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Gibson Agency

Gibson Agency $($GA$)$ is located about $60$ miles west of Madison, Wisconsin, in a predominantly

rural area. Area businesses include farms, a clothing company, big$-$box stores $($e$.$g$.,$ Wal$-$Mart,

Menards, etc.$),$ several supermarkets, and a thriving artist community. In $2009,$ Bill Gibson,

Founder and CEO of the company, decided that the area was a good place to locate a technical

support center. He believed that operating in a rural, lower cost area would enable the firm to

achieve low costs without sacrificing quality, while bringing employment opportunities to people

in this area.

GA$$s strategy is to provide superior technical support services on behalf of a limited number of

clients. The typical GA client is a small$-$ to medium$-$size firm that has a relatively sophisticated

product that requires skilled technical support. GA only supports U$.$S$.$ and Canada based

customers and will not accept clients that want international support for their customers.

Many firms require the services of a technical support center, but choose to outsource to firms

like GA$.$ The key motivation for doing so is economies of scale. More specifically, many firms

do not have a critical mass of calls and other connections to customers to justify the expense of

operating their own in$-$house technical support center. Further, professional technical support

centers can often leverage existing expertise to provide a high level of service to end$-$consumers.

Operations

To the uninitiated, a technical support center is a simple environment consisting of

communication technology $($e$.$g$.,$ telephones, software that allows $$virtual chat$,$ etc.$),$ and the

individuals that manage these communications.

In practice, however, they are often highly sophisticated environments requiring considerable

computer support. When a GA operator answers the phone or engages via virtual chat, the entire

process is recorded for quality assurance purposes and, when appropriate, the engagement is

used to provide training for new hires.

The operator keeps detailed notes of the interaction with the client$$s customer on GA$$s computer

system and makes recommendations on how to cure the problem that the customer is

experiencing. If the customer subsequently calls back or engages in a follow$-$up virtual chat, the

case number assigned at the beginning of the first engagement allows another operator to access

the event log and quickly come up to speed by reading the documentation of the customer$$s

previous connections. The event log is designed to ensure that the customer is not forced to

repeat the same story as provided earlier, or$,$ even worse, repeat a series of corrective steps that

have already proven to be ineffective.

The computer system is more than just a sophisticated note$-$taker. It also provides the operator

with specific guidance on how to resolve the problem that the customer has encountered. For

example, if the customer is having trouble with setting up his or her electronic equipment, the

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computer system provides the operator with a step$-$by$-$step procedure designed to enable the

customer to achieve a successful setup. These computerized problem$-$solving systems allow

relatively inexperienced and less$-$skilled operators to provide effective support to clients$$

customers.

About $10\%$ of GA$$s operators are relatively more knowledgeable and act as supervisors.

Supervisors are primarily responsible for solving problems that are either undocumented or too

complex for the computer system to handle.

When an undocumented problem is encountered, it is flagged in the computer system and the

Solutions Development Group is automatically notified. This group is responsible for reviewing

the event log and writing up a formal step$-$by$-$step procedure to resolve the problem. When that

problem is encountered again, any operator can access the step$-$by$-$step procedure to quickly

resolve an instance of that problem.

The Solutions Development Group is also responsible for working with GA$$s clients to develop

the initial response protocols for each product and to provide clients with feedback about each

problem encountered so that future products and updates can be designed to avoid repeating the

problem. This feedback is often critical to the GA$$s clients. GA prides itself on the speed and

accuracy of the feedback that it provides, and suggests to clients that this feedback loop is a

significant part of the value inherent to GA$$s services.

Client Staffing Protocols

GA clients are either electronic equipment manufacturers or software houses. All of the client

firms sign long$-$term contracts with GA$.$ The average contract is for three years and reflects the

high initial investment that both firms have to make in developing the problem resolution

software and training GA operators. It is usual for a satisfied customer to renew the contract as

changing technical support centers is a difficult and expensive undertaking.

The firm$$s employment manual describes the rationale for the limited num