ITCSNYC technicians have provided home computer and residential computer support in New York City for over 9 years. In that time we have come to learn that a large portion of our support calls (70-80%) are second hand calls i.e. dissatisfied customers that are calling you because they are unhappy with their previous support company.

No one computer support company in New york has provided us with more clients this way than Geek Squad.

The sad truth is that customer turnover is pretty high within the computer support industry in general, and that’s because most customers view computer support as a commodity service; a reliable set of wrote  procedures that can be easily repeated by anyone (within a certain range of skill). This of course is not the case, but the customer is not to blame for this misconceived notion of the computer support industry.  They get this idea due to the fact that most computer support companies treat their services offerings this way.

Tech support is not a commodity. The truth of the matter is that every problem and situation is different.  This video here speaks well to that fact. (This video does contain adult language)

This is one of the points that the management at Geek Squad seem to miss.  Companies may be able to manufacture computers on an assembly line but they can’t fix them that way. To paraphrase the ex Best-Buy tech in the video:  “You have to be willing to invest the time to figure out a problem in order to gain the experience to be able to fix it that much more quickly the next time.” You need real techs interested in and committed to their work. Not employees flowing scripts.

Another point is understanding what it means to be a Value Added Reseller (VAR). A recent support client told us that a GS tech refused to troubleshoot a wireless keyboard problem with him over the phone. They insisted that he bring the machine in which would have resulted in a charge. The client had purchased his Dell desktop from Best Buy less than two years ago. A five minute phone call, especially one that may still result in a paying support call, is not too much to invest for a prior customer.

Adding additional value to a product means making an additional investment in the customer – an additional investment that a VAR may not see back immediately.  However providing an all-in-one solution for to your clients means they will likely call when they need help or are ready to buy again but only if they trust your service so far and believe they can rely on it in the future.

These are just two of the major issues we’ve seen with Best Buy’s/Geek Squad’s service over the years.  This article wasn’t written  to sling mud  (that’s easy to do in the support industry) it was written just to let you know that in the words of that great entertainer that recently passed You are not alone (Click here to see how not alone you really are).  Besides we wouldn’t want to come down too hard on them after all… they provide us with some of our best clients.

Desktop Support

Taraje Solomon
support@itcomputersupportnyc.com
www.itcomputeruspportnyc.com