The Spectacular Collapse of the Ivory Tower. Why Microsoft gets hugs and Lenovo doesn't.

What does social networking have to do with serious suit and tie business? Well, for one, everything. The ivory tower of senior management has collapsed. Those that come and play the social game, win. Those that don't... well you know what happened to the dinosaurs.

First let's examine some people who excel at the social networking game:

Seth Godin - Serial marketer, book writer, presenter and genuinely remarkable guy, takes the time to respond to his emails. Even ones from me.

Phil Harrison - Executive Vice President of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (responsible for showcasing the PS3 launch) has an ongoing dialogue with the blog, Kotaku. Even his chewing gum is big news.

Tim Ferriss - New Rich, writer of the Four Hour Work Week and constant adventurer responds personally to comments on his blog and his forums.

So if these remarkable people are so easily contactable, why can't I even get the contact details of someone at Lenovo above a customer service centre employee unless I make a plea on their forums?

We might find an answer if we start by taking a look at two different management team biography pages:

Lenovo - 'Lenovo Management'

Microsoft - 'Press Pass'

Similar. Same information. But different.

1. Lenovo doesn't want you talking to their execs. Suits and ties, their photos look like seniors taking yearbook photos.

2.  Lenovo doesn't want you talking to their execs. There aren't any email addresses, or any phone numbers to contact these guys. They're untouchables.

Microsoft on the other hand has personality, their CEO looks like he could be someones grand dad, the head of entertainment, J Allard looks like he actually likes entertainment. It's not called 'Lenovo Management' either, it's called 'Press Pass,' they're inviting you to talk to them. There is a form you can fill in if you want to speak with them too. Aces.

The bio's might not strike you as particularly different, but these small tid bits of information show a lot about how a corporation plays ball. Here are some real life examples:

1. If you call microsoft to get your xbox fixed, a human answers. If they wipe off all your signatures on your limited edition signed xbox while in repairs, they apologise and Bill Gate's signs your new one. They show they care. $250 billion dollars and they can still show they care.

2. If you call Lenovo, their sales team will pick up in less than 2 minutes, and take your credit card details in less than 20 minutes. If you call their service centre to get your laptop fixed? 25 minutes average  on the waitlist. 25 minutes before you speak to a human soul. They are over 40 times smaller than Microsoft.

What does this mean for businesses?

• Authentic communication. If you stick someone on a phone wait list for 20 minutes, don't tell them their call is important, it obviously isn't. Worst of all don't lie, I received an automated feedback email from Lenovo that was signed by Chris Askew the Senior VP of Lenovo Services. That's just insulting.
• Focus on your customer. No one cares about your processes, they just want results. Call centres have slowly become the blight of companies. In a youcan'ttalktoexecutives company, a call centre should be your biggest investment, it'll be the one time your customers speaks to a human voice in your company. What message are you trying to send your customer? Go away?
• Be available. Even if you just pretend. Invite communication. It sends a strong message when you leave a brick wall to communication. It's sending the message that you either don't know or you don't care. I'm not quite sure which is worse.
• If your customer likes you... they might not tell anyone.
• If your customer doesn't like you... they will tell everyone. With blogs, facebook, twitter, digg, consumerist... the avenues and audience become endless, and that is scary if your customer doesn't like you.

This post started out when I tried to track down Chris Askew, the Senior VP of Lenovo Services. I have been having stupid amounts of trouble repairing my three thousand dollar notebook. You can read about it here. At this moment, I still can't find Chris Askew's number or email. It got me started thinking about how different firms approach communication. I wanted to explore why some are petrified of customers talking to anyone in the company earning over $4 an hour, while others jump at the opportunity.

edit: to those that came from Seth's site, this blog is tangential, Seth's was to the point... Just show you care and the above goes away, real quick.  

Flickr cred: Esthr

Comments

[Adam]

Richard, indeed!

The reformed question would be why IBM also gets the hugs and Lenovo doesn't, also and why Apple's or IBM's CEOs want you to talk to them but not lenovo's ( http://www.pc.ibm.com/us/lenovo/about/management.html )

[Richard yong]

Adam,

I just realised something that made me laugh, after you sent me the link to contact IBM's CEO.

People might say comparing Microsoft to Lenovo is apples to oranges.

But you'd have to say IBM and Lenovo is like apples to apples

http://www.ibm.com/contact/us/

Now how different is that?

What kind of message is that!?

It's a pretty powerful one,

A red phone. A red button.

You've got a problem? PICK UP THE PHONE, we want to know!

That's just great

[Adam]

Richard, thanks for posting my message on your blog, and please ignore the unnecessary questions marks, they're the result of the message board not picking up punctuations entered from my Mac.

Adam

[Richard yong]

Thanks Adam.

I received my laptop back. To be honest, I'm left with a sour taste. No one actually DID anything. I received tons of platitudes though, so thanks for that Lenovo, I like being told sorry.

