Case Study and Sample Slides US: Technical Support Services Market
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The sample contains excerpts from a study conducted by Sutherland Global Services for a client. the sample may not contain all the pages of the original document. THIS sample has been prepared by Sutherland Global Services, Inc. or its associates or affiliates (“Sutherland Global Services�) exclusively as an illustrative sample only and is sent to authorized recipients solely for the purpose of evaluating Sutherland Global Services' support service capabilities. THIS sample should not be considered as an offer to sell, a solicitation to buy, or an endorsement or recommendation of any company. Sutherland Global Services does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness or other characteristics of the data / information of the report. This Sample may not be reproduced or distributed (in whole or in part) to any third party without the express prior permission of Sutherland Global Services.
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Technical Support Market in the US Client • The client is a leading B2B provider of Pay-for-Support (PFS) services for out-of-scope customer calls with regard to digital support
Project Scope • The client hired SGS to assess the market attractiveness of key Pay-for-Support (PFS) services in the US, the UK and Australia w.r.t. – Market size and potential of the PFS market – Supply-side analysis including competitive landscape and competitor strategies benchmarking, marketing and advertising impact, operational processes and product price benchmarking – Recommendations for the client based on insights gathered
Sutherland’s Solution • Analyzed potential of the PFS market for consumers and Small and Medium Businesses (SMB) and alongside captured key trends, customer pain points, evaluation criteria for PFS services, impact of ‘free’ start-up services during the purchase of a new computer, etc. • In-depth analysis of leading B2B players’ revenues, growth, profitability, target customer segment/s, strategies w.r.t. PR, advertising, branding, HR, innovation, M&As, expansion plans and pricing for various products • Conducted ‘dummy’ calls to the client as well as to competitors to evaluate their respective processes, i.e. time taken to pick the call, greetings/ welcome message, service options provided, technician’s expertise and courtesy, time taken to resolve the issue, freebies given if any, up-sell attempts and overall value-for-money feel • Analyzed ‘SEO effectiveness’ for the client and competitors by testing link rankings for key search words and website benchmarking
• Benefits to the Client • Insights gathered based on the competitive study highlighted the huge focus on Search Engine Optimization, PR and branding by all competitors • Operational insights such as linking 25% of salaries to C-sat scores, ensuring that original call executive does not pass the call to another executive though he/she may invite another expert, branding of support executives as funky, publishing top 5 consumer complaints, fraud alerts, thematic campaigns, sending across the chat transcript were some of the high-level take-aways
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All leading players except Radialpoint have registered a CAGR (2007-10) in excess of 130% iYogi
Support.com
PlumChoice
Radialpoint
Founded in
• 2007
• 1997
• 2001
• 1997
Revenue, 2010 & CAGR
• $70mn
• $44mn
• $42mn
• $40mn
• ~130% (2006-10)
• ~155% (2007-10)
• 897% (2007-09)
• 30% (2007-10)
Total Subscribers
• 400,000+
• 200,000+
• 150,000+
• NA
Geography Served
• The US, Canada, the UK, Australia
• The US, Canada, the UK
• The US, Germany (thru Tific)
• The US, Canada, the UK
Target Customer Segment
• 45+, well-to-do, "later users," i.e. older people having problems accessing the PC and internet
• 30+, middle income, "tech pragmatic," i.e. business pros who are time sensitive
• Businesses selling technology products and services
• Digital Home Owners, affluent people with access to the most complex technology
Tech Employees
• 7,000 ‘yogis’ in India & the UK
• 700+ agents in the US & India; work from home, US 700+
• 1,000+ technical experts in the US
• 500+ employees in Canada/US
Business and Revenue Model
• B2C; Gets into marketing alliances but no whitelabeling
• B2B2C and B2B (SMBs)
• B2B2C and B2B (SMBs)
• No white-labeling
• White labeling for select clients
• B2C, B2B (SMBs), B2B2C (only via ISPs)
• No revenue sharing Tie-ups / Clients
• Tie-ups: WalMart.com*(2008-10), Amazon.com & Buy.com (2009 onwards) • Free set-up offered, 30 days warranty for free services rendered, post which they promote their services
• Revenue sharing for B2C
• White labeling, revenue sharing; B2C via HiWired
• Clients:
• Clients:
• Clients:
• Symantec
• McAfee(2008 onwards)
• Office Depot & Staples (‘09 onwards)
• OfficeMax (2008-09)
• AT&T, Bell Canada, Cox Communications, BT, Comcast, Sky ,Verizon
• Dell
• Office Max (‘09, shifted from PlumChoice)
• AT&T (‘09 onwards)
• Comcast(‘10 onwards)
• RadioShack through AT&T Connect (’09 onwards)
• Virgin Media (’11 onwards)
Source: SGS Research
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Each player has a specific marketing strategy like Google ad-words, active press coverage - IYogi; visibility in tech conferences & research publications PlumChoice iYogi PR & Marketing
Support.com
