Business Slow. Marketing Ideas. Adding Mobile.

[Chadhardy]

A little back story on me. I've been in business 17 years offering repair/web/seo services. Last year I gave all of my clients to another local IT shop because I thought I wanted to be a web guy. We worked out a deal where I received 10% of the contracts he signed my clients up to for 12 months. I realize now that I made a huge mistake and I'm trying to get back into repair work. It's been 12 months so no more checks from him. I'm now trying to build my business back up. I still have a few clients that decided not to use his company, but not enough pay the bills. So here we are present day.

Marketing Ideas:
I'm currently using Facebook to reach local people and it's produced a few computer repair customers so far, but not a lot. I'm a member of the Chamber and that's produced a few repair clients as well, but our Chamber isn't the greatest. We don't have any type of business networking groups to join (I know these work because I've been in some previously in a different city). I'm about to put up a flyer in the library and some other local businesses. I am already ranked #1 for computer repair in my city as well as another city that is close by and that has brought in a few people as well.

Mobile Services:
I live in a very small town (less than 10,000) and there are 2 other computer repair shops in town. Only 1 of them actually market themselves. I'm surprised the other one hasn't gone out of business yet. Neither one of them are offering mobile device repairs (or they're not advertising it) so I believe this is a wide open market for my business. I'm not nervous about my ability to do the repairs, but it's all so new to me.

With PC repairs the customer drops off the equipment and you get it back to them the next day or so. They pay and are happy. With mobile they want it done immediately and the industry seems to be plagued with bad parts that make customers unhappy with the service you provide them. Plus my reading seems to show you make less money per repair. Maybe I've just gotten spoiled with the money I made doing PC repairs. So basically I'm stressing myself out thinking about doing a screen repair where I may make $45 with an hour of labor (I know I will get faster), with a part that might be bad and with a customer that isn't appreciative of the amount of work that goes into repairing their device.

With all that said I still believe that adding mobile device repair is the right choice for the business because all trends show that's the direction the industry is going in. For instance look at this Google Trends Report - https://goo.gl/UVmMkS

Maybe this is more of a rant than anything, but I would still like to increase my computer repair work. I haven't started advertising the mobile repair yet and won't until I get a few under my belt (I've got a few friends that I'm doing for free to begin with).

So a few questions:
1.) How are you marketing your repair business?
2.) Are you offering mobile device repair?
3.) Any tips on making the transition?

Thanks and sorry for the long post.

 

[alluseridsrejected]

So basically I'm stressing myself out thinking about doing a screen repair where I may make $45 with an hour of labor (I know I will get faster), with a part that might be bad and with a customer that isn't appreciative of the amount of work that goes into repairing their device.

Yeap, it is extremely frustrating when this happens. You try to buy from reputable sellers, only to get a bad part from them, or to try and reorder and find they are out of stock and when they do get them in the parts went up. I now tell people to not bother bringing me an ipod. Some of them are extremely frustrating to work on (a least to me). But lately most of the repairs have gone pretty well and we are getting more and more iPhones in here every day and I have an employee that is pretty good at them. They are mostly iPhone 5 & 6 repairs now, which are much less tedious than the iPhone 4 was.

Also, until you get up to speed, you might think about looking for complete assemblies with home button & camera already installed. It will save a lot of time on the repair. But just a note, the fingerprint reader won't work if a new home button is installed. But I have found most of my customers don't care about the fp scanner anyway.

 

[SprinterTech-WI]

Yeap, it is extremely frustrating when this happens. You try to buy from reputable sellers, only to get a bad part from them, or to try and reorder and find they are out of stock and when they do get them in the parts went up. I now tell people to not bother bringing me an ipod. Some of them are extremely frustrating to work on (a least to me). But lately most of the repairs have gone pretty well and we are getting more and more iPhones in here every day and I have an employee that is pretty good at them. They are mostly iPhone 5 & 6 repairs now, which are much less tedious than the iPhone 4 was.

Also, until you get up to speed, you might think about looking for complete assemblies with home button & camera already installed. It will save a lot of time on the repair. But just a note, the fingerprint reader won't work if a new home button is installed. But I have found most of my customers don't care about the fp scanner anyway.

