In Shop Turn Around Time For Computer Repair

[PCX]

Disclaimer: I did not realize how long of a post this was going to be, so I do apologize for that, but I did think it was a good topic to share and I wanted to thoroughly add my experiences.



We just recently went through an interesting period in our business where we had to dramatically increase our turn around time and in the process we learned quite a bit about our industry, our market and what our market would bear for turn around time.

What we have learned.

There will always be those customers who will only go to the shops that offer same day or next day services or in the least expect their repairs to be done in that time frame. Our experience has been that most of these customers are unreasonable, irrational and in most cases not worth dealing with, especially if something unexpected comes up and it takes longer than expected.

We have always shot for a 2 to 4 day turn around time for software repairs and 7 to 10 day turn around time for hardware repairs. We never did shorter turn around time than this because it did not allow us to do a full diagnostic and we did not want to compromise quality. Even if the diagnostic and repairs could be done the next day, we were usually too busy to accomplish that. Anyways, here is what we learned.

- When you tell a customer 2 to 4 days, the customer hears 2 days and that is it. It is as if you never told them that it could take up to 4 days.

- Since the customer only hears 2 days, they call you the very next day to see if their computer is done, even if they dropped it off the evening before. Ironically enough (happened today actually), these are the same people who will call that next morning even if they dropped it off the evening before, as if some how that counts as 2 days.

- No matter how many times you tell a customer that 2 to 4 days actually means 2 to 4 business days not including weekends or holidays, they still seem to think that calling you on Sunday or first thing Monday morning after dropping off their computer Saturday evening will some how make their computer done and ready to be picked up.

- And God save you if you go over that 2 to 4 day turn around time . . .

- Overall, customers tend to have extremely high and unrealistic expectations and tend to call more often for updates with this time frame.



Ironically enough, those who were told 7 to 10 days for hardware repairs (due to parts having to be ordered and the time of the repair itself) seemed to be more realistic and easier to deal with. This was partly due to the fact that we could often times get the repairs done much sooner than expected, but even for those repairs that took longer, the customers still seemed to be more reasonable and some even appeared to not care.


After offering this turn around time to our customers for about 3 years, we had to all of the sudden jump 7 to 10 days for ALL repairs. Here is why

- We got so busy and had so much volume coming in, that we had to hire more people

- Hiring and training took time, which meant that instead of me and my senior tech working on computers, we were training and hiring techs and catching up work in the evenings.

- More volume obviously meant more work, which obviously meant more time in general. We actually had to split up the work and the shop into different sections. We now have 3 work areas in our shop which include the Diagnostic Area/Benches, Software and Light Troubleshooting Area/Benches and Hardware and Extensive Troubleshooting Area/Benches. This helped organization and made us more efficient, but after a while, we still had to increase turn around time.

- With as much volume that was coming in and with new hires, we were starting to slip a little on quality. Nothing major, but a few things here and there would get missed or neglected due to lack of sleep, being constnatly rushed and obviously increased stress. Eventually, I got really sick and could not get over it and I had no choice but to finally increase our turn around time.

We even had to start turning away repairs like tablets, iPads and even iPods because they took us away from all the computers that we could multi-task on. Eventually, we picked iPods back up, but we had to increase the turn around time for those from 3 to 5 days to 7 to 15 business days. Ironically, we still got tons of iPods in.

Anyways, this is what we learned.

- The Good: Our customers expectations were so low, that we rarely if ever got calls for an update. Literally, we would go days without hearing from a customer about their computer.

- More Good: We were able to give more attention to each repair, which helped to ensure quality.

- More Good: I was not staying at work till past 12am catching up, which mean better health and less stress. I finally got over being sick too.

- The Bad: Time really does matter to the customer. Our phone conversion rate for customers who called and asked about computer repair turn around time was probably cut in half.


