Best Buy just launched a $200-a-year tech support service that takes a page out of Amazon's playbook
- Best Buy has launched a new subscription service nationwide.
- Called Total Tech Support Powered by Geek Squad, the service provides tech support for everything in your home, from appliances to electronics, no matter where you bought it, for $199.99 a year.
- The support services can be accessed in-store, by phone, 24/7 online, or on Best Buy's Home app.
Best Buy is offering a new subscription service for customers called Total Tech Support.
It offers:
- Best Buy's Geek Squad support in-store, over the phone, online and through Best Buy's Home app.
- Exclusive discounts on various services, including in-home services like installation and setup, some repairs of hardware, and most Geek Squad Protection and AppleCare service plans.
- Internet security software for up to three devices.
"We all rely on technology more than ever and are constantly looking for that trusted friend to turn to for inspiration, advice and help. We built Total Tech Support for that very reason," Trish Walker, president of Best Buy Services, said in a prepared release.
The subscription will run customers $199.99 a year. Service will be available on all electronics and appliances a customer owns, including ones that weren't purchased at Best Buy.
Best Buy started testing the service in 200 stores last year and is now rolling it out across the country. It said that in its tests, it helped "230,000 people set up, trouble-shoot or fix their technology more than 400,000 times."
Subscriptions are becoming more and more of a hot commodity for retailers as they chase a deeper relationship with their customers. The most dominant example today is Prime, which Amazon boasts now has more than 100 million paying subscribers who tend to spend more and buy more often than the typical consumer.
Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly said in a recent interview with Business Insider that any new services the retailer rolls out have more to do with building a relationship with the customer than with potential revenue gains.
"It's a way for us to have a better conversation and to build a relationship [with a customer]," Joly said in March. "So we build a relationship, and that's good."