On the iPhone 6 and newer replacing the home button will brick the phone on any updates or restores.

Seriously this has been an issue for a year plus, PLEASE don't recommend things unless you know for certain no issues will come by it.
Thanks

 

[Chadhardy]

Thanks guys.

Is anyone doing glass only repairs or is everyone still recommending complete assembly replacements? I understand the time to do each repair is greatly different, but after watching this video

it seems like you could potentially do glass only and make a much better profit as long as you have quality glass to begin with.

What are your thoughts?

@SprinterTech-WI I'd love to learn more about how you got to where you are in business. Have you been interviewed on the podcast yet?

 

[alluseridsrejected]

On the iPhone 6 and newer replacing the home button will brick the phone on any updates or restores.

Seriously this has been an issue for a year plus, PLEASE don't recommend things unless you know for certain no issues will come by it.

That's good to know. Thanks. Glad I posted it since I apparently learned something as I thought that was the purpose here, to learn. The nice thing about forums is if you are concerned about anything wrong with a post, just look for the scolding below it.

We only actually did this on the 1st couple of phones until we got the hang of transferring the small parts and none have come back to us. But if they do, all should not be lost since I keep the old cracked screens and I will put the old assembly back on to restore/update.

 

[callthatgirl]

I am the queen of transitions lol. 8 years of doing onsite only to remote, 3 stores, then back to remote only, then doing MSP and then getting out of MSP to only doing Outlook and Office 365. Keep up with what people need, only do what you love and you will be just fine. You got out of tech support for a reason because you loved web...well, what else do you "love"? I say sit down, get some paper and grab a beer. Write down what you love to help clients with and what you hate to do. (or just dislike the most). Then figure out what your competition is doing the most and what they are NOT doing at all. In a town of 10,000 people, you know that the business folks will probably be your bread and butter.

Have you gotten into Office 365 at all?

Here are my answers...

So a few questions:
1.) How are you marketing your repair business? --Google
2.) Are you offering mobile device repair? --Yes, I do iPhone support for email only
3.) Any tips on making the transition? --Stay focused on what you love doing, even if you think it will fail, the love and passion will keep you focused. If you do what I recommend, take your list to Google and market the crap out of it. I would also have a sit down with the competition and say "let's partner up" and help each other. It's a small town, I know that doesn't roll well, but those guys can't do it all. No way.

hope that helps!

 

[maclaptech]

A little back story on me. I've been in business 17 years offering repair/web/seo services. /QUOTE]

Why did you give up on SEO/Web service or why didn't it work out for you? Also, if you are in SEO, you should know that it is one of the best ways to market yourself. SEO and PPC if done right should generate a lot of business. One issue is the size of the town you are in.

 

[SprinterTech-WI]

Thanks guys.

Is anyone doing glass only repairs or is everyone still recommending complete assembly replacements? I understand the time to do each repair is greatly different, but after watching this video

it seems like you could potentially do glass only and make a much better profit as long as you have quality glass to begin with.

What are your thoughts?

@SprinterTech-WI I'd love to learn more about how you got to where you are in business. Have you been interviewed on the podcast yet?

We do assembly only as the amount we make selling the cores off is barely less than the difference in cost and we are far too busy for the added time to refurbish screens.

I have not been interviewed on tn but a few other places we have. The retail side to be honest isn't highly lucrative in my opinion (may be out smaller market) but we do well on the commercial and contract commercial sides.

 

[SprinterTech-WI]

That's good to know. Thanks. Glad I posted it since I apparently learned something as I thought that was the purpose here, to learn. The nice thing about forums is if you are concerned about anything wrong with a post, just look for the scolding below it.

We only actually did this on the 1st couple of phones until we got the hang of transferring the small parts and none have come back to us. But if they do, all should not be lost since I keep the old cracked screens and I will put the old assembly back on to restore/update.

Sorry didn't mean to be so harsh.... Deal with way too many pizza techs around here who screw stuff up and we have to fix it... It was one of those days