So, here is what we finally did. We started training classes for new hires in the morning between 6am and 9am before we opened. This helped a lot. Since were not checking in customers and dealing with phone calls for those first few hours in the morning, we were able to address different issues and answer any questions that our new hires had. This made training and work much easier and smoother during regular business hours. Once we had caught up a bit, we dropped our turn around time for software repairs from 7 to 10 days to 3 to 5 days with the stipulation that it could take longer depending on work load and difficulty of repair. We also stipulated that Diagnostic time could take between 2 to 3 days instead of 1 to 2. Since we increased our diagnostic time, we also told the customer that it would take us at least that long to get back to them with an update. Here is what we learned.

- This turn around time seemed to be the sweet spot.
- Customer expectations for turn around time seem to be much lower and thus we got less calls for updates than we did when our turn around time was 2 to 4 days.

- Even when repairs did take a little longer, customers were more reasonable and easier to deal with

- Conversion rate for those who called and asked about turn around time increased and was close to where it was when we offered 2 to 4 days.

- We were able to give more attention to each repair, which again ensured the quality of the repairs

- I was able to go home at a more reasonable time and get some much needed sleep.

So in short, this is what we learned.

2 to 4 days:

- Even if we can get the repairs done in that time frame, it is in most cases not worth offering it.

- Stress is much higher due to increased call volume and irritated customers

- Stress was also much higher due to longer hours playing catch up

- Customer expectations were too high, especially since they could only hear 2 days and some how thought that meant the next day and not 48 business hours.


3 to 5 days:

- The sweet spot

- Customers call less for updates, which meant less stress

- Customers had lower expectations, which meant the customers were happier when done sooner and affected very little when repairs took as long as expected or a bit longer

- Since turn around time was longer, we did not have to stay so late, which meant less stress

- You would think that losing a few customers due to the higher turn around time is a bad thing, but I think it really just helped us avoid a lot of headaches, so I am going to call this one a plus


7 to 10 days:

- Very nice and comfortable turn around time, but after being caught up, it was too comfortable. There was less urgency, which is not necessarily good.

- Way less stress, but way less business, which in itself can turn into stress.

- Way less calls coming in for updates, good, but almost eerie

- Conversion rate for calls were much lower for those who asked about turn around time. Luckily for us, most people who come into our shop have already decided to do business with us, so our turn around time did not affect most of those customers.

 

[Mindfulness]

Thank you. That is very insightful

 

[coffee]

Yes, A very nice post. I sure do appreciate the work you have done.

My main problem is actually ship times on parts. Im not big enough to stock alot. I do alot with newegg and Amazon.

As a side note, I wish newegg would list in the parts description which warehouse the part is located in. This would help with our estimate of ship times. I get stuff from their Tennessee warehouse pretty quick here in Indiana.

 

[PCX]

Yes, A very nice post. I sure do appreciate the work you have done.

My main problem is actually ship times on parts. Im not big enough to stock alot. I do alot with newegg and Amazon.

As a side note, I wish newegg would list in the parts description which warehouse the part is located in. This would help with our estimate of ship times. I get stuff from their Tennessee warehouse pretty quick here in Indiana.

Do you have shoprunner for Newegg and Prime for Amazon? If not, I would highly suggest looking into the investment. With both, you can get free two day shipping and with Amazon Prime, you can get overnight shipping for $4.

 

[coffee]

Do you have shoprunner for Newegg and Prime for Amazon? If not, I would highly suggest looking into the investment. With both, you can get free two day shipping and with Amazon Prime, you can get overnight shipping for $4.

Actually I dont.

But I have a great feeling I will very soon!

Thanks so much for the nudge in the right direction!

coffee

 

[EvolutionElectronics]

Oh boy i envy you haha, the old shop that I had worked at offered same day service, which was mostly repaired by me, VERY hectic.

 

[Blue]

Sounds amazingly familiar, having to find that sweet spot and learn as you go, balancing repair turn-around time vs. customer expectations. When I started out, I really tried to get it repaired right then and there, while the customer waited. Oh the stress headaches I've put myself (and my co-worker) through....

