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Dell CIO talks ecommerce strategy, building a rich customer experience

Dell CIO Paul Walsh says a successful retail customer experience requires caring about each kind of customer, from the moment they log on to the moment they log off, whether it's on a PC or a mobile device.

August 24, 2015 by Judy Mottl — Editor, RetailCustomerExperience.com & DigitalSignageToday.com

When it comes to delivering a truly rewarding and engaging retail customer experience in ecommerce, the secret is pretty simple: caring about the customer and understanding what a customer wants.

Sure, there are complex technologies in play, deep strategy and layers of integrating tools and features and platforms, but when that’s all peeled back, the core is knowing what consumers need no matter if they are a first-time visitor or a long-time brand fan, said Dell CIO Paul Walsh.

As one of the earliest ecommerce sites, it launched in 1996, Dell.com understood from the start that customer experience was not only key to a sale, but to building loyalty and its brand. In fact, the site was hitting $1 million in daily sales just six months after its debut, said Walsh, who was named CIO last year when Dell restructured commerce services and merged them into one organization.

Before he took on the role Walsh served as vice president of Dell Commerce Services, which included Dell.com as well as sales and software for customer support. As CIO, Walsh is responsible for managing innovative technology breakthroughs for the company and its customers. His promotion into the global ecommerce role reflects a trend by companies to blend corporate IT with online commerce strategies, according to a Wall Street Journal blog, as company chiefs are viewing CIOs as digital evangelists, as cited by Gartner research.

"To grasp the digital opportunity, incrementally improving IT performance isn't enough," said  Dave Aron, VP and Gartner Fellow, in an announcement on CIO leadership trends. “Digitalization is no longer a sideshow — it has moved to center stage and is changing the whole game. CIOs now have a unique opportunity, but they must 'flip' their information, technology, value and people leadership practices to deliver on the digital promise."

For Walsh, delivering on the digital promise requires a three-pronged “commerce journey,” focused on discovery, learning and the transaction. A strong "fourth" prong is customer support.

"What we do and continue to do is live the life of an actual customer," he told Retail Customer Experience in a phone interview.

By that, Walsh literally means what he says. His team jumps on Dell.com everyday as a potential customer, reviewing the site’s response, features and also evaluating customer traffic patterns and behavior.

"It’s all about the relevancy of the experience so we have to experience it to make sure it’s working, from the view of the new customer to the customer who jumps on and knows exactly what they are looking for to the loyal customer looking for an accessory or upgrade," he said.

The key is ease of use, which includes ensuring each customer can easily find what he needs and making the transaction simple and seamless.

"The new customer is discovering Dell so we want to be certain that first impression is rewarding," Walsh said. "For the mature customer who knows Dell, we want to be sure they’re finding accessories and that search results are delivering to their specific needs."

So Walsh’s team spends a lot of time interacting on-site in various customer roles.

"We do that to find out if we’re living up to our promise and if we’re not, and falling short, working to fix that," he said.

Such hands-on assessment and critical review, said the CIO, are paramount for building the relationship with the customer and ensuring the most compelling relationship for the customer.

“We want them to have a rich experience,” he said, “and that requires understanding how to keep that level of experience through the life cycle of a customer and site interaction and making it easy to do business with us.”
 

Missteps to avoid

When it comes to the retail experience, Walsh said one big mistake by many online businesses is developing an ecommerce presence and then basically walking away to focus on other strategies.

"You have to own that customer experience in an end-to-end approach," he advised.

The second big no-no is thinking there is a one-size fits all experience to be created.

"It’s just as important to make sure the new customer’s experience is as fulfilling as the long-time customer’s experience, so you have to be in those roles on a daily basis to make sure search is delivering for each type of customer, that products being served fit their needs, that it only takes three to five clicks to complete a transaction for every customer," he said.

In addition to the website sales landscape, today’s online retailers must ensure a customer’s mobile buying experience delivers the same high-quality and consistent experience as in the store, Walsh said, noting the mobile display and customer requirements on a smaller form factor demands just as much attention.

Satisfying the mobile customer demands innovation

"It’s only going to increase [the mobile user base]," said Walsh, sharing 30 percent of Dell.com’s traffic is now coming from mobile devices.

Smooth navigation, ease of use and providing familiarity with design and layout, especially for the customer who has visited Dell.com on computing devices such as PCs and laptops, is essential, Walsh said.

"The [mobile] experience needs to be a responsive one and speed, loading of pages, is very important," he said, adding his team depends a great deal on customer feedback to ensure issues are handled quickly.

And all that effort, he noted, must be done in a stealthy approach as to not impact the daily site experience.

"Technology must be invisible, not get in the way, as it’s all about removing any friction in the experience," he said, adding fast response to issues is also a key to success.

To illustrate that value point, Walsh pointed to the Bitcoin payment process Dell.com developed and put into play within just two weeks.

"We heard from our customers, and we’re talking both big and small customers, that they wanted Bitcoin," Walsh said, noting it’s already reaped Dell rewards given a $50,000 sale via Bitcoin payment.

"It’s all about making sure you give the customers the option they want, from the moment they get on the site to the moment they log off," he said. "The customer is the center of your thoughts."

About Judy Mottl

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Judy Mottl is editor of Retail Customer Experience and Digital Signage Today. She has decades of experience as a reporter, writer and editor covering technology and business for top media including AOL, InformationWeek, InternetNews and Food Truck Operator.

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