A few years ago,a blogger named Jeff Javis repeatedly complained about his Dell brand laptop computer.His repeated slamming of Dell "became a case study in how one man's website could shred a corporate reputation."
So what did Dell do?It launched a Web site called IdeaStorm which allows Dell customers to offer suggestions about how to improve Dell products and services.The result has been thousands of suggestions and tens of thousands of comments. And Dell has been responsive. For example,after receiving a number of suggestions that Linux be available pre-installed on Dell machines,the computer maker conducted a detailed survey that over 100,000 consumers responded to. The result was that Dell began offering Linux pre-installed on a number of its desktop and notebook systems.