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.

[tripleevenfall]

Market share it may gain them, but profitability it will not.

The PC market has segmented in such a way that most people accurately judge PC clones as being equivalent and simply compare specs to price.

If HP comes into the market with "elite"-priced PCs, the American consumer will do the same thing they have done with tablets that didn't offer cost savings - they'll say "For that price I can get an iphone/ipad/imac/macbook". Why pay more for technical support, which you have to spend time and frustration using, when you can just buy something that (consumer perception says) doesn't need technical support?

This strategy is DOA.

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.

Dear HP

[Dyinobal]

Look HP I get it, Chinese labor is cheap, and there are a lot of Chinese people to spare but I just don't see how this is feasible. Plus just imagine the shipping and handling? Plus where is it going to sleep?

I get it you don't want to seem behind on the times with apple using cheap drones to assemble all it's products but including one with each PC bought might be pushing it.

Nightmare

[mvar]

Anyone who has had a little help-desk experience can already imagine the horrors of having to deal with a specific annoying customer every fucking time he calls for help

Re:Nightmare

[Raistlin77]

Anyone who has had a little experience with a small company can already imagine the horrors of having to deal with a specific annoying support rep every fucking time they call for help.

Works both ways.

Meet the new drone, same as the old drone.

[Sponge Bath]

Whoever is assigned as your support tech will still be under the same policies meant to minimize costs to HP, that means limited training and script reading. Given the turnover in tech support, even an "assigned" drone will likely be some random person by the time you need help. This sounds more like marketing than an actual change in policy.

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.

Wow, so much hate!

[PCM2]

I'm surprised at all the negativity. This sounds like basically the same thing as when I worked IT and I had my own rep at the mail-order houses like CDW and PC Warehouse. In practice, did it make a damn bit of difference to me whether my official rep took my order or somebody else did? Nope, not really. All my info, including discounts, etc., was in the computer. But it was nice to have a number to call and a specific person with whom I could leave a message if need be, and to be able to say stuff like, "I need more of those things I got on Friday, but listen, one of them already broke" -- without having to walk through some script with an anonymous sales rep. It was just that slight bit more of a human interaction that made the whole transaction a little bit more pleasant, even though I was intellectually aware that it probably wasn't making what I needed to do much easier by any measurable amount.

Re:One Question

[themightythor]

It obviously "Player Character".

Re:*blink* Eh?

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean Dells home grade tech support. Anyone who has purchased Dell's business line of products such as workstations/servers knows you get someone in the USA on the phone that is usually very knowledgeable.

Silence of the Support Guy

[SuperKendall]

"It puts the lotion on its skin, or else it cleans the registry again".

*Shudder*

Re:One Question

[hairyfeet]

Actually it just shows how out of touch geeks are with the public, as someone who has been making his living serving that public since before there even WAS a Windows let me bust some myths okay?

1.-A tablet is NOT a PC, it is in fact not even considered a computer of ANY sort by the masses. its a "screen that plays videos and angry birds" and they look on it as a personal computer about as much as their wristwatch or ATM.

2.-A phone is NOT a personal computer, or even has an OS, again see 1 only add "helps me find stuff and Googles"

3.-The reason ARM netbooks never had a chance is because there is no such thing as a netbook to the masses, its a "baby laptop and baby laptops should do everything a big laptop does only slower, because a baby is smaller than a grown up"

I hope i have cleared up some common myths held by geeks about what is an isn't a PC. to the public the ONLY thing that is a PC is a computer that runs Windows and supports ALL their old programs, be it in desktop or laptop form. That is one of the reasons Windows tablets is DOA, both in X86 and ARM, as it tries to break common perception. If its a tablet its supposed to work like a big phone, if its got Windows its supposed to have a keyboard and a mouse or trackpad. people don't like things that go against perceptions, see the open hostility to Win 8 as an example as i've shown it to over 200 customers and within seconds they are actively hating the thing, its just too alien.

Re:*blink* Eh?

[sortius_nod]

I've been supporting Dell business machines for about 10 years, and I concur, never had to wait with business support (even basic tier business support). Conversely, HP's business support is total shite. Even with a carepack you get phone queues and delays of days (HP's idea of "24hrs response time" is a phone call, not a visit).

I have a feeling that this will be a painful loss for HP, nothing more.

Re:*blink* Eh?

[hairyfeet]

Uhhh...you might want to look up the "Peggy commercials' as a company has already done that, they just changed India to Russia so they could use white people and not appear racist. funny enough the one thing I miss about working at a consulting firm in the state capital is we had an Indian gal whose job was pretty much cursing at tech support in Hindi. I use to love to watch her get worked up "NO! You did NOT just tell me to reboot! I have 3 degrees and am a professional in IT you DO NOT give ME that reboot crap!" which would always be followed by a long string of Hindi which i'm sure was quite colorful.