MarketingProfs Know-How Exchange : Computer Support company for SME & Individuals

Ask your question ... sign up today! It's FREE!

Branding URGENT - Need Help Fast!

This question has been closed, and points have been awarded.

Computer Support Company For Sme & Individuals
Posted By: tq6* on 9/28/2006 5:51 AM (CST)	2500 Points
We are setting up a computer company called Internet Heroes where our Hero's can fix any PC problem anytime, anywhere and be your Hero. Our Heroes mission is to alleviate the world's computer villains, educate people to embrace technology and practice the art of heroism. Our 24 Hour Hero Helpline genuine heroes provide emergency service 24 hours a day. Whether you need upgrades, repairs or spy ware and virus removal (or even just a lesson in how to use the new digital camera you scored for your birthday) we have the tools, knowledge and capability to help you maneuver through your technology-fueled life. Help is just a phone call away at 1 800 INTERNET HEROES (1 800 XXX XXXX ). Our Heroes can: End unruly computer activity Repair crashed hard drives Make non printing printers print Help you get on the internet Contain virus outbreaks Remove prying spy ware Install preemptive virus and spy ware security measures Provide one-on-one training Connect home or office wireless networks Secure networks from intruders Assess home or office computer security threats Help protect and back up important data Perform system checkups and maintenance Bring your computer up-to-date Why Internet Heroes? Our philosophy is that every agent is a Hero for our clients, he or she rescues our clients from the villains of everyday computer life i.e. Spy ware , Virus etc etc.— No matter where you purchased your PC, Agents can help you Service guarantee — If you're not completely satisfied with our service, the problem is remedied fast and free Nationwide coverage Flat rates — Agents remove the nauseating pain and discomfort often associated with billing by the hour No time windows. Just on time — When you schedule us for 1PM, we'll be there at 1PM Not third party — Any Hero who enters your home or office or that you see at our the Internet Heroes Studio is a genuine hero. Have your network come to you — Hero’s carry a broad assortment of networking technology and can deliver, install and secure your new wireless network I need advise on the following : 1. How do you like the concept? 2. Is the name appropriate www.internetheroes.com 3. CAn we get help from experts to help develop the concept. 4. Any ideas would be welcome. 5. The idea is about creating a complete movie set so our CEO would be the Director our sound card repair engineer would be the Sound Director. Looking forward to some positive feedback and finding some experts who can help us put this together. Thanks in advance for all your help. Rachel

Posted by: Frank Hurtte	Accepted Answer
9/28/2006 6:03 AM (CST)
Rachel, It is a good idea and an idea that until recently has been ignored. Today, in the US, you face competition from the geek squad of best buy, and the network of computer repair folks set up by dell. An independent would certainly be welcome. Here are a few issues you will need to develop further, how to recruit your technicians once you get outside of the primary markets. A nation wide network requires some amount of infrastructure to run - and a quality control system to insure top service everywhere. Flat rates - are a good thing... but i suggest you add a charge for "waiting time". Waiting for the owner to arrive, waiting for the saleman to return with his laptop, waiting for a big job to run on the printer before installing the new card, etc. The no third party insinuates these people would all be your employees... that translates to hundreds of employees. Downtime will be expensive. When not fixing computers, they will still cost you. These are all logistic issues.. Your marketing concept is a good one.

Posted by: tq6*	Author Response
9/28/2006 6:19 AM (CST)
Thank you Frank for your honest and informative view point. I agree with you on the quality of technicians therefore we would ideally start from a state and expand state to state and create processes from our undersatanding of the market and customer related issues. Our focus is to charge per visit which should not exceed more than an hour - we charge more if its beyond that. We feel its imporatnt to have qualified people on our pay roll who know what they are doing, are tarined by us and our customers can meet them and have confidence in the human touch of technology. I agree with the costs aspects but this is one expense we think we will need to take on board to be sucessful. Once again thank you for your comments and I hope we can speak to you more on how you can help us develop the idea. regards Rachel

Posted by: telemoxie	Accepted Answer
9/28/2006 6:59 AM (CST)
I agree with Frank that your primary issues will be logistical. I would be willing to bet my house that your technicians will not always be "on time". For example, if someone is working on my computer, and a serious problem develops which will take a half hour to fix, should he or she leave so they can be "on time" for the next appointment? Can you afford to have folks show up 15 minutes early for each appointment, so they can sit in their car waiting to be "on time"? A better option might be to give yourself penalties of some sort if you are late, maybe something similar to Dominos, i.e. within 30 minutes or it is free. Also, I wonder if it truly makes sense to use 100% employees, especially in start-up mode. The more efficient technique would be to staff up for major markets, and have relationships with individual technicians who could go in "under your flag" to handle overflow. One issue you may face in selecting "genuine heroes" is to avoid the bad apples. I know a person who is an expert in pre-employment screening and background checks, if you contact me by email (click my profile to the right) I'll be happy to refer you.

