Flip the Funnel: How to Use Existing Customers to Gain New Ones

MICROSOFT IS NOT

Surprise, surprise. Microsoft is stuck somewhere in channel purgatory with a combination of not-made-here and pass-the-buck mentalities that put the onus on their customers—instead of the corporation—to solve their problems. For example, if you purchase an HP laptop from Best Buy that’s preloaded with Vista (hopefully not for much longer with the introduction of Windows 7), do you call HP, Best Buy, or Microsoft when you get the Blue Screen of Death? Good question. Damned if I know the answer, although it rests somewhere in “depends if it’s a hardware, software, services, or support issue.” Even if you corner “software,” you’ll still be flirting with the direct versus reseller branded or customized version of the software, aka, the Not-Made-Here Syndrome. And should you ever make it to the leprechaun guarding the pot at the end of the rainbow, he’ll probably tell you that you’re not a premium customer and therefore he can’t help unless you add to his pot of gold. Put succinctly, it’s a mess.

Figure 5.1 IBM Multi-Channel Customer Service

Source: Reprint Courtesy of International Business Machines Corporation, copyright 2009 © International Business Machines Corporation.

Microsoft’s online support is not exactly much better, with its endless stream of “Was this helpful to you?” messages which, if you think about it, is kind of like hitting a dead end in a ...