Instead of giving my customers the number of days their repair will likely take, however, I will tell them which day. For example, if they bring it in on a Thursday, I'll tell them it'll probably be done by Wednesday of the coming week; this gives me roughly a four or five day window of service. The day of the week seems to stick in people's minds much better. If there are any doubts in my mind, I will simply tell them I'll have to call them when I know what the problem is, and how much it will cost to fix. That's been good enough for most, and I'm proud of my abilities and record of getting back to them as I've promised. I don't feed my customers any bull crap, and I think that's what most people want and deserve.

I'm glad others have found that impatient people are the worst sort. It's gotta be the same ones who drive like jerks in traffic, doesn't it? They act like children: everything has to be NOW!NOW!NOW!, no matter the cost to the poor service tech who they happen to make their victim, and it's even more difficult getting them to pay the bill, or return phone calls.

 

[River Valley Computer]

We are a relatively busy shop in a town of 27,000 with 3 universities within a 25 mile radius. When we started business 11 years ago we designed a Work Order Form that we use not only for check-in but also for billing. In the local store here we probably do 10-12 check-ins per day. One of the check-in questions is how quickly do they want(need) it back. We offer three levels:

1) URGENT - drop everything and bump it up front ASAP for 24 hour turn-a-round or less (assuming no parts need to be ordered, etc)
2) PRIORITY - 1 to 2 day turn-a-round with same exceptions as above.
3) NORMAL - 2-4 day turn-a-round with same exceptions as above.

Of course it isn't 100% perfect but we very seldom run into impatient people. Maybe two or three times a month. I just feel that if it is discussed up front it helps establish ground rules. Also, we do as 'blue' does - we give them a specific day instead of 1 to 2 or 2 to 4. That way it eliminates the issues with business day conflicts. We also strive to keep the customer informed if it looks like it might be longer after we start on them but we don't miss too many

Since we do have so many college students and staff clients we do tend to help them out knowing how important their computers are to their studies. Also of course we treat business customers a tad different too. We have two techs that more or less specialize on them.

Tomorrow when I get into the office I will attach a copy of our Work Order Form just to give you all an indea - I sure don't want to indicate it is perfect. In fact if after you see it and have any comments we sure would like to hear them.

 

[Mindfulness]

We offer three levels:

1) URGENT - drop everything and bump it up front ASAP for 24 hour turn-a-round or less (assuming no parts need to be ordered, etc)
2) PRIORITY - 1 to 2 day turn-a-round with same exceptions as above.
3) NORMAL - 2-4 day turn-a-round with same exceptions as above.

do you charge 3 different rates, or is that just to gauge them?

 

[NYJimbo]

My main problem is actually ship times on parts. Im not big enough to stock alot. I do alot with newegg and Amazon.

Same here. I do stock lots of ram, drives, guts for desktops,a few types of replacement mobos and cpus, generic laptop stuff, but my main problem is that I specialize in difficult laptop repairs so the majority of these repairs are for parts that you have to hunt for. This morning a guy wanted a keyboard for a Dell E5430, he wanted to know if he could wait for it to be done. I explained we don't stock them, nobody locally does and that they are thousands of different keyboards so it has to be ordered. I go through that conversation every day because you cannot stock this stuff, you would lose a fortune on stock that may never move.

 

[mkeathley]

My turn around time is currently at 9-10 days. I've sene exactly what you are talkign about. If you tell a ustomer 2 to 4 days, they hear 2.

I have started fropping customer who keep callign over and over and over. I've even told some everytiem they call it slows me down. I try to tell them, politly. but sternly if I do not call them it is NOT done. They don't listen.

I get one or two peopel a day surpised how logn our turn aroudn time is. Honestly I wish is was much shorter myself. But i just explain to them its becuase we are the ebst at what we do, and many people trust us to fix thier stuff. We are not the cheapest, or the fastest but the very best. Most LOVE this and entusiasticlly leave thier computer for repair with us.

