Living in the Computer Age

                             Thomas Petrocelli


     A Tale of Two Companies

     If you ask people why the economy of this country is in the toilet, 
     you'll get a variety of answers depending on who you talk to. Ask 
     Ross Perot and he'll tell you it's the deficit. Ask a stockbroker, 
     trader or other member of the investment community and they'll say 
     that it's the capital gains tax. Dan Quayle would probably mumble 
     something about family values and others will say it's all the fault 
     of the Germans and Japanese. In a sense, only the last answer has 
     any merit. It's not because of some nefarious plot on the part of 
     those countries. It's because they have not forgotten one of the 
     basic tenets of business, one that many American businesses have, 
     namely "Please the customer".

     This doesn't mean convince them that they need something that they 
     don't want or need. It doesn't mean sell them something and then 
     walk away. It means give them something that they really want and 
     then stick with them throughout the lifetime of that product. This 
     is even more important in technical industries like computers and 
     software. It's no coincidence that Dell Computers has risen like a 
     rocket. They provided customers with the products they wanted and 
     excellent service and support. Unfortunately many companies forget 
     this approach when they get big. Therein lies my tale of two 
     companies.

     Microsoft. Big. Humungous. Monstrous. These are words often used to 
     describe the giant of the software industry. Other less favorable 
     ones are predatory, engulfing, nasty. Most of the latter come from 
     competitors, not customers. Why is Microsoft so successful? It's not 
     because they got in early. That's part of it but not the lion's 
     share. In fact, Microsoft's share of the operating system market 
     (their major market) has shrunk since 1988 (Business Week, September 
     28, 1992). The reason that Microsoft is so successful is because it 
     provides customers with the products they want and outstanding 
     service. 

     An example: I recently called Microsoft about a problem with some of 
     their software products. I had recently installed PowerPoint, and the 
     spell checker that it shares with other Microsoft applications 
     wouldn't load from Publisher. I called the PowerPoint support number 
     (mostly because it was in front of me at the time) and was put on 
     hold. That was expected. What was not expected was that I was 
     informed by the phone system of my place in the queue and what the 
     average wait was. This is important information when you are calling 
     long distance. The system was wrong: instead of two and a half 
     minutes, I only waited less than one minute. The customer support 
     representative was polite and knowledgeable. Even though the 
     problem was with a product other than the one she directly supported, 
     she was able to diagnose what was wrong (Publisher does a version 
     check on the spell checker) immediately. She then sent me out a 
     Publisher upgrade. Total time: under five minutes. 

     One thing that struck me was that she was polite and called me "sir" 
     or "Mr. Petrocelli". One thing I despise is overly familiar people 
     in business settings. The Microsoft person knew how to speak on the 
     phone in a correct business manner. That's a sign of a class act.

     Contrast: Borland International. I called into their phone system 
     which was like navigating the Labyrinth of Minos. After finally 
     getting to the correct extension I was put on hold. I stayed on hold. 
     And stayed there and stayed there and stayed there. After fifteen 
     minutes (this is also a toll call), I gave up and went about my 
     business. I called back the next day and was put on hold for about 
     five minutes. The music was nice, but nobody seemed to be answering. 
     Finally, a support representative answered and asked me for my first 
     name. Now this is annoying. Who is this guy to be calling me by my 
     first name? I don't know him and by the end of the phone call didn't 
     even like him.  This kind of "be a friend" policy is misguided. But 
     I digress.

     Whereas the Microsoft customer rep was polite and business-like, the 
     Borland rep was condescending and clueless. He didn't have an idea, 
     let alone a solution, to my problem. It was a pretty simple problem. 
     The Turbo C++ Resource Workshop, which is used to build dialog boxes, 
     icons, cursors and such, refused to load the Paint routine. This was 
     stored in a dynamically linked library, usually referred to as a DLL. 
     DLLs are libraries of Windows routines that are loaded when the 
     program needs them, rather then built into the program directly. It's 
     a nice way of saving on memory. 

     The Borland rep didn't know under what circumstances it wouldn't 
     load and acted like I was nuts for asking. I didn't expect that he 
     would know everything about Windows or even his product, but it's not 
     too much to ask that he have a grasp of the basics. He suggested... 
     no, insisted... that it was my version of DOS. DOS doesn't even know 
     what a DLL is. As far as DOS is concerned it doesn't exist. He never 
     did give me a plausible explanation as to why the DOS version would 
     affect whether the DLL would load or not. 

     When he finally decided that he couldn't answer the questions I 
     posed, he once again put me on hold so that he could find someone 
     who could. After eight more minutes, I decided that I was wasting 
     too much money and hung up. This call cost me 20 minutes worth of 
     long distance charges and all I got for it was aggravation. The 
     final score: 35 minutes of long distance to California versus no 
     solution. Not good. The only explanation I have for this is that he 
     was incompetent or was in cahoots with my long distance carrier to 
     jack up my bill. Which do you think was more plausible?      

     These are not the first experiences I've had with these companies. 
     Each time it has been the same. A quality performance from Microsoft 
     and a dud from Borland. I can remember a Microsoft salesperson 
     telling me that if any of my old Microsoft software didn't work 100% 
     correct with Windows 3.1, then Microsoft would send me an upgrade of 
     the packages that didn't. That's commitment. On the other hand, when 
     installing Objectvision 2.0, a Borland support engineer couldn't 
     interpret the error messages that their own installation program was 
     generating. That's poor service.

     In case you think that this is all just grousing on my part or that 
     I have something against Borland (I didn't before, maybe I do now), 
     the point of all this is that these two companies are analogous to 
     American business as a whole. On the one hand we have a company that 
     provides superior service, treats its customers well, trains its 
     people correctly and puts out decent products. 

     On the other hand, we have a company that doesn't properly train its 
     front line representatives, treats its customers like cattle, gives 
     lousy service and also puts out decent products. Where's the 
     difference? The way they act toward the customer. This translates 
     into whether or not the customer is pleased. The Japanese know this. 
     The Germans know this. Why do so many American companies forget it?

     The hope is that more and more companies will provide for customers 
     the type of service they need and deserve. They will learn to treat 
     customers with respect and will strive to please them. They will act 
     more like Microsoft and become successful. Until they do, they can 
     expect no sympathy from me when they weep about how "unfair" 
     Microsoft is or how the giant Microsoft is crushing them. The good 
     companies, the ones who remember from time to time who it is that 
     pays their bills, will survive and grow. The bad ones who act like 
     we should be glad to have the honor of buying things from them will 
     wither and die and the economy will be the better for it.

     Many companies put out good products, whether it's software or 
     automobiles. Few give good service. That's what will make the 
     difference in the 90's. Not features, or new products every six 
     months, but service. Pleasing the customer. It's that simple.