• Launches thematic campaigns • Promotes subscription plans with free diagnostic service for by offering “free trial” the themed issue e.g. ‘Kill versions through channel Slow’ against virus partners • Specific products/offerings for target segments - Hispanics • Bi-monthly alerts on fraud, spam, etc. ex: pirated s/w
• Shifting the focus from selling services only to increasing product (PFS related software) sales
• Monthly release on ‘top 5 consumer complaints’ • Active press coverage across publications like CNN, FT, Tech Crunch, PC World, WP
PlumChoice
• PlumChoice CEO & Founder Ted • Media presence is relatively Werth named Ernst & Young low Entrepreneur of the Year® 2011 • Radialpoint features in some • Given that the co. registered digital and electronics journals 897% revenue CAGR (2008-10), (e.g. CNW, PRWeb, Business PlumChoice has been named to Wire), with mentions about Inc. 500 List of America's Fastest key happenings like top Growing Private Companies in management hires August 2010 • Promotes managed internet • Named to CRN's “Most security as its strengths; gives innovative MSP list 2010” Radial Point Security (RPS) to all consumers of clients
Branding
• Strong branding of its proud Indian heritage and knowledgeable agents
• Markets itself as a Microsoft certified partner
Advertising
• Spent $4 mn (FY09) & $10 mn (FY10) for paid search advertising on Google
• Recent increase in Google • Regularly participates as an key-word search presence exhibitor in the Consumer indicates investment in SEO or Electronics Show held in Las Google AdWords Vegas by the Consumer Electronics Association. This show is attended by about 12,000 retail buying organizations
• Tracks 300,000 keywords on Google and bids for the most relevant ones • Smart SEO: Individual webpages dedicated to every service & brand
Radialpoint
• Partners with Park Associate, a leading research provider; ‘gold’ level sponsor for their events
• Rebranding as Radialpoint (since 2009) using reputed agencies such as Idiom (other clients of Idiom: Intel, HP, Nestle, etc.) • Comes up with print ads highlighting being awarded as the ‘Best Employer’ • Always promotes the fact that it has been amongst the top 15 Canadian employers for two consecutive years
Source: SGS Research
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Though iYogi is relatively new to the market, it has a well-defined plan of action – launch an IPO, enter 12 new markets and launch TV ads in the US by FY12
iYogi Future Plans
•
Plans to enter 12 new countries like China, Mexico, India, Egypt, etc.
•
Has begun pilot in Europe for French, German, Spanish and Italian languages; plans to add Mandarin, Japanese and Arabic language support
•
Plans to open a center in Latin America with multi-language support
•
Plans to come up with an IPO by end of FY12
•
Plans to advertise on American TV networks
•
Plans to tie up with local partners for customers to get their PCs repaired on-site
•
Special plans for the Hispanic community in the US in the pipeline
•
Plans to tie up with vendors of mobiles and other devices to bundle its service
•
iYogi plans to start ‘iYogi Technical Certification’ and ‘iYogi SEO certification’ to train people with an aim of recruiting 25,000 in 3 years (2011-2013)
Support.com •
Plans to focus on products (that support digital repair) rather than services as products as products provide a margin of 89% vs. 17% margin for services (share of services in the total revenue 2010: 73%)
•
Special focus on marketing Samsoft products
•
Extend more comprehensive support for products such as iPhone, Blackberry and Android by leveraging on its Mobile Data Access and Back-up Services
•
The company expects to improve its gross margins by enhancing the share of software products
PlumChoice
Radialpoint
•
Intends to further improve and expand its existing SAFElink platform and increase the sales and marketing efforts for the same
•
Intends to bring about major brand and feel revamp (changed the name of the company from Zero-Knowledge to Radialpoint in 2009)
•
For this purpose, it has raised $25.6 mn in debt and equity funding (May ‘11)
•
Intends to shed the ‘onlyinternet-security’ image and build and bolster a fully ‘managed digital service delivery’ image
Source: SGS Research
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Searches based on key words like ‘Tech support’, ‘PC repair’ indicate that iYogi tops SEO investment, followed by Geek Squad Search Words Used
Computer Repair
Tech Support
Computer Help
PC Repair
Computer Services
Period of search
July
August
July
August
July
August
July
August
July
August
iYogi
15
19
7
8
7
8
11
14
X
X
Geek Squad
2
4
X
X
X
X
1
4
4
6
Support.com
X
2
X
5
X
4
X
1
X
X
PlumChoice
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Radialpoint
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Note: ‘X’ indicates that the company did not feature in the top-30 search results or the first three pages of Google search results
Key Observations •
There has been a slight change in the SEO application patterns of the websites of some key players, especially Support.com across the last two months
•
Support.com features above the other websites like iYogi.com and GeekSquad.com in most of the tested key words. This is remarkable considering that in July, 2010, Support.com did not feature in any of the tested key words. It has pushed companies like Geek Squad and iYogi down a few notches
Source: SGS Research, Company websites
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Geek Squad vs. iYogi vs. Support.com – Geek Squad scores high on account of high level of autonomy to agents to offer basic services for free
Two services sought: 1.
