Online computer sales beat brick and mortar, but how does the after-sales support compare?
According to a recently published Consumer Reports survey, consumers vastly prefer buying computers online to buying them in stores. Apple, Dell, IBM, Micron and Gateway’s sites all got good or great marks for selection, “savvy” and useful shopper help features. Not a single brick and mortar retailer, such as Costco, Office Depot, Circuit City, Best Buy, got high marks. In fact, offline stores’ marks were pitiful compared to online.
However, everybody who got high marks for selling online, got pretty lousy marks for tech support. Seems like computer sellers have figured out how to make the sale, but not how to give good after-sales support to keep the customer happy. Which is pretty short-sighted given that the personal computer marketplace is no longer a new one. Most people who will buy a computer in the next few years have done so at least once in the past. The game is now about making consumers happy for a lifetime of multiple sales, not just grabbing that first one.
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