Case Study - Concol Customer Services Introduction Concol Customer Services (CCS) is an Internet Service Provider (ISP) that caters to individual consumers and small businesses who require a high level of service and are willing to pay a premium for it. Specifically, CCS offers state-of- the-art office applications and web-building software and design, as well as plenty of secure storage space and fast access via its high-speed servers. The territory it serves is Ontario and east. It offers its service in English and French. Meaghan Lafolte, Vice President-Marketing, puts it this way: "There are a lot of companies out there promising the cheapest Internet access. But what do you get for your money? Limited service, slow or no-access, a mailbox full of spam, and an endless stream of system crashes. And I won't even mention the lack of support if you have a technical question! Our support desk quickly determines where the customers' problem lies and gets it fixed fast! For a few dollars more a month, we give our customers the environment they need to be productive-without having to think about whether or not they can retrieve their documents, or whether their Web site has crashed. Our focus is on providing an "exceptional" customer experience with each interaction. It's no surprise that we have the highest customer satisfaction and retention rates in Canada." The Online Support Desk One of CCS's services is its support desk. The online support works as follows: Customers who are experiencing technical problems, or who simply have questions enter a one-on-one online "chat room", where they can interact directly with an expert. Problems are usually resolved within 10 minutes and customers have listed it as one of the top three reasons why they stick with CCS. Presently, CCS has enough capacity to handle up to 800,000 requests per year, although management doesn't expect the number of requests to change much from the current level of 700,000 per year. A firm located in Mumbai, India, has approached CCS about outsourcing the online support desk. The offer is attractive. The Mumbai firm's own personnel would handle the support desk functions. These personnel are fluent in English, some have limited French and have college degrees or appropriate technical backgrounds. Since they are located in India, labour costs would be a fraction of what they are in Canada. (Ontario), a saving that would be passed on, in part, to CCS. And, because the "chat room" exists on the Internet, CCS customers should be unaware of the switch. CCS management has put together Figure 1, outlining the yearly costs associated with the current system and the Indian proposal. As a team, you have been given the job of preparing answers to a set of questions. They are to be