Another plus of the long turn around. We are now selling 5-7 Priority services a week. For $35, upfront, non-refundable, I can guarantee their computer makes it to the bench same day. I cannot guarantee it gets fixed same day, but they get a 9-10day jump in line. One guy this week have brought me 3 priorities in a row...

 

[compnet]

One more advantage of the free diagnostic.. we give them a timeframe on the diag. Once you have the computer they aren't going to pick it up and take it somewhere else if you tell them a week because you have to order parts.

Most issues we tell them we'll have a diag in 1 day, worst case 2. When we call to get the go ahead, simple issues are 1-2 days, complicated 2-4, and for parts whenever we'll get the part +1 day.. In the grand scheme pretty close to total times pcx posted, all the customer hears is 1 to 2 days.

We tell customers we will call them as soon as we have an update, and I dont really have a measurable number for phone conversion or walk in conversion because practically everyone that calls brings their computer in, and almost everyone who comes in gets their computer repaired or at least their data off.



On a side - PCX, I see a recurring theme in your posts and of others of "a customer's thinking is flawed and not worth your time." Whether its pricing or time expectations, you are very quick to write off portions of the population for being difficult. While some of what you are saying holds true, I see difficult customers as an opportunity to adapt and still profit off of them. Sure we get a cheapskate everyonce in a while, or someone who pops in every couple hours or calls multiple times a day - but the customers we convert either because they don't want to pay for a diag or are impatient, more than makes up for it.

This isn't just directed at you and you seem to be doing just fine with business, so just take this as food for thought. But in a failing economy, and a society and technological advancements breeding the "I want it now and for cheap or free" generation, I'm not quite ready to write off potential clients because they are cheap or impatient.

 

[PCX]

One more advantage of the free diagnostic.. we give them a timeframe on the diag. Once you have the computer they aren't going to pick it up and take it somewhere else if you tell them a week because you have to order parts.

Most issues we tell them we'll have a diag in 1 day, worst case 2. When we call to get the go ahead, simple issues are 1-2 days, complicated 2-4, and for parts whenever we'll get the part +1 day.. In the grand scheme pretty close to total times pcx posted, all the customer hears is 1 to 2 days.

We tell customers we will call them as soon as we have an update, and I dont really have a measurable number for phone conversion or walk in conversion because practically everyone that calls brings their computer in, and almost everyone who comes in gets their computer repaired or at least their data off.



On a side - PCX, I see a recurring theme in your posts and of others of "a customer's thinking is flawed and not worth your time." Whether its pricing or time expectations, you are very quick to write off portions of the population for being difficult. While some of what you are saying holds true, I see difficult customers as an opportunity to adapt and still profit off of them. Sure we get a cheapskate everyonce in a while, or someone who pops in every couple hours or calls multiple times a day - but the customers we convert either because they don't want to pay for a diag or are impatient, more than makes up for it.

This isn't just directed at you and you seem to be doing just fine with business, so just take this as food for thought. But in a failing economy, and a society and technological advancements breeding the "I want it now and for cheap or free" generation, I'm not quite ready to write off potential clients because they are cheap or impatient.

I am not seeing the correlation or advantage of the no diagnostic fee to be honest with you man . . . In fact, I could argue that because the customer is already invested in the computer with us, that they are more likely to get the repairs done with us. I have seen it happen many times where a customer has come in to our shop after receiving a free diagnostic somewhere else, then instead of having their computer repaired there, they have it repaired here at our shop.

As for the writing off customers, as you can see, we deal with these customers all the time and have been doing so for the last 3 years of business. I understand that this part of the business is inevitable, but if one of the byproducts of having a longer turn around time is avoiding impatient customers, then I am not complaining. It keeps my stress down and it keeps my technicians stress down. Maybe if we were desperate for business, I would be a bit more concerned, but while I am able to more or less pick and choose, I will do what I can to pick and choose my customers.

