Tech Support for the Home Office

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Not the Geek Squad

But business from corporate customers seems to be slowing. The company reported that it finished its fiscal year 2006 with $45 million in revenue, down from $62 million. Reaching out to consumers could get sales growing again. The growth in demand for third-party computer support among consumers has meant good things for Best Buy. Piper Jaffray (PJC) analyst Mitchell Kaiser estimates the Geek Squad's contribution to Best Buy's fiscal year 2007 revenue at somewhere between $1.1 billion and $1.7 billion, which would amount to about 3% of sales given Best Buy's consensus revenue estimate of $35.6 billion.

Fees for the support.com service range from $29 to $99 per call, depending on the type of computer you have, the nature of the problem, and whether support.com can fix it, Rodio says. "If we can't fix it we try to give you guidance on how to go about getting it fixed," he says. Those prices are comparable to those charged by Geek Squad, which also offers remote support, diagnosis, and home repairs, whose in-person visits can cost as much as $349 each.

Support.com is the antigeek squad. Rodio says his company's research shows that consumers tend to be turned off by the word "geek" and feel like it portrays a person who's going to talk down to them. "They don't want someone to condescend to them, but someone who's going to be empathetic, and who makes them feel like they're not dumb because they couldn't make their computer work."

Targeting Consumers

Going directly after consumers is a departure for SupportSoft in another way, and it's using some unusual marketing to reach out to them. The company recently posted a short ad on YouTube (GOOG) depicting a couple struggling with a problem that looks suspiciously like, well, let's just call it marital trouble, but is really just a PC that refuses to cooperate. The timing is certainly right. Microsoft (MSFT) just released the latest version of Windows—which is likely to launch a whole new round of questions and frustrations from confused customers who don't always know who to call to solve a particular problem in the first place.

"We're going after the people who don't want to be experts in technology," Rodio says. "Sure, some people consider themselves experts and want to fix it themselves, but usually what people do is find a friend or family member they know who is an expert. And a lot of those people are getting tired of all the calls."

Hesseldahl is a reporter for BusinessWeek.com.