Posted by: Harry Hallman	Accepted Answer
9/28/2006 8:22 AM (CST)
Taking the logistics part out and assuming you have a boat load of money to make the concept work I love the concept. I think your market is consumers and small business. Just yesterday a client asked me if I knew anyone who could come in and set up a small network. That is not my thing and I had to refer them to the Geek Squad. The one time someone I knew tried to use the Geek Squad it took them over a week to get there. I would assume you could also do over the phone repairs as well, especially using tools like GO To My Assist (https://www.gotoassist.com/). Anyway that being said here are my answers to your questions. 1. How do you like the concept? Great concept and well needed in the US. You will need a lot of marketing money to build the brand and trust you need. 2. Is the name appropriate www.internetheroes.com The name is perfect. When I am able to help a client with a complex Internet issue that’s what they think of me and have even said it. You just have to live up to it. 3. Can we get help from experts to help develop the concept? Not sure what you mean, but of course you can get help. All you have to do is pay the consulting fees. 4. Any ideas would be welcome. Again, this idea will take a lot of money. Hiring people and marketing will be expensive. I would start in a major city and move to more major cities as the idea catches on. You should also be able to get good PR for a concept like this. 5. The idea is about creating a complete movie set so our CEO would be the Director our sound card repair engineer would be the Sound Director. I am not sure what you mean here. If it is a metaphor I get it and it is a good metaphor. Hope this helps. This is a big concept that will require a lot or strategy, work and money. Hallman

Posted by: rbauman*	Accepted Answer
9/28/2006 8:42 AM (CST)
I like the concept and the name is good. My concerns center around whether you can make money implementing the business and how long it will take to turn a profit (i.e. how deep do your pockets have to be). In a consulting business, the challenge is to balance your bench strength needed to meet your scheduling guarantees against the cost of non-billable hours. I think your competition will come from not only the Geek Squad, but also the myriad of small IT firms that target the SMB segment as well as the computer user's nephew or next door neighbor's high school child. It all come down to execution - your premise is good, the delivery window is aggressive but also good, the challenge is to set up a business that delivers on your promise and still make money. As for getting help from the experts, I agree with Harry. Expert help is always available for a price - whether the help needed is business management or technical. There are many consultants and Internet-based consultant "clearing houses" that can help you locate and obtain needed assistance.

Posted by: MANSING	Member Response
9/28/2006 12:33 PM (CST)
Hi there!! Idea is great! But you have to start with basic ideas which make big difference in practical life. For example – Study the market? Customer? Competitor first? Marketing 4P – Price, Place, promotion and Product! It will also include your high tech skill and provider, staff and training and development. Do you have any facility you can do it online? Username/password/ get register with PC, laptop provider, it is only limited to PC or some thing else as well!!!! Think again, what you can provide different compare to your marketing leader. You should have some thing different to attract customer. If there is customer then there is business. Customer = Business = Profit – It happen only you have some what they are interested in….! Best Of luck! Like your concept. Regards, M Bhor

Posted by: KathySmithFilms*	Accepted Answer
9/28/2006 3:47 PM (CST)
I really like the concept. It's perfect. Do you have the name secured? I got a medical site when I clicked in. (I'm a blonde!) It would be worth the money-hose you would need to spend to launch your site. Phase I you would be working with your website designer to launch the website. For marketing the service, I recommend hiring the experts that are from this site. They are amazing and the help is of the same magnitude you would get from a good lawyer. Your marketing expert wants you to win cause they win when you do. Phase II from what I read in here would be to expand to other cities once you have the machine running locally and the marketing team you decide on will go on the ride with you to keep the show on the net...expansion. Your movie set positioning is beautiful. "The idea is about creating a complete movie set so our CEO would be the Director our sound card repair engineer would be the Sound Director." We have room for you in Hollywood & the idea to position PC repair is great. The other posts your could play off of are EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS, LOCATION MANAGER, PRODUCERS, WRITERS, SCRIPTS, DIRECTOR, CAMERA, SOUND, STARS, CAST, CREW, EDITING, AUTHORING, SPECIAL EFFECTS, MUSIC, AND after the post production, DISTRIBUTION. If you don't like all those titles or it's too much, we use Pre Production, Production, Post Production and Distribution in this biz. Your idea is easy to translate and navigate & would be a cool colorful set with the camera, lights & action there ready to fix someone's pc. Can you have a link for the guys that switch to Mac? That would position you more universally or would that be a conflict? I have a Mac but my newest client has me do his work on PC so I have needed to become an expert at both & find there's not that big of a difference as long as there is enough space for media...I'm fine. Best of luck on your latest coming soon release. I look forward to you overcoming any obstacles to get the site into Power. Kathy Smith

