Company: Dell
Agency: Dell Global CorpComm/IR Department
Timeframe: 2006
From a PR standpoint, Dell Inc.'s Global Corporate Communications/Investor Relations (CorpComm/IR) organization confronted an unprecedented challenge in 2006 when news of
"exploding batteries" emerged six weeks prior to the announcement of the largest recall in the history of consumer electronics -- 4.2-million Dell-branded lithium-ion batteries,
with cells manufactured by Sony.
Despite the team's efforts to collaborate with regulatory agencies in various countries to inform customers of the recall, there was no precedent for administering a recall of
this magnitude, and Dell's focus on customer safety left no margin for error. Still, the team appreciated the opportunity, knowing that a successful execution of the recall would
confirm Dell's commitment to both customers and customer safety.
"When we realized there could be an issue with one of our products, obviously the mantra that went across our entire team was that customer safety comes first," says David
Lear, director/worldwide regulatory compliance and environmental affairs at Dell. "We definitely wanted to err on the side of caution and do whatever necessary to protect our
customer, so that was underlying everything we did as we did our investigation."
Building the right team was equally important, Lear says. "As we looked at something that could be this global, we wanted to make sure that we had the right decision makers,"
he says. CorpComm/IR approached the firm's executive level to recruit representatives from all areas, including those from the supply chain, service, engineering, communications,
sales operations, marketing and finance sectors -- a team that would allow Dell to make quick decisions and drive execution.
CorpComm/IR developed the main strategy based on a core central message to its "Dell Inc. Battery Recall" campaign: Dell had taken aggressive, proactive action to retrieve and
replace all suspect batteries with the safety of Dell's customers being of utmost importance.
This message was confirmed by communicating Dell's direct business model benefits, including:
1. Detailed information on units sold to customers, including the unit's configuration when it shipped to the customer.
2. Thorough records of customer contact information enabling Dell team members to reach out to customers immediately.
3. Secure relationships with suppliers, such as Sony, allowing Dell to identify the problem, diagnose it and find a remedy.
The CorpComm/IR team's initial preparation hit a snag Aug. 15, 2006, when an independent organization leaked the announcement to the press, requiring Dell to accelerate plans
by 12 hours, including launching the recall Web site earlier than expected.
In spite of the strained timeframe, the center of the communications plan for CorpComm/IR and key business leaders remained evident: effectively and efficiently inform
customers, employees and shareholders about the recall. The task was daunting -- the recall required CorpComm/IR to access the owners of 4.2-million batteries -- so the team
concentrated its efforts on three key elements:
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Communicating with top-tier media outlets to ensure distribution of Dell's key message;
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Expanding Dell's blog site to keep customers and the media informed about the industry's latest recall developments; and,
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Distributing e-mails to analysts and investors.
The Corp/IR team garnered key media, such as The New York Times, CNBC and leading regional media; within the first 12 hours of the recall, a Dell executive participated in
interviews with the Today Show and Bloomberg TV. The team integrated other global outlets, including the BBC World News, into the course of action at a later date. Global
CorpComm/IR team members briefed industry analysts -- who would later serve as key partners in educating customers -- and responded to a number of inquiries from media outlets,
including TV, radio, newspaper and wire services, while facing the challenge of responding with a quick turnaround of information to the volume of media requests.
Acknowledging that early and consistent dialogue is vital to communicating with significant constituents and ensuring message delivery, CorpComm/IR recognized the blogosphere
to be an integral communications tool. A blog entry was posted on the Dell external blog, direct2dell.com, by Dell's senior executive for notebooks on the day of the announced
recall. Monitoring online media allowed the team to target facts and correct misperceptions.
Dell's separate internal site, One Dell Way, educated employees about Dell's support for customers, and the vice president of global CorpComm/IR delivered an update to some of
Dell's top investors and financial analysts who cover Dell, alerting them of the recall announcement and guiding them to more information.
The team also worked with the airline services, Lear says. "Some of our challenges were the unintended consequences of this type of a recall," he says. "We hadn't even thought
of the fact that airlines allow our customers to use their notebooks and charge their batteries on the plane."
