ARC Storage: Western Digital's Human Touch Still Counts

Western Digital plays the same technology game that its competitors do, but its showing in our Annual Report Card survey indicates that people are just as important in building customer loyalty.

The overall winner in the storage category, Western Digital scored big in product quality and availability, technical support and ease of doing business. You can't perfect such skills in the laboratory or on the assembly line, says Rich Rutledge, vice president for Western Digital's hard drive business.

"We have a very loyal following of customers, and that comes from doing a number of things right for a large number of years," Rutledge says. "Our products are good, but even when a customer has to return a drive, we can turn it into an opportunity to make the customer even more loyal by really taking care of them. If a customer has to return a product, he can track it through the process online. In any event, he'll get a phone call conveying our personal apologies. If a company's strategy is just to hit the lowest price, this wouldn't get done," he adds.

Support has to extend to cover other devices,not necessarily Western Digital's,in the field if its solution-provider partners and customers are going to be happy, Rutledge says.

"We once had a 'quality event' at a major perfume company," he says. "When we showed up, the perfume people said, 'We bought a so-and-so computer, not a Western Digital drive.' But it was our responsibility, so we responded. You can deliver smiles or headaches,and our customers can't afford to buy headaches."