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Tech Support Businesses on the Rise
prostoalex writes "People are relying on more technology that ever before, and tech support geek squads are on the rise, media reports. The USA Today article says Best Buy has hired 1,500 more technicians for its Geek Squad and CompUSA currently keeps its tech support ranks at 12,000. The article from Digital Connect magazine talks about Geeks On Call, a nationwide tech support franchise, which has more than 300 shops in 20 states. The USA Today article states the profit margins for the tech support teams generally run within 30%, while the Digital Connect magazine gives an estimate on prices charged to achieve the margins: "An initial diagnostics call, for example, could run $99. Cleanup jobs usually run one to two hours, and some franchisees say they charge between $149 and $165 for one hour and $265 to $275 for two hours.""
So, if you think it's going to take 3 hours to fix, just go out and buy a new computer.
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Do yourself a favor and track down the Geek Squads price list. Holy Crap am I in the wrong business (law).
$29.00 to install RAM? Whats that take 5 mins? 60/5= 12, 12 x $29 = $348 an hour. Where do I sign up?
I feel bad for the roaming geeks like Best Buy's Geek Squad.
having to deal with people on the phone is tough. but when you have to go into their homes, that's scary. You lose the safe seperation from people's weirdness.
Although, I always told the joke that people would be a whole lot nicer if they saw me in person. it's easy to be an asshoel to a voice on the phone. But in person, it's a little harder.
Pretty Pictures!
Just as the War on Some Drugs can never be ended because it would "put too many people out of work", so do those opposing free minds and free markets viciously fight against any cracks in the Microsoft monocultural dike. After all, think of those poor buggy whip^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Htech support workers. How can they expect to feed their children in the face of secure, stable and reliable systems? You free software people, why do you hate children and America?
Fuck Slashdot
The most hated words on a tech support phone call.. EVER. These same people are going to be very dissappointed when they show up - charge $90 bucks - just to get referred.
Which is what leads to people spend 300 or 400 bucks on an entirely new machine...
/. posts say this, but many many people have computers worth more than $300-400, if you're using that kind of low-end machine, you generally can't afford this kind of tech support anyways.
Half the
Add in the cost of re-installing all your programs, the cost of lost data, and the trouble of buying a new PC, and you're looking at over $1000 average. Add in the higher-value PCs or laptops, and you've got a significant investment.
This is why, in spite of low hardware costs, tech support is still going strong.
So before we jump on the "just buy a new computer" bandwagon, think about the time and hassle of moving that which makes your computer your computer, your DATA, to that new computer and transferring all of your settings, preferences, bookmarks, etc. Incorporate that time into the overall expense and you'll see that it's not such a great deal to just buy up that new emachines or dell or whatever...
Then factor in the SPOUSE HASSLE FACTOR...God forbid you move some file of your spouses from the old computer to the new one and she can't find it, or things look different on the new computer, etc...
How much does that cost vs. just fixing the problems with your current computer, let alone the environmental cost of recycling or disposing of the old computer. I know that nobody has ever thrown one of those into the dumpster...
Ocean is land, covered with water.
It may take 3 hours of hands-on time to fix a single computer, but five computers can usually be fixed in that same three hours. Much of the "fixing" time is just waiting for disks to be scanned for malware and for installs to run. "Windows is saving your settings" (Ugh.)
The real issue is support costs versus training costs. Businesses that pay $250/hour for someone to "fix their computers" (which is to say, clean up Windows errors) should be paying $100/hour for someone to train their people on how to avoid these problems.
It's not hard to avoid viruses and malware. You switch to a non-IE browser and don't run programs whose originator you don't know. That doesn't take too much training time, but it saves a timeclock full of support time if people practice those things.
Combined with some AV tool (and in my experience it doesn't matter which one), you're generally on target for hassle-free computer use.
sigs, as if you care.
Why are "geek squads" rising? Because the quality of telephone tech support has gone down the toilet. People just don't want to talk to someone in Sri Lanka that they can't understand and can't understand them. People don't want to have to walk thru a script of things they've already tried just to make the tech's computer happy.
People want someone who can look at the computer, know what's wrong, and fix it. They don't want to click on X, Y and Z then get Q and try to explain to the person on the other end of the line what they are seeing.