Support.com
• The agent missed the webcam option in Device Manager
•
Free
•
$139
•
$49.99
•
25 minutes
•
115 minutes
•
15 minutes
Stream music between Windows 7 notebooks
•
The agent guided the customer through the steps to create a Home Group
•
The agent guided the customer through the steps to create a Home Group
•
The agent guided the customer through the steps to create a Home Group
Cost & time taken
•
Free
•
Included in above subscription
•
~$32.99
•
9 minutes
•
10 minutes
•
10 minutes
•
NIL
•
Both agents refused to give their names even after being asked
•
NIL
•
Indian accents were difficult to understand
•
Annual subscription for unlimited queries
•
The agent proactively warned that someone may have purposely deactivated the webcam
Key Negatives
Key Positives
Overall Rating
•
iYogi
Using remote access software, the agent directly went to Device Manager and activated the webcam
Inability to video chat on Skype
Cost & time taken
2.
Geek Squad
•
Saved $29.99 charged for a hardware repair and $49.99 charged for a software install A
• The agent correctly reactivated the webcam via Device Manager
• Solved the problem by going to system restore and activating previous day’s settings
C
B+
Note: This study was conducted in February 2010; prices of plans may have changed as of now; as reviewed by Laptopmag.com in February 2010 Source: Laptopmag.com
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IYogi’s process-oriented approach resulted in increased resolution time whereas specific questions asked by Support.com led to faster diagnosis
Response time
• NA
• Calls were answered within seconds
• Waited more than 20 minutes to talk to the agent
Agent behavior
• Courteous
• Courteous and helpful
• NA
Resolution time excluding response time
• 10 minutes
• 15 minutes
• 10 minutes
Observations
• Customer had to schedule calls an hour in advance
• The agent followed a specific script which ‘dragged’ the whole process
• The agent asked more questions about the problem which helped diagnose the issue faster
Cost
• $140 for unlimited support on one PC
• $199 for unlimited support on one PC
• Starting @ $10/month for entry-level support such as data backup
•
The Inc. Digital Network team has provided this review based on two PC problems: a blank screen and a missing Microsoft Word Ribbon
Note: This study was conducted in May 2010; prices of plans may have changed as of now; (as reviewed by Inc. Digital Network in May 2010) Source: Inc. Digital Network
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Consumer subscription plans Annual Plan
Three-Year Plan $379.99
$299.95
$349.99
$279.99
$249.00 $199.99 $199.99
$169.99
$129.99 NS
• •
•
•
Annual subscription remote-service plans generally cover nearly all software and remotely-solvable issues The pricing is straightforward for players like iYogi, Geek Squad, AT&T and Radialpoint who insist on upfront payment for annual support PlumChoice has a monthly plan, to be subscribed for a minimum of six months, and costs $24.95/month, adding up to $299.95 for an year The coverage generally remains same across the plans (except some plans provide a free backup/PC tune-up service along with the support plans)
•
•
• •
NS
NS
Some companies have three-year remote-service plans that cover benefits similar to the one-year plan Dell Service Centre provides such three-year plans at $349.99. A three-year plan is actually a discount over three one-year plans sold together. Office depot plan can be availed only on systems purchased directly from Office Depot iYogi gives the three-year plan as an extension to satisfied customers who just have to pay the difference to upgrade from a one-year to a three-year plan
Source: SGS Primary Research, Company websites
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*NA – Not Available; NS – No Service
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Thank You
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