Jeff Beckham

When Dell launched a corporate blog last month, its arrival was met with a fair share of skepticism. The main criticisms were that it was “too corporate” and didn’t address issues head-on that were in the news about the company.

However, in just a few weeks, the blog team at Dell has done an impressive job. They’ve directly addressed shipping delays for their XPS 700 model; addressed a high-profile processor issue for Chinese customers with a post in both English and Chinese; and today, via Jeff Jarvis, comes word that there are now customer service people assigned to respond to bloggers.

Update: I wrote this hours before Dell recalled 4.1 milliion Sony-made notebook computer batteries. And not to continue to boost Dell’s efforts, but they handled this news smoothly on their blog as well.