Late last year, I blogged about the strides Dell.com has been making to improve our customers’ online shopping experience. While our team continues to strive for a more simplified overall look and feel, we are also trying out new approaches in communicating about Dell products and solutions. What matters to you? What doesn’t matter to you? And finally, as always, how do we make your shopping experience easier?
Over six months ago, the Dell ‘Small & Home Office’ segment launched on Dell.com. (You can find it positioned between ‘For Home’ and ‘For Small & Medium Business’ on the home page.) First off, I’d like to clarify who ‘Small & Home Office’ is meant for: sole proprietors and small business owners who manage less than 10 employees. Folks like your local florist, accountant, dentist, realtor. Folks like my chef friend who got tired of working under other chefs and owners and finally opened up his own Asian fusion restaurant in Houston. Folks like my mom, who solely runs her small acupuncture clinic in Austin without the help of even a receptionist. Oftentimes, these types of business owners do it all themselves—accounting, marketing, CRM, web design, etc. They’re not usually technology experts, yet they need to make technology decisions to keep their businesses running. This can be challenging, so our team has been trying to figure out ways to ease the burden. For customers who aren’t sure of exactly what they need, we’d like to make recommendations among the sea of choices offered on Dell.com.
Our team’s customer insights research uncovered that small business owners relate most to others in the same industry. In other words, that’s what owners view as one of the most relevant points of commonality—the conditions under which businesses within a particular industry thrive and struggle. So now we’re trying something new: product recommendations by industry within Dell’s ‘Small & Home Office’ segment. The industry-focused sitelet launched a couple of weeks ago, recommending electronics and accessories for the following small business segments:
- Professional Services (e.g. law, accounting, finance, consulting, architecture, engineering, design)
- Health Care
- Retail & Trade
- Real Estate
- Construction
Click on the image below to view the sitelet. Then self-select which industry your business falls in to view product recommendations:
You’ll notice that it looks pretty straightforward—nothing too earth-shattering here. But we hope it’s a step towards Dell speaking to our ‘Small & Home Office’ customers in terms that make sense to you. We’re currently looking for feedback on whether or not this is the right approach. What works? What doesn’t work? What type of content would you like to see on these pages that is not there today? Is an industry focus even relevant after all? As we continue to learn more about our customers, this sitelet will continue to evolve. So will other aspects of the overall Dell.com experience.
Please leave your thoughts and suggestions here or via our @Direct2Dell Twitter account!