Tech Support in a Web 2.0 World

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Posted by chris.keller in Grab Bag at 14:26 | Wednesday, April 30. 2008

This morning, I came across Brian White's blog post praising Best Buy for their efforts to connect their customers with a Geek Squad branded http://fixya.com site. It is a model built upon the backs of thousands of technical support evangelists operating under web 2.0 do-goodisms and according to fixya.com since 2006, their site has grown to over 700,000 pages.

While I find it quite interesting, I just don't get it. What motivates these do-gooder techs to spend their evenings and weekends helping strangers?

Now, while I get why individuals in a smaller community forum will help out people they regularly associate with even if only in a virtual community, fixya.com seems to operate on such a large scale that a quick visit on their site gives me little sense of community.

This forces me to think through my own situation. While I'm willing to take a call from Grandma Myrna to walk her through how to connect to the internet, I am not willing to spend that same time for a complete stranger. Maybe when the kids are grown and out of the home, I'll have more time but give me 20 years to think about that one.

Interestingly, Brian talks about Best Buy's motivation here "to provide its customers with an additional way to receive support as fast and efficiently as possible before handing in-depth issues directly to a Geek Squad representative."

Okay, so I think I'm finally reading between the lines. This is Best Buy's cost-efficient way to sluff off the tech support hassles to a web 2.0 community while rerouting the money makers to their Geek Squad techs.

That has got to be the case . . .

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I've got to admit that I don't get it, either. Why would they do that for free?

However, I've got a question for you, Chris. Can you understand why people work on open-source software projects after they get home from their programming job?

I can understand that perfectly, but if you can't, then there may be something analogous going on with fixya.

#1 fred.bertsch on 2008-04-30 17:37

Here is how I'd describe the motivation behind open-source software development - people care that they are building a real solution together and they get motivation from the peers who are collaborating on the problems and solutions together.

I find myself engaging after hours in business networking - connecting others with opportunity for the primary purpose of their benefit. My satisfaction is in creating value for the people I know and care for. I've felt the fulfillment enough that the practice of connecting people is becoming second nature.

Perhaps I need to dig a bit deeper into fixya to see that value but initially, I don't. The responses to gadget problems were mostly isolated individual responses and did not have multiple contributors. So, working in isolation is what I don't get, but perhaps I've met a new sort of person - he/she who finds time and satisfaction helping strangers fix their gadgets.

If that is the case, I've made a social discovery.

#1.1 chris.keller on 2008-04-30 17:47

If you figure it out, let me know! You've got me curious...

I tried searching for solved problems that include the word "printer". I also looked at the number of solved problems in the printer category. The ratio was less than 20%. That's a pretty weak way to measure the fraction of problems solved, but, if it's even close, then it's not a bad way to try to get your problem solved.

#1.1.1 fred.bertsch on 2008-05-05 11:18

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