The future of the Geek Squad has been uncertain as of late. The field service sector of the big-box electronics shop Best Buy rapidly went from the potential savior to suffering over 600 layoffs in just a few weeks. But things could be turning around yet again for the Geek Squad, as Best Buy recently announced that it will be hiring 500 new employees for the technical support team.
The obvious question here is how Best Buy can go from laying off 600+ employees to hiring another 500 just weeks later. As it turns out, those that were laid off had worked on the repair and installation of home electronics, while the 500 newcomers will have a bit of a different job description: They’ll focus on more complex services like cross-platform networking of various devices for small business contracts. These contracts, which would allow Geek Squad to work on company tablets and PCs for a certain term, would include services like software installation and other types of troubleshooting.
Geek Squad has already begun a similar venture in the form of a partnership with Verizon, where the subsidiary will offer IT help desk services to small and medium-sized businesses.
So, once again it looks like Geek Squad could turn out to be Best Buy’s saving grace after all by stepping out of the living room and into higher-end office projects. As mentioned in previous coverage, Best Buy’s Geek Squad helps differentiate the chain electronics store from competitors like Amazon, which simply sell electronics without any technical support.
More: Why a Best Buy Turnaround Hinges on the Geek Squad.
Click here to download a free whitepaper, “Five Steps to Make Field Service Profitable.”
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