Now Nadella needs to fix sales and marketing at Microsoft
One might think this would be a turn-around year for Microsoft. Windows 10 is off to a good start, Surface Pro is being "copied" by both Apple and Google and reviews for their new Surface Book are generally quite good. But, one thing I'm still reading a lot of is people having serious issues actually getting their devices, mis-information on their services and a complete lack of (relevant) advertising on other things.
The device side of thing is something which is problematic from every imaginable angle. With Surface Book, many people are complaining about valid credit cards being declined and orders canceled, with some even noting that this isn't the first time it has happened. I follow one person on Twitter who had this happen, who retweeted about another person who experienced this. These aren't potential sales, these are people who had already committed to buy. And now, they might just walk away. That is the worst possible thing that could happen. Especially with Microsoft being the only vendor at present. Oh, and icing on the cake, the guy I follow on Twitter got an email stating the shipping date he was originally given was wrong and it was actually being shipped weeks later. This was just a few days before the order was canceled.
But, if people who live where the products are available not being able to even successfully complete an order isn't bad enough, then there is availability in general. Many Microsoft products never hit more than a handful of markets. And in some categories, like phone, exclusivity deals may STILL bar you from actually buying one of their devices. So, not only are they actually just straight up losing money by failing to process transactions, they are also, regularly excluding a massive number of countries from even having the opportunity to fail to buy their devices (including 1st world countries with plenty of disposable income [like Canada]).
The funny thing on that last point is, given Windows Phone popularity by region, you would think that Microsoft would know that even a failed product in US could be a successful product in another market. Which should motivate them to at least try limited sales in a wider array of countries.
Their supply channel and order processing are just flat out terrible if even one tenth of the stories are to be believed. Honestly, I think the company should (aside from its physical stores) completely abandon selling their products themselves.
... or fix those issues (which, from the sounds of it, aren't anything new).
Moving on, in you search tech related articles and did any reading whatsoever on Windows 10 there are a few FUD stories you couldn't have helped but read. Among them are the claims that Windows 10 spies on everything you do and that automatic updates are evil. Responses from Microsoft have been late, not incredibly informative and hard to actually find. The vast majority of these articles spew bad information and drive people away from the platform. But it just feels like the bare minimum is being done to repel this.
And the last topic is advertising of their products and services, including working with OEMs and resellers. You could probably still easily find hundreds of forums full of people who walked into a store explicitly to buy a Windows Phone and were borderline refused or had Android or iOS rammed down their throats instead.
And most people have never heard of what is now Groove Music Pass. And those who know what it is now would never suspect that it is YEARS older than Apple Music or Google's offering.
On the devices side of things, Microsoft needs to be engaged with their re-sellers the same way that Apple and Android OEMs are. And they need to advertise more like Apple does. I don't even have cable any more and I've still seen recent Apple commercials. I haven't seen a Microsoft commercial in probably close to 3 years for the original Surface devices (and hey, guess what? Surface is one of their only successful product lineups).
Even Google *should* advertise (more? not sure I've ever seen a Google advertisement), but as the market leader they get away with it (also, hard to advertise when your OEMs customize the living shit out of your product).
Anyway, with the positive response the company along with their products and services are garnering this year, if Microsoft can fix these issues, it isn't insane to think that they could rise to the top again.
The device side of thing is something which is problematic from every imaginable angle. With Surface Book, many people are complaining about valid credit cards being declined and orders canceled, with some even noting that this isn't the first time it has happened. I follow one person on Twitter who had this happen, who retweeted about another person who experienced this. These aren't potential sales, these are people who had already committed to buy. And now, they might just walk away. That is the worst possible thing that could happen. Especially with Microsoft being the only vendor at present. Oh, and icing on the cake, the guy I follow on Twitter got an email stating the shipping date he was originally given was wrong and it was actually being shipped weeks later. This was just a few days before the order was canceled.
But, if people who live where the products are available not being able to even successfully complete an order isn't bad enough, then there is availability in general. Many Microsoft products never hit more than a handful of markets. And in some categories, like phone, exclusivity deals may STILL bar you from actually buying one of their devices. So, not only are they actually just straight up losing money by failing to process transactions, they are also, regularly excluding a massive number of countries from even having the opportunity to fail to buy their devices (including 1st world countries with plenty of disposable income [like Canada]).
The funny thing on that last point is, given Windows Phone popularity by region, you would think that Microsoft would know that even a failed product in US could be a successful product in another market. Which should motivate them to at least try limited sales in a wider array of countries.
Their supply channel and order processing are just flat out terrible if even one tenth of the stories are to be believed. Honestly, I think the company should (aside from its physical stores) completely abandon selling their products themselves.
... or fix those issues (which, from the sounds of it, aren't anything new).
Moving on, in you search tech related articles and did any reading whatsoever on Windows 10 there are a few FUD stories you couldn't have helped but read. Among them are the claims that Windows 10 spies on everything you do and that automatic updates are evil. Responses from Microsoft have been late, not incredibly informative and hard to actually find. The vast majority of these articles spew bad information and drive people away from the platform. But it just feels like the bare minimum is being done to repel this.
And the last topic is advertising of their products and services, including working with OEMs and resellers. You could probably still easily find hundreds of forums full of people who walked into a store explicitly to buy a Windows Phone and were borderline refused or had Android or iOS rammed down their throats instead.
And most people have never heard of what is now Groove Music Pass. And those who know what it is now would never suspect that it is YEARS older than Apple Music or Google's offering.
On the devices side of things, Microsoft needs to be engaged with their re-sellers the same way that Apple and Android OEMs are. And they need to advertise more like Apple does. I don't even have cable any more and I've still seen recent Apple commercials. I haven't seen a Microsoft commercial in probably close to 3 years for the original Surface devices (and hey, guess what? Surface is one of their only successful product lineups).
Even Google *should* advertise (more? not sure I've ever seen a Google advertisement), but as the market leader they get away with it (also, hard to advertise when your OEMs customize the living shit out of your product).
Anyway, with the positive response the company along with their products and services are garnering this year, if Microsoft can fix these issues, it isn't insane to think that they could rise to the top again.
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