Posted by: Vendita*	Member Response
9/28/2006 5:44 PM (CST)
Hi Rachel At first I thought the name was fantastic and, like Kathy, I visited the link and found it led to a medical site. Are looking to purchase the domain from the current owners? Then I sat back for a minute and thought about the services you're intending to deliver and they appear to be a range of help desk support services for the internet, computers and other technologies. To me, "Internet Heroes" doesn't cover the entire suite of your services. It may limit the potential customer base who could assume you only help with internet support. Perhaps pc heroes, helpdesk heroes or technology heroes (which would include the other non-PC services) might be more appropriate? Otherwise, I think it's a fantastic idea and I look forward to watching it evolve.

Posted by: hEREE.G	Accepted Answer
9/28/2006 9:47 PM (CST)
The one thing that i Have notived here is u r substituting the manpower of the many shops or retailers on their behalf so it is two ended charge that can be shared by customers and sellers. Customers will call you meanwhile retailers or computer hardware salers will pay for you. In this regard, you charge little from your customers in order to gain reputation from mass publ;ic or customers and this will lever to make reach a deal with potential clients from sellers end. 2. Idea is good one but very worried about the services if you guys are failed to provide perfect services you will fail. 3. Tactic is charge less from public and charge more from sellers GL in your project and the name internet heroes is good one If you can merge a name meaning it but taking some famous movie or epic hero would be real good I believe

Posted by: tq6*	Author Response
9/29/2006 2:29 AM (CST)
HI telemoxie, Thank you for your feedback. I agree on the on-time aspect and you are Right the focus needs to be on that. Domino's kind of guarantee is workable. Folks showing up early is possible for the first appointment in the morning but once they go customer to customer that might be difficult unless they finish early. The key is to build customer confidence and assure quality and be responsible for your people's action so only inside / employee technicians can allow you to do that. Great - thanks for the choosing bad apple tip. i will contact you. regards Rachel

Posted by: tq6*	Author Response
9/29/2006 2:35 AM (CST)
Hi Harry, Thank you for your feedback. Lets say we have a decent budget and our focus is to be different from Geek Squad - and yes get there faster than a week :-) ! Yes we would offer Go to Assist tools to our clients. Brand Building will be focused on word of mouth and advertising as we go ahead we dot want to shower the market with our campaign but slowly and steadily gain loyalty of our customers. Yes - each of our technicians will also be trained like a HERO - glad you like the name :-) ! Yes - need to know who are the right consultants paying a fee is not an issues but need recommendation as sometimes you end up with worn people as consultants. Agreed - our approach is a phased approach from one major city to the other. Yes - Good pr is important looking for good companies and any recommendations would be great. Thanks again for your feedback. regards Rachel

Posted by: tq6*	Author Response
9/29/2006 2:39 AM (CST)
HI rbauman, Thank you for your feedback. Yes, we have done our initial financial and see the idea viable. Yes, i agree on the competition and our focus is to remove dependency on your nephew next door as he may or may not be right, and he may or may not be free at your convenience especially when that report has to go out? Thanks once again and i hope to get some recommendations on consultants from you. regards rachel

Posted by: Harry Hallman	Member Response
9/29/2006 7:06 AM (CST)
You can check my background out on my profile and my web site. If it's a fit I would be happy to talk to you.

Posted by: kannanveeraiah	Accepted Answer
9/29/2006 8:24 AM (CST)
1. How do you like the concept? Conceptually sound. Most of the PC users do look for help at their doorstep to fix some or other problems related to PC or anything related to or connected to that. Service at short notice that too at the customers' location would always be welcome. 2. Is the name appropriate www.internetheroes.com. Name does not sound to be very comprehensive particularly as you want to provide all the services & solutions for PCs. How do you like www.fixpcproblems.com or www.pctroubleshooters.com. 3. CAn we get help from experts to help develop the concept. When you have enough funds you should find easily a number of experts to help you through from "concept" stage to "customer Satisfaction" stage. 4. Any ideas would be welcome. Yes, initially welcome all ideas. Get the help of marketing experts to sift through all ideas, understand the marketing message from that and then concretise on a particular idea and then work around it. 5. The idea is about creating a complete movie set so our CEO would be the Director our sound card repair engineer would be the Sound Director. It appears you are so facinated with the Movies and Movie making. But, business of providing solutions & services to PC users are much different than a movie making. Further, you can not have different engineers for servicing different parts of computers. Many a times customer may not be able to describe what exactly the problem is. When an engineer attends the customer he should be capable of providing the solution / service for any of the problem related to any of the parts (whether it is Motherboard, Harddisk, RAM, SMPS..etc) of computer, peripherals (key board, mouse etc), printers, modems and other equipments; and also he should be conversant with the operating systems (software) and with relevant driver softwares. So, though you can designate your CEO as Director you can not have separate Sound Director or Music Director and so on; but simply you need expert and customer friendly engineers.

