of this decision.
The buyer, a company called purehost.com happily took over, ready to milk business and started to treat customers as a captive audience without choices. The company notified their customers that they are migrating to a new platform without clear instructions. Then a cheerful email followed announcing to customers that the migration was completed successfully. The message was accompanied by a set of instructions for customers to serve themselves and configure their email programs. Soon after, reality hit. The so called successful migration turned into a nightmare. Web sites crashed, emails bounced back to the original senders and businesses were shut from the real world. Yet purehost.com considered that a successful migration. When customers were seeking help they were forced into an email system as no phone number was posted on the web for possible emergency assistance. The company even had the audacity to post a message in their support section encouraging customers not to call but to use the email "because our load is so high you will end up waiting for more that 15 minutes on hold" the message read.
Rule 2 - Provide a phone number. Do not hide.
This rule is especially important during such crucial events as web site migrations. The likelihood of mistakes and failure is so high that you should over staff your service center and post your phone number in large fonts in the front page of your web site.
When customers finally reached the company via email they were blamed for not following instructions. Why is it that you will go ahead with a migration before you know the customer is ready? Why wouldn't you be proactive in letting the customer the risk and issues associated with your actions?
Rule 3 - Be proactive notify of a potential problem. Act when the customer is ready.
When service people at purehost.com confronted with the simple question "why was this migration taking place when customers are not ready or informed?" they replied by saying it was a decision from the higher ups. For purehost.com that was not an option. As a greedy operation they rushed to conduct their migration and even celebrate its success regardless of the negative and devastating impact to customers. The customers at purehost.com were merely a mean to make money. As such they should be thankful for whatever service they get.
In the process of resolving the problem, purehost.com customer service individuals continuously shot messages (remember, a phone call is not an option) blaming the customers for not pointing their domain names to purehost.com even though customers may have done just that and followed instructions.
Rule 4 - check your facts before blaming customers.
At purehost.com it was not much of an option either. The poor customer service people had to deal with senseless decisions made by higher ups so the best they could do is turn on the only available people, the customers. (after all they cannot turn on those who pay their paycheck, a.k.a higher ups)
The damage caused to customers of dellhost was tremendous. This greedy action damaged small businesses who were cut from their customers. Dellhost and purehost.com never fully understood that they are more than a bunch of managed servers. They are managing people's livelihood. This is the only way I can explain the senseless and arrogant actions they took. (The alternative, that they knew the full scope of the damage, is much worse to contemplate.)
Rule 5 - Understand how critical your service is to the customer.
If a customer was seeking cheap server hosting, there are plenty of options out there. Customers went for Dellhost because of its reputation, commitment to small business and to customizing solutions for customers. Dell is all about being direct with the customers. This move was nothing short of a slap in the face for thousands of customers who trusted their business and livelihood to Dell. It demonstrates that the company forgot what they are all about and what connected it with customers. Even if Dell was forced to sell the business due to lack of profitability, they still should have ensured that the buyer is committed to the quality level Dell sold to customers. Dell's actions are a sad example of companies becoming too successful and therefore too arrogant and confident that they forget the people who built them to this position; the customers.
Well, customers who are upset and damaged have options these days. They too can broadcast their opinions for thousands to see. They have a stronger power to take revenge and defend their rights.
Rule 6 - Never underestimate the power of an upset customer.
Dell and purehost.com ignored that critical rule, as well. Damaging so many customers with Internet connection is not the smartest thing to do. Just visit the customer opinion sites out there or check out some of the dedicated sites that some upset customers established to voice their grievance and you will realize that the power to reach millions is now shared equally by vendors and customers. The lessons are common sense yet greedy and arrogant companies believe that they can routinely ignore them. After all when you take the customer for granted, even the basic common sense is no longer that obvious.
Lior Arussy is the president of Strativity Group, Inc. and the author of The Experience! (CMPBooks 2002) He can be reached at lior@strativitygroup.com.