You're exactly right about being available, being real. Steve is real. Look at that page... I could almost imagine a 50 year old jobs messing with iMovie. He also hates wasted resources. If he can hire one less CSC to say SORRY all day long, he knows that's 606 ipods he could just give away every year. Lenovo seems to think they can just hire more. They shoud have replaced my damn laptop, and waived the repair fee. That's what I would have done. And if they did that? I'd consider a Lenovo as my next lappy (6 years of use, it would seem silly to change). Then I'd go and tell every single person I met how awesome it was. In Seth Godin terminology, I'm a small time Sneezer. Now, well... I'm left sour.

Adam - does Apple want to trade me a Mac air for my x61t? I'll do it publicly... Whatever... I'm totally over Vista. Seriously, I realise now that nothing microsoft makes is user friendly. nothing just works. Sure they give you 1 gazillion options. But all I want is for it to WORK.

Steve gets that.

Isn't it odd no one calls Bill Gates, just Bill?

edit: 30/04/07, Adam from Apple tried to respond but our Spam Filters sprung from the bushes while Adam was taking a walk and foiled his plans. Never fear, he emailed me a copy and here it is:

Hi Richard,

I also tried to post on your blog but the spam filter got in between so here is what I wrote there:-

Richard, I'm sorry for replying to your message in late, I had also received your email but work got me backed up.

Apple is a huge company - bigger than lenovo, its annual total revenue is around $24.1 billion - nearly two times more than that of lenovo's ($13 billion), these figures include everything that these two companies produce and offer to their users. Apple's revenue has jumped from $10 billion to what it's today for constantly providing innovative products and award winning support to its valued customers. Being an A listed company, Apple has to remain open on repairs/support matters, it understands that a simple unresolved issue can turn to world media reports very quickly - that results in nothing more than deterioration of company's image.

Unlike Apple, alas - lenovo still has to learn a lot, after been taken over by Chinese these people have cheapened everything, once upon a time ThinkPad under IBM's reign had very powerful support. If lenovo had some decency then they should've provided you with a new system for everything you've gone through, I know this is what Apple would've done.

Your experience also reminds me of mine with lenovo, I required a tablet for sketching purpose and a friend of mine recommended lenovo X61T, but under a week of normal use the plastic part near the screen starting to unglue and it took 32 days for them to fix it properly (in two turns of 16 days each, first time the repair went unsuccessful, lenovo tech also said it was due to a flawed lenovo design), with this I too was left with bad taste in my mouth. I've also found lenovo telephone support quite incompetent, they were unable to solve my issues whenever I called them.

Apple on the other hand has upper hand due to its Genius bars (Apple stores) and all American support line (no offense to foreigners), and as you may know in Apple retail stores both products are fixed and sold. I've heard that Apple is planning to open 3 retail stores in Australia in the near future very soon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Store_(retail)#Locations

As far as Mac Vs. Windows is concerned, Microsoft does not appear to be serious with what they do, and Mac OS-X has proved to be better and faster than Vista, I wrote few reasons as to why:

Macs are better because:-

-They work out of the box seamlessly with no stuffed trial software on their hard drives ( -which you don?t ask for but still receive it on your PC?s, see Apple?s ad ?Stuffed?)?

-No viruses?

-No blue, black, white, orange or red screens (Windows users are much familiar with them)?

-No registry or hal.dll files or files to defrag

?-No need to invest in security, registry, defrag, antispyware, backup or antivirus programs?-An app written on iPhone is compatible with iPhone itself and all pre-Intel PowerPC or current macs (Have you ever heard of apps written on Windows based cellphones being run on PC?s?)?

-Mac OS-X 10.5 or Leopard is more sophisticated but yet has simpler UI than any version of Windows released to-date (wait few more years until they copy leopard?s features)

?-They can run more system softwares natively (Windows, Linux, Mac OS-X and many more)?

-Last and foremost reason: Unlike M$ OSes, Mac OS-X is not memory, cpu or graphics hungry system software

Some business reports that you would find interesting:-

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2008/tc20080410_206881.htm

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/143960/leopard_beats_vista_for_corporate_satisfaction.html??

http://www.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9891471-16.html

http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/04/21/17FE-macs-in-business-tease_1.html

Apple support is being rated the best for the last few years since Steve Jobs came back ("The second coming of Steve Jobs" as one author went out and wrote a book on it) :-

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/electronics-computers/computers/computer/tech-support/tech-support-6-07/manufacturer-support/0607_tech_man-supp_1.htm?resultPageIndex=1&resultIndex=1&searchTerm=apple%20support

Lastly I enjoyed reading your blog, keep it up!

Cheers and Best Regards,

Adam

[Adam]

A good CEO gives his email address, cellphone, home, office and fax number publicly:

http://homepage.mac.com/steve/Resume.html

[Richard Yong]

Thanks David,

I do appreciate the quick response, I've left you a lengthy email.

I'm surprised, pleased and actually quite proud of Lenovo for having such a strong feedback loop, It does seem like it's hiding in the wings though!

Cheers,

Richard

[David Churbuck]

sorry you're having problems. You can always ping me -- I'm pretty visible and reachable
1-508-360-6147 and david AT churbuck.com will work

David Churbuck
VP Global Web Marketing
Lenovo