TheZeos Story: - Association for Manufacturing Excellence
Contents
1. From fuzzy logic to ship ping boxes marked Thank You Zeos innovative ap proaches to quality service keep customers coming back for more The Zeos Story Bringing the Quality Movement to Direct Mail Computers Jack B Rochester Taking a bite out of the big boys clone makers like Zeos Dell and AST prove why consumers won t always be pushed into adopting what they hope will be the newest industry standard For purchasers of fleet size groups of desk top PCs clones make sense especially at 50 percent less cost It s all part of driv ing the computer industry into a com modity market To bold market share it takes low cost and differentiating fea tures like superior real people cus tomer service plug and play charac teristics and rock solid reliability Let s take a look at how one clone maker balances low costs with quality and ser vice Patricia E Moody Editor The Birth of a Clone What s in a name From A to Z many computer companies have a special name Atari is a warning to one s opponent in the Japanese game Go Broderbund the name of a software company founded by Doug and Gary Carlston is the German word for brother bond Lotus represents Mitch Kapor s interest in transcendental medi tation But where did the name Zeos come from Greg Herrick chairman and chief ex ecutive officer of Zeos International Ltd of St Paul MN tells it this way Back aro2. I believe you should treat your em ployees the same way you treat your customers with respect he said Do what you can and do it well See I m not really in this for the money was flat broke for the first five or six years You ve gotta enjoy what you re doing and if you re not you may have a personal problem but for sure the company is going to have problems So we work hard and we get the job done I saw this attitude reflected everywhere there was a briskness to the way people did their jobs for example the inspection guy checking system burn ins clearly took his job seriously Completed sys tems are burned in for at least 24 hours a diagnos tic program tests every aspect of the system The inspector travels down the line connecting a moni tor to the machines to scan the diagnostic program s reports As the tour continued we stopped by the pack ing and shipping room where Zeos computers were packed into boxes with THANK YOU printed on the inside flaps Completed systems wait on racks with their special parts and accessories sealed in plastic bags the customer s order attached Each time an employee packs a system he is doing so for a cus tomer with a name Greg pointed out the high grade foam used to insulate the computer they had looked into spray foam but decided against it because of its hazard to employees breathing it and it s also envi ronmentally unsound R E S P E C T Str
3. c textual references instead of displaying an entire docu ment or manual sequentially from page 1 forward It is an excellent tool for a help system for ex ample the user can type in a query such as hard disk and the hypertext system will display all specific references to the hard disk but not all the extraneous text Zeos is building an extensive database of prob lems and solutions to support the fuzzy logic and hypertext customer support system Yet not all problems are simple and some always require the aid of a well trained customer support technician So Zeos is designing the system so that its people can use it to identify problems when supporting customers over the phone They are also preparing a system that has solutions to the most commonly asked problems so the customer will get quicker answers Quality is a people thing too The marketing director recounts the story of a customer who wrote him complaining that his shipping box didn t have Thank you printed on it He couldn t imagine how that could have happened regardless the cus tomer received a letter of apology and some blank blank disks were enclosed as a sign of good will According to President Herrick With revenues growing as fast as they are customer service must improve with it We not only have to keep up we have to make it better The goal is to ship the off the shelf systems by 5 p m on the day they were ordered 96 perce
4. ed warranty Orders for standard con figurations are usually shipped the same day the order is received Custom machines take a few weeks for assembly and system burn in Building a Quality PC People with screwdrivers can only affect qual ity so much It s really the quality of the compo nents says Greg Herrick Zeos spends twice as much for a power supply as most competitors be cause a poor quality unit can cause many prob ems among them power spikes CMOS and memory failures and disk drive booting problems Some PC power supplies don t have a sufficient power rating measured in watts to support the system unit its boards and drives So Zeos puts a custom designed and manufactured 200 watt power supply in its 386SX machines a 250 watt TurboCool in the 386s and a 450 watt in the 486s But it does not stop there the company will soon offer a significant improvement in its power supply that adds considerable value for the cus tomer Why We re always seeking ways to reduce tech support calls we d rather not see customers have a problem says Greg And we re getting fanatical about reliability Cooling Zeos pays special attention to cooling Heat is the electronic circuit s major enemy lowering the temperature ten degrees centigrade can double com ponent life Systems come with two cooling fans the second moving air across the motherboard Component quality And when it comes to electro
