Case Analysis Report: BillCutterz.com

Background Information

You are then to complete concise but fully formatted to ensure clear readability "time is money" case analysis report that is approximately 500 words in length or about two fully formatted pages. Never submit a running block paragraph that is unformatted.

On this introductory case, just analyze the case as best you can. This will help the Instructor determine where you are at with regard to strategic management. We will build on your case analysis skills in the coming weeks. Op. Ed. or opinion editorials are to be absolutely avoided and will not be eligible for credit. Always use page numbers on a multipage business documents, preferably X of Y.

Barry Gross, founder and president of BillCutterz.com, celebrated his birthday on January 21, 2014, by inviting friends and family to his Corpus Christi, Texas, home to watch the airing of his previously taped interview with Diane Sawyer on ABC World News Tonight. His four-year-old bill negotiation company, BillCutterz.com, was being featured on that evening’s “Real Money” segment, which explained how his company was saving its customers hundreds or thousands of dollars each year on their monthly bills. The segment described how BillCutterz.com negotiated on behalf of its enrolled customers to reduce the amounts of their cable, Internet, mobile phone, and other service provider bills by as much as 50 percent. BillCutterz.com’s negotiation tactic centered on convincing the provider that it was less costly to lower the customer’s monthly bill than to go through the expense of acquiring a new customer to replace a dissatisfied customer. The segment also featured interviews with BillCutterz.com customers who discussed how the company’s bill negotiation service had saved them $1,500 or more per year on their monthly expenses.

Those gathered to celebrate Gross’s birthday marveled at how much his customers benefited from the service provided by his company, and many asked about how they could enroll to have their bills lowered as well. Gross explained that customers could enroll at BillCutterz.com and upload copies of their most recent bills to begin the process. After telling his guests more about his business and enjoying the evening, he received a call from an employee telling him that 6,500 new customers had enrolled and 19,500 bills had been uploaded in the first one-and-a-half hours since the segment aired. Gross expected the segment to boost enrollees, but he was not prepared for such a spike in new business.

Within days of the ABC World News Tonight segment, Gross also appeared live on Fox Business News to discuss his company’s approach to saving money for its customers on their monthly bills. The exposure from the two news segments brought in more than 30,000 new enrollees by February 2014. The vast increase in enrollees immediately focused Gross’s activities on recruiting, selecting, and training new employees and ensuring that the bills of its new customers were properly negotiated to receive the greatest possible savings. At the end of its first quarter in 2014, BillCutterz.com was adding 20 to 30 new enrollments every day and had seen its revenues increase by more than 400 percent over the same period in 2013. However, it was far too early to tell if the company’s business model, strategy, and operating approaches could withstand the challenges of exponential growth.