Intel Learns That The Web is Not King

President Andy Grove had an electronic dream at Intel. All tech support would be on the Web. This meant deactivating the BBS and Fax on Demand system the company had relied on for years to assist its customers with.

Heavy promotion began. All print materials and advertising pieces touted the Web address. Employees were strictly instructed that "on pain of death" they were not to give out phone numbers for the BBS or FOD system. Millions of dollars were spent to implant the Web address in the minds of Intel customers.

But not all of Intel’s customers could make the switch. Those who had used the FOD system in the past wanted it back. They complained. They didn’t want to have to go online to get what they needed. They just wanted to use the handset of their phone and receive the help they needed in hard copy.

"Intel was buried in complaints," Ron Ares, marcom manager at FaxBack told MWT. FaxBack was Intel’s FOD supplier. "By turning off the other support channel, Intel was alienating many of its customers."

Ultimately Intel had to relent on its one channel for tech support policy. The FOD system was put back in place. Today 25 - 30 percent of all calls to Intel’s customer support lines is for the FOD line.

"Intel gets over ten thousand calls a day," Ares added. "That percentage of callers is a significant number of customers."

MWT Analysis: Contrary to popular belief, in today’s world, you have to be all things to all customers. We’re living in a pluralistic society in more than one sense of the word. If a leading edge high tech company with high tech end users found that the Web could not serve everyone’s needs, take heed. As much as you may think the majority of your customers are going online, it simply isn’t true. And we also learn that you can’t force them to change. Instead you have to accommodate them. So it appears that in moving forward technologically, you’ll have to keep supporting systems you’d rather leave behind. What should be simple is indeed complex!

(Contact: Ron Ares, Faxback, 503-614-5355)