Dell Builds Its Notebooks Based on Customer Input

While many IT companies might not be that concerned with customer feedback regarding their products, at least not beyond making a general idea of preferences, Dell seems to have been much more thorough in its examination of its customers' opinions.

With the greatness of the Internet, one can be sure that buyers of any product will find some outlet to express their admiration or misgivings.

It is now revealed that Dell pays a special amount of attention to what its own customers think, up to forum posts.

“We use all this information not just from a marketing perspective, but to measure the performance of products and people,” said Dell’s Michael Tatelman, vice president and general manager, Consumer Sales and Marketing.

“And it’s not just the ratings. We have people reading deep down into the posts and threads, looking for ways to improve our products and for new things we can do.”

This is reflected in the performance and design of not just the Dell Inspiron Duo tablet, but also Alienware, XPS and Inspiron notebooks.

More specifically, the Dell Inpiron 15z, the XPS 17 3D, Alienware M14x and Alienware M18x (priced at $999, $899, $1,199 and $1,999, respectively) were all developed with consideration for what prospective buyers and customers expressed preference for.

“The beauty is that it’s syndicated across multiple channels, and that information is aggregated across multiple retailers and our direct channel as well,” Tatelman says. “The bigger the sample base, the more accurate it becomes.”

Nevertheless, even if an idea does have merit and could be a potential game changer, Dell decided to still hold performance over everything else.

“Performance will always trump design, but with the XPS 15z, we captured both,” Tatelman says. “It’s critical, though, that we nail performance first, in terms of how the devices work with the software and the overall experience of using the technology.”