 

[Steve202]

Instead of giving my customers the number of days their repair will likely take, however, I will tell them which day. For example, if they bring it in on a Thursday, I'll tell them it'll probably be done by Wednesday of the coming week; this gives me roughly a four or five day window of service. The day of the week seems to stick in people's minds much better. If there are any doubts in my mind, I will simply tell them I'll have to call them when I know what the problem is, and how much it will cost to fix. That's been good enough for most, and I'm proud of my abilities and record of getting back to them as I've promised. I don't feed my customers any bull crap, and I think that's what most people want and deserve.

+1 on this bit and if I can't give them a day on which their machine will be fixed, I always tell them I'll call them when I know more. I also tell them they can track their repair using my website. Most people seem happy with this and always comment on how well I keep them informed throughout the repair.

 

[Kitten Kong]

I agree with Steve and Blue. I don't normally give a working day schedule. Instead I give a day. I.e Mon, Fri etc.

I still have the clients who will contact me, at 9am the following day, after dropping their machine off at 7pm the previous evening, asking if its ready yet. Informing them, that I will contact them when it is ready seems to have little effect.

Yesterday for instance, I had a laptop dropped off at 8pm on Tues. Client rang 3 times Wed asking if it was ready. (Looked like simple wireless driver issues). I only started looking at it yesterday as the workbenches were so full.

Same client rang again 4 times yesterday. It got to the point, where I was not getting any work done, so had to explain to them, that if they continue to ring me every 30 mins or so, it is stopping me from working on other machines, which in turn is stopping me from starting their machine, as I have not yet finished working on machines which were previously booked in. If they wanted expedient work, I could arrange that, at an additional cost. They agreed to this cost, so I did the work.

Anyhow long story real short, this laptop was supposed to have a virus, so clients friend (aka a cowboy), decided that it needed a replacement hard drive and fresh install. They did this, but did not load the wireless drivers. For some reason known only to them, decided to re-open the casing where the hard drive, memory, and wireless card were installed, to apparently check the wiring on the card. Not sure what they did from here on in..

I come to download and install the wireless drivers yesterday, and then find that the wireless was not seen in device manager, so knowing that they opened the case up, thought they may of either swapped the wireless wires, or not inserted the card properly. Look at the screw, and find it is stripped.. Same as each and every other screw on the underside of the laptop!. I do not know what screwdriver they used here, but this guy completely stripped each and every screw. If anyone ever had to open the casing up again, forget it.

Explained all this to the client, and mentioned the only way they would be able to get online wirelessly would be with a usb dongle. Cost in the region of £20.00 or so. Client mentioned that they had a dongle, its a Virgin one. No amount of explaining would make the client aware that the two items were different. I eventually get through to them about the dongle, and gain permission to supply one.

In the middle of all this, client asks me if I have any refurb laptops in. I mention that yes I have a old Dell running XP, which I would sell to him, but it is not worth having another laptop, when I can get this one up and running properly for £20.00.

Client wouldn't listen, and called round, and had the refurb laptop, as well as the repair.

Moral of the story, is at times I have found that I need to be more assertive to clients. I failed to do my full diagnostics on this machine, prior to actually working on it, else I would of noticed the stripped screws from the off, and would of stopped there and then and informed the client.

 

[brandonkick]

Couple of ideas for those who actually run formal shops:


Perhaps you should go with a telephone system that picks up on the first ring and answers automatically. This way your calls are taken by the machine and you can screen them, so that your not stopping what your doing to talk to the same woman five times who just dropped her machine off last evening. Explain in the recording that due to the volume of work that you do, each phone call cannot be answered personally and that your call will be returned as soon as possible.


