Install and Support

First, the big box retailers of Circuit City and Best Buy brought the consumer Geek Squad and Fire Dog for HDTV Installation and PC tech support. Now AT&T is offering Home Theater Installation as well as PC repair in all 50 states.

Cox also has started a tech support division. VZ already offers PC and printer support for $10 per month.

If the largest access line players are moving to Customer Support Programs - and getting paid - what are you doing?

I'm not saying that you should have the same model as an RBOC or an MSO. In fact, I rail against having a Bell-Head model. It has not worked for the CLEC's. However, you need to be Everything to a select target audience.

The giants are masters at the Upsell and Cross-sell, which results in increasing revenues and ARPU. It increases profitability; reduces churn; and lowers customer acquisition costs. Create a program to work on the upsell and cross-sell opportunities that arise from contact from your customers (and prospects).

A real big point: You don't have to do it all your self. Leverage the power of the White Label. Work with a Strategic Partner (or two) to offer more services that you do not have the in-house skills or manpower to deliver, but that your client base wants.

I look at Hosted PBX Providers and believe that since they are already offering Voice Apps as a Service (SAAS), they should roll CRM and Hosted Email into the mix. Broadsoft hooks into MS Exchange/Outlook and Salesforce (and ACT CRM). In a business with 25 handsets like insurance or mortgage, a managed package of PBX-CRM-Email makes sense. Just my two cents.