CorpComm/IR worked together with the airlines to make sure "they understood the actions we were taking and understood the nature and safety of our products and the industry,"
Lear adds.
Customers responded to Dell's efforts to notify and continuously update customers, industry analysts and others: By August's end, Dell had received roughly 150 million hits on
the battery recall site and more than 800,000 battery requests.
The CorpComm/IR team successfully articulated Dell's key message of taking
care of its customers and shipped the replacement units to specific customers
within 16 hours of the recall announcement. On August 15, Dell collected more
than 50 million hits on its site http://www.dellbatteryprogram.com,
responded to more than 135,000 phone calls and received more than 150,000 battery
replacement orders.
Dell and its CorpComm/IR team's execution of the recall set a number of standards:
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Dell was the first company in the industry to publicize and act on this customer safety issue--one that ultimately would be addressed by every leading computer company
but one. Indeed, 60 days after the recall launch, it was confirmed that the root cause was related solely to a problem with the Sony battery cells. The verdict helped to clarify
initial--and inaccurate--perceptions that the battery issue was solely a Dell issue. Apple followed Dell's recall 10 days later; Lenovo, Toshiba and Fujitsu announced recalls
thereafter, and Sony announced the recall of batteries used in its VAIO notebook line eight weeks after Dell's announcement.
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Dell initiated the recall on the basis of six incidents among almost 20 million batteries in the marketplace. No injuries resulted from any of the incidents.
Being the first firm to publicize and act on the safety issue "absolutely garnered trust in our customers' minds, and that was our number one thing," says Anne Camden, public
relations manager at Dell. "We wanted to make sure they understood the situation that we were working with them to make it as seamless as possible, that we were being as
transparent as possible and just to make sure we were all knowledgeable about the situation."
Dell's quick approach to the situation was reinforced when other companies began to admit they were using the same battery, Lear says. "A lot of our customers were saying,
'Wow, Dell, you took a risk by coming out first and fastest. Thank you, thank you for thinking about us first.' I think they, at that point, just reinforced a trust that we
absolutely were putting customer safety first where I think some, some competitors kind of delayed their decision--but finally came out."
The firm's swift response also garnered recognition as an industry leader in driving safety technology. "We don't want this to happen again," Lear says. "We kind of worked with
some of the battery technology companies and decided that we're going to drive some stricter safety standards of the future." The firm asked both its competitors and suppliers to
participate, he adds.
The Public Relations Society of America recognized the CorpComm/IR's accomplishment with the Silver Anvil Award Winner for Crisis Communications -- Business division.
CONTACTS:
David Lear, 512.728.4100, [email protected]; ?Anne Camden, 512.723.7689, [email protected]
Best Practices And Lessons Learned
When it comes to a campaign as large as Dell's recall, the key to success lies within the two Cs: communication and customer commitment.
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Communication is key. Over-communication is even better. "Given today's information-rich society, versus even four or five years ago, you have such a huge variety of
communication outlets or mechanisms at your will," says Anne Camden, public relations manager at Dell. "You need to make sure you leverage them all as appropriate," from a typical
press release to a company blog, she says.
Dell communicates via a wide variety of outlets, including distributing customer letters, urging account executives to reach out directly to contacts and allowing customers
access to a dedicated company Web site. "You need to make sure you get out to consumers and that involves a lot of communication on the Web," she adds.
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Commit to your customers. One of the challenges of the recall case was Dell's diverse customer base. "We sell consumer, commercial, we have international customers, and
some decentralized customers that deploy our products across the world to their employees, so you have to think about translations and the way we talk to our customers, and the
different communication lines that we have into them," says David Lear, director/worldwide regulatory compliance and environmental affairs at Dell. "We had to think: How do we
deploy this across all the diverse customer base that we have?"
Over-communication and transparency were the answers in making sure all customers were comfortable with the recall process. "We had a very large team, and we left no customer
question unanswered," Lear says. "We felt that was our obligation to the customer."