Some Tech Companies Care More about Sales than Quality

This morning, I was sitting in a diner near some salespeople who work for different computer hardware companies. They were each complaining about the perceived quality of the hardware they are selling — or not selling — to customers. Each of the observations was valid from my perspective as a technologist, and these salespeople said they reported client concerns to their supervisors.

I was overhearing a conversation that managers should be hearing. It concerns me if companies don’t listen to their salespeople who hear from customers and want to sell quality products and services.

Apparently, the supervisors at these tech giants blame their customers for buying from Apple and other companies instead of sticking with generic Windows hardware. Worse, the leadership teams blame the sales teams. I don’t imagine these salespeople were lying to each other, either. They work for competitors!

I felt somewhat sorry for the people at that table. Imagine that you take a client’s concern to your supervisors and their response is, “You’re not selling well enough. The products are fine. The customers are wrong, anyway.”

Companies, listen to your customer-facing employees! Listen to your customers, who tell salespeople why they are changing suppliers or adopting “Bring Your Own Device” policies.

Possibly the best observation from the table was, “If our products were as good as they used to be, customers wouldn’t be so unwilling to upgrade or stay with us. But management said I’m not meeting my numbers, and that’s what counts. It’s my fault, not the product quality.”

Reflect on what these salespeople were admitting: Quality has declined. 

Most computers are assembled by only a handful of third-party contractors. However, companies like Apple and Dell set the specifications for the hardware bearing their brands.

I hate the cheap plastic feel of “affordable” PC notebooks. A PC that feels well-built costs only a few hundred dollars less than an Apple system.

When I sit by someone using a PC, I can hear the internal fans spinning away. I swear I can even smell hot plastic. Should a computer smell like it is overheating? Not that a MacBook Pro never triggers its fans, but the last time my system sounded like it was about to take flight was after editing 4K video for a couple of hours.

I have been a CompTIA A+ certified technician and a Microsoft Certified Professional. Yet, we own only one generic PC, a system built for my daughters during the COVID-19 pandemic.

I cannot easily repair any newer Apple product, unlike the systems we purchased only a decade ago. I used to add memory, replace hard drives, and even swap out DVD-R drives in my MacBook Pros. You cannot do much of anything with a new MacBook Pro. I also upgraded two Intel-based Mac mini systems. I might upgrade a Mac Studio M1, but that’s still no minor task; you have to know how to get around the Apple SSD challenges. (Yes, it can be done.)

Yet, I cannot think of any hardware I would need to repair or update during the life of our current Macs. Our systems last five, six, or even eight years. After eight years, I wouldn’t bother updating any computer. By that time, the motherboard would be outdated, so any new cutting-edge upgrades wouldn’t be reasonable.

I don’t like Apple’s closed hardware philosophically, but the reality is that it’s just a philosophical concern. Apple has many flaws, including some absurdly high prices for larger storage, more RAM, and so on. But, I know our Apple hardware will last for years.

Hitting sales targets with cheap hardware is not how to build customer loyalty. You earn loyalty by selling systems that rarely need to be serviced or replaced.