Wal-Mart Gets its Own Geek Squad

Wal-Mart and Dell are testing the Solution Station by Dell in 15 Dallas stores, creating a service and support operation along the lines of the Best Buy Geek Squad, the Circuit City Firedog or AT&T Tech Support 360. Solution Station will repair PCs and set up home entertainment and wireless networking gear sold by Wal-Mart.

The move shows the increasing need for end user support, in the small business and consumer markets, as more complex digital technology sales now require more set-up, training and configuration services.

The AT&T service allows customers to receive live help for everything from setting up and configuring their computer to setting up Wi-Fi networks and hooking up printers, scanners and routers via the Internet. Subscription plans range from $19 to $28 a month, per computer, with an $89 initial setup cost.

As IP technology becomes the dominant way service providers deliver services to customers, it no longer is possible to terminate services cleanly at some demarcation point. Increasingly, support must be provided for end user devices as an integral part of the customer experience.