Another idea for those finding they have too much volume for their current staff and need to train more: have you thought about optimizing your training process? Do you use flowcharts? Perhaps you can put together a set of power point / word documents for these people to study first on their own time if they are serious about becoming a tech. Even if it's only to offset a portion of what you cover in the training classes. Perhaps even let them shadow you for a little while (maybe at reduced pay during their "probationary" period). I'm sure they can pick up a lot that way.

As far as turn around time goes. It is important but I think the most important thing is to consider your competition. My uncles business serves the public, so turn around time in us making repairs and so on is crucial to how much money we make. My uncle would love and pushes for same day (sometimes instant) services on all service calls. This is unrealistic and unnecessary as the only competitor that even comes close has respond times of easily over a week or more on almost everything. We could be in the 1-2 day range and still be way ahead of the game.

Along that line of thinking: how long can you / would you want to be without your computer? I do know that by nature people are not patient nor are most of them reasonable. However you have to consider the reliance on the machine. Some people simply cannot be without their machine for a week and so on.

Which brings me to my final idea on the subject: What about offering out loaner PC's? You can get or find basic office PC's that may be slightly dated but will perform rock solid and allow the customer the ability to use the machine. Now they won't get workhorse gaming machines, as those are too expensive to loan out. I think if you had a good solid workstation worth $200 and you loaned it out that you would greatly increase customer satisfaction and reduce the number of annoying calls by a large percentage. You have their machine for collateral if they damage it. I'd invest in the security stickers to place over the side access door to tell if they opened it or not. Label and number the machines with a dremel tool on both the side case and underside of the tower. Keep an image of the machine and simply re image the drive when it comes back in, no need to clean up whatever happened in the mean time.

 

[coffee]

Do you have shoprunner for Newegg and Prime for Amazon? If not, I would highly suggest looking into the investment. With both, you can get free two day shipping and with Amazon Prime, you can get overnight shipping for $4.

I have investigated shoprunner and found this out thru the posts here:

Personal Use Only, No Resellers
SHOPRUNNER IS NOT AVAILABLE FOR MEMBERS WHO PURCHASE PRODUCTS FOR THE PURPOSE OF RESALE OR USE SHOPRUNNER TO SHIP PRODUCTS TO THEIR CUSTOMERS OR POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS

Would that deter me? I dont know. I dont think I would do enough business yet to really put me under the radar. However, I did read the post from Shamrin (thankyou btw) and just wondered if anyone else has run into SR cutting you off?

Thanks,

coffee

 

[NYJimbo]

Perhaps you should go with a telephone system that picks up on the first ring and answers automatically. This way your calls are taken by the machine and you can screen them, so that your not stopping what your doing to talk to the same woman five times who just dropped her machine off last evening. Explain in the recording that due to the volume of work that you do, each phone call cannot be answered personally and that your call will be returned as soon as possible.

I screen calls when I am very busy and I can tell you that most people will not leave a message. Most want a couple of questions answered first (do you fix this, what price do you think it could be, how long do you think it might take) and want to know that right away. But if they call, leave a message and now have to wait for a return call, they don't know when that's going to happen so they either keep calling until you pick up or will move onto the next shop. Many times when other shops send people to me those people will call all day until I answer because nobody else will do the job and yet these people will still not leave a message for me to call them back. I had a guy call 6 times on Friday when I was too busy to deal with it, he wanted me to install a battery in his laptop (another one of these inside the machine jobs) and nobody else would do it. I finally spoke to him and asked why he didn't leave a message and he said "I wanted to talk to someone first".

 

[PCX]

I have investigated shoprunner and found this out thru the posts here:



Would that deter me? I dont know. I dont think I would do enough business yet to really put me under the radar. However, I did read the post from Shamrin (thankyou btw) and just wondered if anyone else has run into SR cutting you off?

Thanks,

coffee

As long as you are shipping to your shop or home, you should be fine. Been using those services for a few years now.

 

[coffee]

As long as you are shipping to your shop or home, you should be fine. Been using those services for a few years now.

Thats sounds good. I will probably get an account with them.

Thanks,

coffee