Dell offers customer service “Gizmo” to Aussie consumers and SOHO

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 31 July 2008 08:59

Opinion and Analysis

In response to another question about the lack of any discounts for Dell customers compared with customers unconnected with Dell, Chenoweth explained that today’s announcement was just the start, and that “We’re going to work closely with the guys to have different service offerings, different bundles, we’ll start to differentiate on that basis as we build that partnership.”

Another question revolved around future gizmo and Dell offerings, and Dell’s Williams explained that: “From the services side, we’re looking to work closely with gizmo, very exciting service offerings over time, to complete the solution of the full range of consumer electronics we’re going to be launching.”

I then asked a question about marketing campaigns and how the new deal would be promoted. Williams explained that Gizmo “will be integrated into existing marketing campaigns now”, from print ads to online ads, “integrating our service solutions into that play”.

The gizmo partnership would also be promoted at over 15 kiosks across Australia with point of sale material, but no plans were yet in place to promote gizmo through Officeworks/Dell retail partnership as yet.

Chenoweth was asked how gizmo’s services would expand, and the answer essentially revolved around the AV space, working more closely with “grey power” or elderly consumers who might not be brand new to computers but still wanted to get a lot more out of them, and also a new “Talk Me Through It” or TMTI service that gizmo had licensed from overseas.

I asked Dell’s Evan Williams about other consumer electronics that would be coming from Dell, given they’d offered mp3 players and LCD TVs in the past. Williams said he is “very excited about what I’m hearing that the product group, there’s a lot of excitement right now. The Netbook ultramobile PC is one technology” he could talk about, but said reports of new mp3 players from Dell in the US were just rumours.

So... it will now be interesting to see if any of Dell’s competitors follow suit or how they will react, but it looks like a very compatible deal that could do much to boost the stocks of both companies in Australia.