Dell, the computer company, has been a consistent target of negative UGM for a long time. It's not hard to find unhappy user testimonials that appear to be trustworthy and reasonable.
Here's a representative page from Randy Cassingham's site, This is True:
And another from Computer Gripes:
Both of these sites use the shorthand "Dell Hell," an expression first used -- or at least first made popular -- by blogger Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine.
Jarvis bought a Dell, had manifold problems with it, and began to complain repeatedly to Dell Customer Service, which didn't do enough to make the computer work to Jarvis' satisfaction. So, Jarvis -- already a popular and influential blogger -- began to write about his Dell experiences in BuzzMachine. The story got picked up by other bloggers and eventually by mainstream media including BusinessWeek and The New York Times.
The story was a significant black eye for Dell, although it is hard to determine the extent to which the story had an impact on Dell's declining market share.
Dell's mistake?
The company refused to join the conversation about its brand that was taking place on Jarvis' blog and in the rest of the blogosphere. The company did offer Jarvis a refund -- trying to make him simply go away -- but for the longest time Dell PR maintained that it had a "look, don't touch" policy with regard to bloggers.
What Dell should have done is look and touch a lot, engaging with a very publicly dissatisfied customer, seeking to address his problems, and making sure that the company's perspective was well-represented in the conversation.
For a thorough account of the Jeff Jarvis/Dell story, check out this remarkable white paper.
So how do you keep your company from getting burned by UGM?
Keep reading.
Editor's note: as we were readying this article for production, Dell launched its new one2one blog. See this analysis by Steve Rubel of Edelman and Micropersuasion for context.
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