Microsoft "gurus" will help you choose Vista in retail stores
Wed Sep 10, 2008 11:35AM EDT
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Somehow I missed this one a few days ago, but colleague Gina Hughes gave me the heads up last night: As part of its $300 million marketing campaign to promote Windows Vista, the company is planning to deploy customer service reps into major retailers like Best Buy and Circuit City, where they can "help people with their PC purchases." (Hey, they can't spend all that money on Jerry Seinfeld alone!)
The company says it will have 155 so-called "gurus" in stores by the end of the year. What will gurus do? "Answering questions" and "giving demos" is all that this MSNBC story mentions... but one has to imagine the truth is going to involve a little bit of the old hard sell.
In explaining the move, Microsoft says that it's "borrowing a page from Nordstrom with that retail customer experience," and at least one observer is comparing the program to Apple's retail "geniuses." The analogy isn't quite perfect, though: Both Nordstrom and Apple customer service reps work for the stores in which they are stationed, while Microsoft will be positioning its own reps in stores owned by someone else. That's significant, because those stores sell products from companies other than Microsoft, including (at least in the case of Best Buy) Macintosh computers. If I was Apple, I'd be less than thrilled at having a competitor stationed in a retail outlet to guide buyers away from my products and toward Vista... but I guess all's fair in love and business.
Other challenges are likely ahead, like how the "gurus" handle recommendations for products from different manufacturers. HP and Gateway computers will be side by side on the shelf, so what criteria does a "guru" working for Microsoft use to recommend one brand over another? Will they have hands on experience with every computer they promote? Just curious, that's all.
Microsoft says gurus won't be paid on commission but rather on the crunchier metrics of customer satisfaction and the "ability to translate the technology to a language consumers feel comfortable with." Why, I feel more comfortable already!
Comments on Microsoft "gurus" will help you choose Vista in retail stores
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2 Posted by rogueist on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:49PM EDT Report Abuse
Hehehe - beat me to it scott... This is actually not that unusual at all. The other vendors (HP, Dell, Gateway, etc.) used to do the same thing as well as Microsoft. They would all have their reps in stores and you would go there and listen to the pitch given by each rep, and then make a choice. A lot of time they would be hawking different items, so even if you chose brand "X" for one thing, you may end up also buying another item altogether from brand "Y" at the same time, so it was always a win-win situation. I wonder if Apple is going to do something in return...
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3 Posted by mwcircle@sbcglobal.net on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:31PM EDT Report Abuse
Why doesn't Microsoft invest more in making Vista more compatible with our existing printers, scanners, etc, instead of sending their reps into the stores to push Vita? My perfectly good printer no longer works correctly with my new computer (with Vista, instead of XP).
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4 Posted by b_harris265 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:16PM EDT Report Abuse
YOU ASK WHICH COMPUTER THE GURU'S WILL RECOMMEND.. HMM LEAVES A LITTLE OPENING FOR SECONDARY PALM GREASING BY GATEWAY, AND HP DOESN'T IT?
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5 Posted by wrgbarnebee on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:51PM EDT Report Abuse
Instead of spending millions of dollars to convince us that their OS isn't the buggiest thing since the last bee hive that fell on Winnie the Pooh, why don't they spend that money making an OS that isn't a POS! I have one vista machine, and am seriously considering starting wiping the HD and starting over with RedHat or some other Linux OS.... What's on the Vista? The fact that MAC and Linux are about to catch up bigtime!
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6 Posted by bella77427 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:04PM EDT Report Abuse
It's about time "Microsoft" got up off it's butt to gain the public's confidence. I think "Apple" is doing just fine.
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7 Posted by jseyfield on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:43PM EDT Report Abuse
Calling them "gurus" might not be the smartest thing considering Love Guru was one of the biggest bombs of the year. Bad association.
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8 Posted by dleyberg on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:45PM EDT Report Abuse
I am one of those "guru's" you are talking about, but I handle the HP line of products in a Best Buy store. Have been doing it for over 4 years so I would say that Apple, Microsoft and others are copying our model. All I need is someone from Microsoft explaining something that people either want or don't and any convincing on their part will be for naught. My experience is that I get some push back but the customer does go ahead and buys a new PC with Vista installed. So like many of you, I wish they would spend the money on improving their product or use the money to reduce the cost of their product.
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9 Posted by linuxdad on Thu Sep 3, 2009 6:53PM EDT Report Abuse
This sounds like a last ditch effort to get anyone to possibly spend hard earned money on Vista. The poor gurus will have a very lonely time, their best bet is to reformat and load Ubuntu Linux. Poof done, a complete OS with Office, CD/DVD burning, Video Production, Educational Programs and Games, Firefox Browser, lots more, No anti-virus, No anti-spyware, quick, fast and clean. All for $0 (free - have to tell the MS gurus since they would not understand) Note: there are many, many distributions of Linux, all better than MS stuff!
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10 Posted by pcofmind1 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:04PM EDT Report Abuse
Promoting Windoze Vista? Like putting lipstick on a pig. There is no wonder in the fact Apple's market share keeps spiking upward, while PC sales languish or at best remain flat. Got a Macbook Pro over the summer (my first Apple computer) after 14 years of being PC power user. One word: Wow! There is indeed something to be said of that "Once you go Mac, you'll never go back" stuff. Conversely, I used Vista on one of my computers for a year -- appropriate user-experience comparison would be root canal.
1 Posted by scottiecordes on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:08PM EDT Report Abuse
-As part of its $300 marketing campaign - Glad to see they are only spending 300 bucks on this! Just busting your chops Chris.