5. est Palatine Road Wheeling IHinois 60090 708 520 3282 Each time an employee packs a system they are doing so for a customer with a name 27 Fall 1991
6. iving for Continuous Quality improvement Customer service support One of the problems with being a fast growing company is that it s hard to maintain quality Zeos had an unprecedented surge in orders in Decem ber 1990 which meant it took a few weeks instead of a few days to ship systems Yet if you called your on line sales or customer service representative you d get a pretty accurate ship date Do it yourself inquiries The company is de veloping a computerized bulletin board CBBS customer service system that customers call up from a remote computer It will serve several functions First it will provide customers with updated order information so they can learn the status of their system and the date it will ship The system will also provide computerized technical support utilizing two sophisticated software tech niques fuzzy logic and hypertext Fuzzy logic Fuzzy logic makes it possible to type in less than precise commands requests or instructions that the computer can still interpret and then make the appropriate response Direct to customer technical support will address com mon simple problems For example the customer may type in my hard drive won t work and the system might respond RUN SETUP PROGRAM This way customers get answers more quickly than holding on the phone for a customer support technician Hypertext Hypertext is context sensitive docu mentation that locates and isolates specifi
7. ndeserved he gemony So what could possibly account for Zeos doubling and then almost quadrupling sales over the past two years The honest answer is that Greg and his people are paying attention to many details not the least of which is manufacturing a computer of extremely high quality You can buy an off the shelf computer or they will custom build a machine to your specifi cations Zeos complements a strong advertising program with innovative direct marketing and con scientious reliable customer service and technical support The customer has only the phone to relv on when he needs help The consumer reigns Zeos markets 286 386SX 386DX and 486 per sonal computers and peripheral accessories by di tect mail or at their single factory outlet store about six blocks from Zeos headquarters The computers are based on the ISA and EISA stan dards and run under DOS 0S 2 UNIX and XENIX Customers can call a toll free number 24 hours a day seven days a week About 65 percent of Zeos customers are individuals in Fortune 1000 compa nies who have received authorization to buy a PC the balance is split fairly evenly between govern ment and education individuals and international sales The 386SX desktops and towers account for about 50 percent of the business The 486 ma chines are commonly used as file servers All products are backed by a 30 day Absolute Satisfaction Money Back Guarantee and a one year limit
8. nfused so these help them figure out which is which says Greg The four AA cell CMOS battery pack was recently replaced with a lithium battery because it lasts longer Because some customers still prefer the less expensive AA cells a battery carrier is also shipped with every system Documentation Quality also extends to documentation that most overlooked aspect of computer systems Each user manual is customized to fit the specific sys tem so the information is for your computer no hunting through irrelevant material It comes with drawings explaining what components are located where shows you how to install cards and drives or upgrade your memory and even provides a place to People with screwdrivers can only affect quality so much 25 Fall 1991 Each user manual s customized to fit the specific system so the information is for your com puter no hunt ing through irrelevant mate rial 26 Target write down your setup configuration information Building a Quality Organization Quality computers are built not born I toured the Zeos board manufacturing facility the com puter assembly facilities the labs the warehouse customer service tech support in short the en tire organization I met all the people I d spoken to on the phone and many more and I found them to be happy workers who enjoyed what they were doing Why are your people so highly motivated I asked Greg
