The company has sold more than 2 million printers worldwide since entering the market a year ago. Dell's plan is to continue to lower the cost of not only the printers themselves, but of the toner and ink supplies that it ships directly to customers. The company ships 100% of its replacement supplies to customers with a 24-hour turnaround. "People thought this would be an impediment to our business," Dell said.
Services pose a different challenge for Dell, particularly in the area of support for its consumer products, says Brooks Gray, an analyst at Technology Business Research. Gray attributes these problems to a lag in training classes for offshore companies that provide Dell's warranty-support services and the need for better communication between these offshore service providers and Dell.
In November, Dell returned technical support for large-business users of its Optiplex PCs and Latitude notebook computers to U.S. call centers from its company-owned facilities in India, where the computer maker ran support operations for the past three years. The move came after some customers complained about poor service. Gray says the ability to cut the cost of services to the customer is a challenge that Dell could also face with its small- and midsize-business customers as it continues to lower prices on the products themselves.
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