Posted by: margec	Accepted Answer
9/29/2006 5:20 PM (CST)
How will your business be different from other services now available? Although the word "internet" seems unwisely limiting, the "heroes" idea is kind of fun and does give you lots of room for PR and marketing that could be entertaining. (They might dress like superheroes...they might leap tall buildings to get your problems solved...etc.) However, I share the questions others have about how you actually make this business pay. There are lots of independents and established businesses out there providing essentially the same thing. Maybe you've already done the research to show there's sufficient need and that the ROI would be there? I'm not understanding what you mean about the movie set and/or why it's relevant to the business, and this is a detail, but I'm not sold on flat rates that go up if the call takes more than an hour. That sounds more like a minimum than a flat rate. Anyway, this sounds like a marketing concept in need of good solid groundwork--who's the market? what are the real needs of that market? What is the unique benefit that is being offered? etc.-- if it can become a real business. Just my 2 cents. Good luck-- Marge

Posted by: gryffinhot	Accepted Answer
9/30/2006 12:42 PM (CST)
hi rachel your idea is very nice One thing you must keep in mind is that when u are introducing a new service like this(i mean a new service frm ur co) - you make a few sacrifices on pricing (change the flat rate system and use skimming pricing appropriately) so that u retain the starting customers till the end( best way to create brand loyalty) Try giving best service to your customers so that they are satisfied (try promising less and offer more and delight them) You are competing in a large target market, so u better don directly compete with big merchants, try targeting a market were u can fully focus and give the best service Keep one thing in mind, what all sacrifices you make today are for future assurances. 1. How do you like the concept? Very nice concept. But that 24/7 support is not a easy job for all. Better u promise less and give more so that u delight the customers(more than satisfaction) 2.Is the name appropriate www.internetheroes.com. i feel u can change your brand name to a shorter ones, to build a big brand name try to keep a shorter and abbreviative one... 3.Can we get help from experts to help develop the concept. Yes of course unless you pay guys like me(hehehehe...im jus a starter, so no money needed), think of appointing some big free lance marketer,..... - mail me if u want more help, i wil get u marketing Drs. in this regard 4. Any ideas would be welcome. ya this is a good way to get free ideas and get jobs done. 5. The idea is about creating a complete movie set so our CEO would be the Director our sound card repair engineer would be the Sound Director. Well this is not a big way to project your brand. i suggest u to show more that you are dominant than other competitors in ur field(something like u provide which others dont) Also change the name frm CEO to some other thing that will be diff in the market and very much attractive U form the organisation structure diff and attractive well im jus astudent, so i might have made some mistakes, still i wanted to assist u. if u find ma small pieces of advices then appreciate me, i wil be much motivated..... sorry if i have talked too much.....heheheh regards sundar

Posted by: Leigh Cowan*	Member Response
10/1/2006 12:08 AM (CST)
Although Apple market share in the world has fallen to below 8%, USERS still exist in higher proportions... I suggest you review your site to incorporate an Apple (Macintosh) page... even if it only says "Macs not supported at this time".

Posted by: tq6*	Author Response
10/3/2006 3:15 AM (CST)
Thank you all for your time and effot spent on helping us focus on building this idea more. I will be back with the branding and web site for mor opinions. regards Rachel

Get more answers ... ReTweet this!

Would you like to post a response?

Welcome to Know-How Exchange!
This is a collaborative community. We welcome everyone's participation.
All you need to do is login. Enter your account info in the box above (top right).
Not a member? Not a problem. Register here (it's FREE and EASY).

Know-How Exchange powered by MarketingProfs

MarketingProfs' Members Register for B2B Forum 2010 for just $695! (good until 11/30) »

MarketingProfs Know-How Exchange : Computer Support company for SME & Individuals

Ask your question ... sign up today! It's FREE!

Sponsored Links

Join over 355,000 members ... SIGN UP!

Already a member? Sign In!

Resources

Community

Company

Marketing Topics