Buy an Elite HP PC, Get Your Own Support Staffer

jfruh writes "HP reversed its decision to spin off its PC business, but it's still left with the question of how to make money in a commodity business selling standard-issue machines manufactured overseas. One idea they're contemplating: improved customer service. If you buy an HP 'Elite' PC and have problems, you won't have to phone into a tech support call center where an entry-level drone reads off a script and tells you to reboot the machine; you'll have access to a specific support tech who will work with you as long as you own the computer."

Comments

Start with basic customer service first.

[jhoegl]

Seriously HP, starting with better basic Customer support would gain you more market share.
If Dell can figure it out, so can you.

Re:Start with basic customer service first.

[hairyfeet]

Because as Apple has learned perception and looks matter? As someone who sells and services to normal folks 6 days a week i can tell you i can take frankly 5 year old parts and double my money simply by slapping them in a $20 fancy case from geeks. Anything with a racing stripe of pretty lights catches the eye and makes people think speed so they are more likely to buy. While I of course don't shortchange folks like that I do put any new build in a flashy case simply because it makes them sell MUCH quicker if there is some bling bling so it really wouldn't be hard for HP to make an "Elite PC" line with some flash and get in the consumers.

That said the problem is gonna be laptops as there is only so much bling you can put on one of those and most folks only care about how it "feels' instead of how it looks. While i will resell frankly any brand I get a good deal on i prefer the Asus lines as to me they just "feel" nicer and at least on the ones I've used seem to be better about heat than HP and Dell. Maybe if HP would quit trying to beat Apple in the thin dept and instead work on having a nice feel with good battery life maybe they can upsell there too, maybe offer more models where you can change out the DVD for an extra battery? Because the biggest complaint I hear from folks is there never is such a thing as too much battery life, its one of the reasons i ended up selling my full size for an Asus EEE 1215B netbook, i went from 3 and a half hours to 6 watching 720p video and from 4 and a half to over 7 for surfing. To me that was worth giving up the burner and I bet a lot of folks would agree, instead of having the burner they should include a USB DVD and add an extra battery in the DVD slot. Easy way to upsell is to be able to brag that while the other guy gets 4 hours on a battery you get 8.

Re:Start with basic customer service first.

[EdIII]

This strategy is DOA.

Not entirely. It will not be as profitable, but it could get a very large chunk of a specific market share.

Senior citizens and complete and total morons.

I *know* some of these people. Very smart people otherwise (except for the real morons), but totally hopeless with computers. Even the most basic of diagnostic tasks past "is the power cord plugged in" can fluster them and take 15 minutes to get past on the phone.

Having somebody they can always talk to by name to help them out will be valuable in their eyes. It will sell in that specific market.

P.S - Anybody that reads this that thinks you know me..... no I was not talking about you. At all. I swear.

One Question

[stevenfuzz]

What the hell is a PC?

Re:One Question

[mlts]

For me, most are interchangeable except for one thing: Business level machines will have an onboard TPM chipset. With Windows, this is important because I can enable that, flip on BitLocker (saving off the recovery key somewhere safe but secure), and the machine is decently secure. Someone yanking out the HDD will not be able to access data, nor would a MBR compromise yield access to an attacker next boot. Add a PIN to that, and that provides brute force resistance (TPMs add an exponentially increasing delay after 3-4 wrong guesses.)

For some, this wouldn't matter at all, but if one has to run Windows, BitLocker + TPM is probably the easiest set/forget encryption there is for the platform.

Re:Meet the new drone, same as the old drone.

[c]

> Given the turnover in tech support, even an "assigned" drone will likely be
> some random person by the time you need help.

Call centers already assign their employees with fictional names and locations. All they need to do is slap that information in a database for the next representative to use. Unless there's a major difference in accent or sex, it's not like most people would even notice a difference.

Re:Or....

[lightknight]

Laptops.

When it becomes possible to pick and choose laptop parts the way you do desktops / servers, PC manufacturers are doomed.

Why? Because the ability for a local IT guy to build you exactly what you need / want greatly supersedes the powers of the market research guys at the big corps.
Warranty and tech support is the only hold-up at that point.

If the people who make laptop motherboards / cases / video cards would standardize on a layout / form factor, we'd be doing it already.