Simply put, to speak to tech support on the phone, you need to be somewhat tech savvy yourself. Then if you're a tech like me, it's frustrating to be led thru all the things you've already tried. ("I've already cleared the printer queue. I've reinstalled the driver. I've replaced the cable. For the fifteenth time, the printer's internal test page doesn't print when I use the front panel buttons!!!")
In business especially, it's not worth the time to spend hours on a tech support call when a phone call to the local computer geek results in same-day service with minimal loss of productivity. Instead of tying up an employee on the phone, that employee can be doing non-computer productive work, which just may pay for the tech's time.
Give me my freedom, and I'll take care of my own security, thank you.
More like profesional apologizers.
.. and it's not their fault.
Technicians -- especially the good ones -- are not going to do well at this
It's the fault of the companies who prohibit their engineers and support people from giving out good, useable, technical information anymore.
It's the fault of the manufacturers, who often don't know what's in their products because it's sub-contracted through 90 different companies.
It's the fault of the marketers, who claim that everything works 100%, perfectly, without-a-doubt, with one hand behind your back.
It's the fault of the customers who look at a $299.99 PC and think that all of their problems will go away and no new ones will appear with the signing of a check.
It's the fault of the hiring agents who pay a person with 30 years of technical experience the same as someone who read an A+ manual.
It's the fault of the big box stores who would desperately prefer to move merchandise rather than repair something.
And it's the fault of the buying public who believe you can have all three: high-quality, free quality technicians, and low-cost.
I just know it ain't Barry White's fault.
But, please, please, more spyware, more shoddy workmanship! Everyone at the trough! Dig in. Face first, please.
If Nalgene water bottles are outlawed, only outlaws will have Nalgene water bottles.
- Learn how to care for your PC
- Pay $$$ to have someone take care of your PC
- Don't get a PC
A PC for under $300? You can't get something for (next to) nothing.Currently bidding on sig
You have to be fucking kidding me. No, really. Think again: replaced software engineers who have tons of experience are forced to find themselves in basically level 1 tech suppor role. Travelling to customers' sites in a funny car is not what I consider to be a career. A marketing equivalent of Geek Squad is telling a VP of marketing department to work a a local Gap.
I agree that technical support is on the rise, but I would highly argue against making a career through an at-home service. What the fuck are you? A maid?. If you really want to make a good buck on support, try getting into B2B environments and work with integrators, high level support of enterprise software, etc. Help desk support is "help desk" no matter where it is located and how it is done.
If you have people skills and like technology, why not switch to pre-sales engineering? Pays better and you don't have to have "Geek" in the name of your company.
My transplant surgeons:
- were expensive (you don't even want to know)
- rely on human disease to get business
- are mainly lowly technicians, swapping parts around in a machine that happens to have obnoxiously complicated service procedures (due to its literally ancient design). Whether that is worth what they charge is up to you I suppose, but I for one am satisfied.
Let me introduce you to the word "idiot", Mr. Coward.
I have seen the future, and it is inconvenient.
Isn't that good? Doesn't that mean we've conquered the world and put everyone to work for us? Fucking Utopia!
...for charging people $35/hr to fix elementary problems. Until I read about places like Geek Squad who send you a cookie-cutter tech with only limited troubleshooting skills, yet charge $150/hr or more!
Nowawadays my guilt is gone. I can't vouch for other people, but _I_ know _I'm_ a good tech. I don't need to know much about your software or hardware to be of use. 15 years of experience with PCs and good critical thinking skills give me everything I need to solve my customers' problems in less time than the "pros," and usually with better results. Even with my 1 hour minimum, I'm still saving Grandma 300% over what one of these places would charge her, and I'm doing a better job than them to boot.
Realize that you have an immense body of context and experience, which lets you think of replacing an optical drive or repairing a broken Office install as "simple." By the same token, the master mechanic can put your car on a lift in his garage and declare that your engine swap will be a piece of cake -- he's done it dozens of times before! But to you, the engine swap is an almost insurmountable task.
Your skill, and hence your labor, has a high market value. Even at $50/hr, you're selling your labor at a discount! You should be proud of yourself for offering a superior service at a very competitive price.