The BAT Case: Putting Tech support on the Fast Track
1. What are the most critical problems BAT is facing?
The most critical problems faced by BAT are listed as below:
• BAT provides free technical support for all products. However, with the increase in
volume of calls, most callers were place on hold before speaking to technician.
• The average wait during peak times across all teams was around eight minutes, and
waits more than twice as long were not uncommon.
• 35% of tech support users abandoned calls two or more times before deciding to
“tough it out” and wait to reach a technician.
• The other factor was proliferation of products. While BAT offer products in three
markets, looking at that level masked the variety of products it had to support.
Above all, BAT provided newer versions every twelve to eighteen months. To cope up
these variety, volume of calls was also increased as the customer service was
suffering.
• Getting a support technician up to speed for even a limited number of products took
six months and $5,000. In order to attract and retain skilled workers, BAT paid its
support technicians well above levels normally associated with call center work.
Technicians started at $40,000 plus benefits, and some senior technicians earned
