Bat Case

KEL272

MARTIN A. LARIVIERE

The BAT Case:

Putting Tech Support on the Fast Track

Rich Grayson tapped his desk as he looked over the consultant’s report one more time. As vice president for customer support at Bruce-Alfred Technologies (BAT), Grayson was in charge of technical support services. He was scheduled to meet the next day with BAT’s CEO and other senior executives and comment on the report’s recommendations for improving those services, as well as offer his own recommendations for improving quality and controlling costs. BAT’s tech support call center had experienced a significant increase in call volume over the past several quarters, and customer service was suffering. Waiting times were lengthy and call abandonment rates were disturbingly high. Outside consultants had examined the problem and had proposed a program they called Fast Track, in which BAT would give customers the option of paying a fee for tech support in return for a promise of a very short waiting time to speak to a technician. While this idea could solve some problems affecting customer relationships and benefit the bottom line, it violated one of BAT’s key points of marketplace differentiation: free technical support for all BAT products.

Company Background

Based in Gotham, Wisconsin, Bruce-Alfred Technologies had been founded in 1985 as an increasing number of people began buying personal computers. The company’s first product, Balance & More! (commonly called BAM!), was a DOS-based personal finance program that helped users balance checkbooks, track expenses, and manage household budgets. Over time, features had been added to help manage stock portfolios, retirement accounts, and tax issues. In 1992 the company had launched a separate tax preparation package that led users through a set of questions in order to fill out a variety of federal and state tax forms. In addition to products aimed at individuals, BAT had entered the market for small business software in the late...