HP identified that the technical trials that customers often face crop up at the most unexpected and inconvenient times in the daily course of business. Equipment and applications are going to break down, most often right when a critical project is due or while the customer is on the road. The customer’s first line of action is usually to call in to the support help desk or perhaps research the problem online. HP Services addresses the customer’s pain points in these situations by understanding the critical role support plays and how quickly the customer needs resolution. HP’s award-winning support organization is dedicated to getting the customer up and running as quickly as possible and preventing future problems so companies can continue to meet their business deliverables. In fact, the HP Services customer support organization is becoming increasingly recognized as a leader, ahead of IBM and Dell.
As early as 2004, the industry acknowledged HP’s commitment to customer satisfaction with more than seven honors and awards. HP earned the highest overall rating from its customers in a Computerworld/InterUnity Group Inc. survey of nearly 1,200 information technology managers and professionals. In this study, customers gave HP the top satisfaction marks in six of eight categories, including meeting customer expectations, contributing to customer profitability, product quality, product reliability, and licensing policies. Customer satisfaction has continued to rate high through 2011.
Given its commitment to customer service and satisfaction, HP conducted a survey of recent purchasers of HP PCs and notebooks. HP wants to understand how its consumers use their HP computers. It also wants to understand the level of satisfaction that consumers are deriving from HP’s products. HP wants to estimate the probability that customers will be repeat buyers and whether current customers will recommend HP to their friends and family. Finally, HP wants to determine if there is any correlation on any of these identified usage factors and the underlying demographic characteristics of its customers. The questionnaire that was used is provided here; the associated data collected can be downloaded from the Web site for this book.
Discuss the role that marketing research can play in helping HP maintain and build on its leadership position in the personal computers market.
What problem-identification research should HP undertake?
What problem-solving research should HP undertake?
How can HP make use of social media to obtain MR information?