9. nic components Zeos has always strived for quality In fact Greg got his start in the electronics business back around 1981 first as a distributor then as a contract manu facturer or board stuffer In its early days Zeos bought 1 0 cards from 13 different manufacturers How can we be assured of quality Greg asked and of course there was no satisfactory answer So Zeos designed its own board to meet its standards and began manufacturing it Zeos uses only top quality components from outside sources for example Hercules and Dia mond video cards Sony and NEC monitors and Teac Seagate Conner and Imprimis drives Buy the best manufacture the rest here is Greg s philosophy They now manufacture their own 386SX motherboards designed in house Each board is tested a total of four times for increased reliability Other smaller details add exceptional quality to the PC One is the system unit design an extra bracket is welded to three sides of the cover so that it slips firmly and surely into tongues on the chas sis without all the fussing and fidgeting usually attendant upon such occasions Each PC comes with a utility disk a plastic dust cover for the Workers on the Notebook assembly line keyboard and a ferrite bead to reduce video moni tor interference Then there are the clever plastic covers that fit on the ports and are labeled serial and parallel and video First time users sometimes get co
10. nt of the time and to ship all custom systems within three five days of the order That s the attitude behind why you can not only buy a Zeos computer 365 days a year but you can get technical support any time of the day or night There is no reason to assume that someone s computer only breaks down between the hours of 9 and 5 says Greg Tech support people train at the company be fore they begin answering calls First they work in the factory so they know the computers Then they sit with a mentor for about two months until they are ready to fly solo Only about 15 percent of the calls are for hardware support Most people need help with software and the philosophy is to help in any way they can even if it s how to install WordPerfect The continuous improvement goal for the fu ture is to answer every call on the first ring today it takes between 5 10 minutes And even though it s a toll free 800 number after you ve been on hold five minutes or more the computerized phone system notifies you how many calls are ahead of yours If the wait takes longer someone comes on the line takes your phone number and tech sup port calls you back When this happened to me I asked how long it would be before I got the call back The receptionist said there were four people in front of me and calls averaged 15 minutes therefore perhaps an hour It was 20 minutes Computer Glasnost The company recently reached agreeme
11. nt to begin marketing products in Russia through Marubeni the third largest trading company in Japan They will be serviced by the International Computer Club an organization not unlike the Boston Computer Society However the plans for international expan sion stop there Our goal is to do our work perfectly here at home first says Greg We re going to keep our eye on the ball domestically we don t want to dilute our efforts Who they perceive as their major competition is it Dell Northgate Comp U Add Gateway IBM and Compaq Greg replied Their names are associated with quality but their prod ucts are very expensive Zeos is quality and value You see value is the perfect combination of price performance quality and support We still have lots of opportunities to improve mostly in things people don t see 1 respect all those firms but we re just going to keep doing it better and better until we re the best direct marketer in the United States Jack B Rochester is a veteran industry journalist and author He is editor of I S Analyser the first monthly journal of information systems management His work has appeared in Computerworld Boston Computer Society Update magazine Harvard Business Review and U S News and World Report He bas written six books including The Naked Computer 1991 AME For information on reprints contact Association for Manufacturing Excellence 380 W
12. und 1985 86 he was running a com pany doing contract manufacturing and distribution of electronic components Then Intel introduced the 80386 micro processor Greg thought he would start a business to produce and sell a 386 motherboard that would plug into a 286 machine He named it Eos after the Greek goddess of dawn However another company had the _ About Zeos Headquarters St Paul MN Founded 1981 Sales Earnings 1990 127 1M 4 2M 1989 37 4 17 1988 11 8 235 Employees 590 23 Fall 1991 Greg Herrick chairman and chief executive officer of Zeos International Ltd 24 Target same name a small architectural firm in Excel sior MN He called the architect to see if the guy minded sharing the name and yup sure enough he did Greg had already hired a designer to create the Eos logo and letterhead and envelopes and business cards and everything That had cost 3000 and he really didn t have the money to spend on a redesign So Greg thought maybe he could just add a letter to Eos and started down the alphabet muttering about how this had better work Noth ing sounded right until he reached the Z So Zeos with an accent mark over the 0 it was Paying attention to details Mail order isn t the easiest way to sell comput ers especially in a crowded competitive market The Zeos 3865X and in an industry where brand names settle in spread out and often establish an u
Download Pdf Manuals
Related Search