BrightStar, a cable television operator, had 900,000 subscribers in 2012. The company employs eight customer help-desk representatives to respond to customer questions and problems. During 2012, each customer help-desk representative worked eight hours per day for 250 days at a fixed annual salary of $48,000. The company received 72,000 telephone calls from its customers in 2012. Each call took an average of 10 minutes.
REQUIRED
1. Do you think customer help-desk costs at BrightStar are engineered costs or discretionary costs? Explain your answer.
2. Calculate the cost of unused customer help-desk capacity in 2012 under each of the following two assumptions:
(a) Customer help-desk costs are engineered costs
(b) Customer help-desk costs are discretionary costs.
3. Assume that BrightStar had 1,020,000 subscribers in 2013 and that the 2012 percentage of telephone calls received to total subscribers continued into 2013. Customer help-desk capacity in 2013 was the same as it was in 2012. Calculate the cost of unused customer help desk capacity in 2013 under each of the following two assumptions:
(a) Customer-service costs are engineered costs
(b) Customer-service costs are discretionary costs.