Question 1)
STRENGTHS
* Organisational Culture
One prominent characteristic of the Geek Squad that can be identified from the video case is its clear organisational culture. From the old-school uniforms to the pin-up ties, the geek mobile to the identity inspector badges, the founder Robert Stephens fostered a corporate culture of fun. Armed with this ideology, Stephens managed to galvanise the job scope, making a typically monotonous task of repairing computer electronics more enjoyable for both his employees as well as the consumer.
The glorified role of a Geek special agent allows employees to feel better about their jobs and themselves, obtaining a higher sense of accomplishment for playing a role in the overall company direction. This could also increase the loyalty of customers where they experience first-hand contact with a Geek Squad ‘Agents’, who were all ensured by the firm to be ‘well-liked’ and ‘socially interactive’.
With a strong organisational culture, the Geek Squad would also be able to cultivate a sense unity among its employees who may come from various backgrounds and demographics. A shared culture would promote more communication and understanding as well as reduce conflict or any employee being left out. This would place the company in good stead in dealing with any future challenges. * Customer Service Focus
The Geek Squad does not only place importance in the actual repair job, but the whole customer experience as well. According to him, anyone can be taught to fix a computer but not everyone can mix it with a full ‘Geek Squad Experience’.
The Geek Squad tailored its service operations to fully suit the needs of a consumer, providing 24 hour rapid response for desperate consumers in urgent situations. On top of that, they ensure full confidentiality (like a real spy mission) of its clients, and even eagerly providing follow up enquiries to ensure that the customer is fully satisfied with every dollar they spent on the Geek Squad. This allows the company to not just make one successful transaction, but gain the trust, establish loyalty and maintain long-term relationships with its customers. * Marketing and Branding Capability
The marketing capabilities of the Geek Squad were another of its core strength. Stephens recognised the importance of how the business idea was being sold to the consumer would aid the company in terms of gaining awareness as well as improving sales. He focuses on every aspect possible that could constitute to a marketing effort, from the naming of the firm down to the appearance of every single employee.
The name ‘Geek Squad’ immediately gives the consumer a strong first impression of the firm, that it is made a team of experts who dedicate their lives to the world of technology and gadgets. The logo of the Geek Squad is plastered over its ‘Geek Mobile’ which is coloured like the police vehicles of old in order to draw attention.
They see their employees, interestingly given titles like ‘Double Agent’, as brand ambassadors of the firm. Geek Squad realises that when these agents are conducting the house calls, their appearance, behaviour and actions serves as one of the first impression makers on possible future consumers. The whole authentic customer experience discussed previously would also strongly encourage word-of-mouth marketing (pictured), where satisfied consumers make referrals to their peers. WOMM is especially important for a service -providing firm as reviews are taken into serious consideration in a consumer’s decision making process. Stephens’ target was to make consumer continue to think of and discuss about their ‘Geek Squad’ experience even days after service completion.
The Geek Squad have taken into account the full value of consumer loyalty and recognition through their amazing branding strategy, which would aid them in their future endeavours. * First mover advantage
Stephens managed to spot a gap in the IT services industry, where he realised that a large proportion of users have no idea of what they should do when their computer devices are down. At the point when the Geek Squad was formed, there were no companies providing similar house call repair services. By being the first firm to be offering these services, the Geek Squad would be able to capture market share easily as there were no significant competitors targeting the same consumers. It was relatively low risk, and the Geek Squad could tap into a large consumer base where anyone who owns a computer device could potentially become their customer. More importantly, they would have the advantage of time to implement measures to maintain the market share they currently enjoy, and establish themselves in anticipation of any future competition. * Realistic and sound management strategies
The Geek Squad service model had the approach which believed that they would rather be good in one thing than to be mediocre for fifteen things. Stephens realised that it would be unrealistic for the company to grow beyond its organic growth rate with the resources he had, and believed that things would be easier to control if the operations were of a smaller scale. The ‘Geek Squad’ experience that he was trying to bring to the consumers would require great attention to details and specific employee training. Even though the company was turning in profits annually, Stephens was realistic enough to not stretch his resources too thin with expansion, only conservatively expanding when the market conditions required him to and knowing when to say ‘no’.
WEAKNESSES
* Lack of resources
The lack of financial resources also meant it cannot cater itself for inorganic growth to expand and fully encapsulate all possible markets, even within the United States. Services would therefore be restricted and limited to a certain area and Geek Squad would be unable to capture the larger market outside of this local area, despite the fact that technology use was fast growing at this point of time. Geek Squad’s revenues could only be tapped from a limited pool of consumers.
In addition, being a relatively new start-up, the Geek Squad had to face the issue of low manpower. At the time of the video case, it had grown to a team of 45 agents. This would mean that if there were to be a sudden surge of demand, they may be unable to handle with the volume of jobs being thrown to them. With a limited number of Geek Squad agents, they may have to schedule potential clients to later dates, and this could be extremely detrimental to the business as consumers would definitely start to look for alternatives. Due to the frequency of use and how personal the devices are to a consumer, they would often be unwilling and uncomfortable to wait too long for it to be repaired. * Narrow, non-diversified offering of services
In the evolving technological industry where factors are changing by the day, the Geek Squad were providing non-diversified repair services. While their branding provides them with a degree of differentiation, the whole business idea could easily be imitated at low cost if carefully observed by competitors.