Brewer and Tech have found that they have a huge advantage over other companies with their appetite decrease stimulator bracelet, but in the last month, they saw a huge drop in sales and wanted to find out why.
As soon as customers signed up for the bracelet, they quit in a matter of weeks. Eric Payne, the head of consumer support, is doing his best to track all the individuals wearing the bracelets, because he knows that customers cannot remove the bracelets on their own. Instead, they have to go to a dedicated center and have it removed with a special tool. However, Payne finds that the bracelets in fact were in fact not removed — so why is there such a high rate of quitters?
Previously, Brewer and Tech’s worldwide sales had just about surpassed those of competitor Appetite Be Gone, making Brewer & Tech, a legacy company for over 50 years, seem generic. The turnaround is almost like seeing Rodeo Drive turn into an old, empty western town. You know the whole shebang: swinging shutter doors, hay rolling through the streets. The signs were starting to read, IT IS OVER!
For Eric Payne, who was not just the head of consumer support at Brewer and Tech, but also a partner, the slide was particularly troubling. Payne had put his life savings into Brewer and Tech and could not fathom bear to see it dwindle away right in front of him.
Payne reached out to eMazzanti Technologies. He wanted to find out if they could help him track his devices. During a discovery call, Payne explained to an eMazzanti engineer that he installed what’s called a turbo agent, which has the ability to track devices worldwide. Needless to say, the engineer was quite impressed with their technology.
“Listen, Eric,” the engineer said. “I want to connect our monitoring device to yours, so I can try and figure out why your bracelets are showing no activity. To do this, I am going to need full access to the system that you use.”
“OK,” Payne agreed.
“Great, I can put a quote together and send it over. This is mostly going to be block time,” the engineer told Eric.
Payne replied, “I am okay with that.”
“Well, I will put together a proposal of the scope of work and get it to your account manager, and they will push you through some preliminaries, which will ultimately land you back here with me,” the engineer finished.
“Okay, then I will be on the lookout for the email from my account manager,” Eric closed. “I feel like I am getting somewhere,” Payne proposed.
“You are,” the engineer encouraged before closing with, “We’ll speak soon.”
Late that evening
That evening, Payne couldn’t sleep. He was exhausted, but grabbed the remote and clicked on his TV, hoping that the background noise would help put him to sleep. Just when he pulled the sheets over his head, he heard, “Are you having trouble losing weight? Time restraints got you down? Tried every diet in the book? Stop right there, Appetite Be Gone is your answer to prayer. Stop wasting money on companies like Brewer and Tech. You’re just flushing cash down the toilet. Can’t get your bracelet off without paying hefty amounts? Call us now!”
Eric threw his sheet back. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, Appetite Be Gone?” he screamed at the TV.
12 PM the next day
Eric found himself hanging off the bed in a puddle of slobber. Fighting the sunbeams that were invading his sleep, he rushed to the window to pull the shade, but pulled so hard that the shade rolled up and stuck at the top. He ran back to the bed and pulled all the blankets over his head, hoping to find inner darkness.
Just then, he heard his name. “Eric!” a voice called from the distance. “Our stock is dropping,” it said.
Eric fell over the blankets that followed him out of the bed. “Joy Lynn!” he called back, looking over the second-floor banister at his housekeeper.
“Get down here! What’s going on?” she said.
“How did you get in, Joy?” he said.
“It’s time for your house cleaning,” she shouted back.
“My housekeeper?” he replied. “It’s only 6 AM.”
“Try 12 PM,” she said.
“Twelve?” he yelled. “I have to check my emails.”
Payne ran down the stairs and started to glide through the corridors where Joy Lynn was standing, swooping past her to his home office. “I need to check my emails,” he turned back to yell, only to find Joy right behind him, startling him.
“You’re creepy, you know that,” he said, glancing at her. “eMazzanti,” he said with relief. “My quote is in,” he cheered. “Reviewing it,” he admitted. “This is doable.”
Looking over at his office phone, he could see the faces of eMazzanti associates that called earlier on Teams. He immediately called back. The engineer knew exactly who he was.
“Eric? I called you a couple of times.”
“Yes, I know,” Eric replied.
“How was the quote?” the engineer asked.
Eric replied, “Let’s get some work done.”
Three days in – Follow-up meeting
The engineer phoned Eric, who answered immediately, “Eric, you have a problem,” cautioned the engineer “Somehow, the software that you developed to send electrodes through the wrist to end hunger pangs has been compromised. It seems your customers are quitting your service without realizing it. From what we can see, your bracelets are being deactivated by Appetite Be Gone. My sister was already using your bracelet, so I had her go over to Appetite Be Gone to sign up. Your chip was removed from your bracelet and their chip replaced yours, showing her as online for you as inactive and for them as active. Quite a clever move,” the engineer said. “In addition, they are reusing your bracelet.”.
“They can’t do that!” Eric raised his voice.
“Well, apparently they can and did,” the engineer said, his face mirroring his discomfort. “I’m afraid this may be a legal matter.”
“I think you’re right,” Eric said. “Thank you so much for figuring this out.”
“You got it.”
Three months later
The engineer was in line at Burger and Cheer waiting for his burger order when the 9 o’clock TV news showed stocks back up for Brewer and Tech, and fines to be paid by Appetite Be Gone for “electronic device tampering.”
“eMazzanti may be small, but we’re doing big things,” the engineer thought, with relief.
