We are now a cell phone repair shop . . . .

[PCX]

So, I knew this day would likely come, the day where we do more cell phone and tablet repairs than we do computer repairs and the day where we would have to change our name. Here is a screen shot of the data I gathered over the last year comparing mobile device repairs to computer repairs. As you can see, our numbers are staying pretty consistent (total number of repairs per month) and the amount we gross in a month has also stayed relatively consistent, although maybe a little less now that we are doing less PC repair. Also, we are just pulling out of our slow season (March through May) and we will likely start doing around 300 repairs each month towards the end of the year as long as our business continues to progress as it usually does.

I think it is also important to note that this data is from our first store, which is well established in our market. Our business name now and has always included "PC" and despite this, we are now doing more mobile device repair than computer repair. As a result, we will keep the same branding as we have now, but we will be changing the name to better reflect the type of business that we do.

We do have one new competitor in our market, but they just got here a little over a month ago and our numbers have been holding strong despite our slow season, so they are not affecting these numbers. We have however seen an increase in mobile device repair kiosks in the mall, but luckily for us, they pretty much all suck. Some market research points to the fact that mobile device repair is on the rise and that computer (consumer grade) repair is on the decline. With what I am seeing here, I would have to agree. Now Windows 10 could change that, but I am not counting on it. That said, I am sure we will see a bump in computer repair after Windows 10, which is to be expected, but will likely level out and return back to this trend after 6 months or so.

Anyways, this may just be my market, but I have a feeling that those who have also been doing both computer and mobile device repair over the last few years have likely seen a similar trend or soon will. We had planned on opening more shops in surrounding ares under a different business name, specifically targeting mobile devices and Macs and then eventually making the switch with our current stores afterward. It looks like we will be doing this sooner rather than later.

On a final note, we have come to the conclusion that both mobile devices and Mac repairs make more money per sqft and per hour than PC repair. Doing these repairs are much faster and require much less space, keeping down overhead. We will continue to do PC repair, but it will no longer be our main focus and we will likely do it at a premium price.

This trend could of course change, but as I am one to stick with what works and what is most profitable, we will likely make this change regardless of whether or not PC repair picks back up.

 

[Matthew Bradley]

As far as mobile, what devices are you seeing most of? All we get in is iPhones and $70 tablets from Walmart. The competition for mobile repair (in my area at least) is so cut throat you can't make any money off of it and these cheap iPhone knock-off screens are junk.

 

[NYJimbo]

As far as mobile, what devices are you seeing most of? All we get in is iPhones and $70 tablets from Walmart. The competition for mobile repair (in my area at least) is so cut throat you can't make any money off of it and these cheap iPhone knock-off screens are junk.

Same here. We have cell phone repair shops all over the place. The local mall 1 mile from here has 4 of them and there are two within 500 feet of my shop. Its almost as bad as the nail salons here on the Island. Whats really bad is that most phone shops are run by families. So mom and pop and the uncles and aunts and kids all work but nobody gets a real salary. Mostly Chinese, Indian and Korean shops doing phones at insanely low prices and turn around times of an hour or less.

Oh and those $70 tablets make me want to scream.

Here's one for $39. Sure it's garbage, but look at the reviews:

http://www.walmart.com/ip/RCA-7-Tablet-8GB-Quad-Core-Black/40864922

 

[Matthew Bradley]

Not a day goes by I don't get 4 or 5 of these in the shop. The typical phone user isn't patient enough to leave a device for more than 24 hours so the labor is shoddy as you cut corners trying to meet a deadline. The iPhones we've got down to a science but I'm seeing FAR less iPads and the quality of HTC and Samsung phones are substantially better than just 12 months ago so we rarely see these. With people upgrading phones quicker, you won't have a sustained growth in repair here unless your in a big area that is growing. We do some Kindle repairs but when your average tablet price is less than $200 and dropping - they are teetering on being disposable.

 

[fkbs93]

Phone and tablet repair, I don't want to end up having to do them, but it seems it's going to have to be a necessity at some point. Having to be really delicate, soldering and heat gun at the ready to remove bad parts and put new ones in, charging silly rates that won't make a profit anyway. Plus there's too many knock off parts, and as much as it can reduce the prices, people are best with the real and genuine product.

I'd rather hope that computer repair kicks back up, perhaps Windows 10 might jump start things again.

 

[gunslinger]

Thats what all the shops will be within the next 5-10 years I'd bet.

 

[PCX]

In this order, the most common phones we repair are iPhones, Galaxy phones, LG G3 and G2 phones.

Here are my thoughts (and this is coming from a person who primarily uses a computer for everything and only uses his phone to make calls and listing to Audible), PC repair is not going anywhere, although it will drastically change. While Microsoft Surface tablets did not do too well initially, I do believe that they are still a glimpse into the future. We are going to start seeing more tablet-laptop hybrids with detachable keyboards allowing for maximum mobility. Which means, that a majority of PC repair will actually be tablet repair. I also believe that eventually, it will be common for phones to be used as phones through out the day and docked at home or even at work as a PC. While this is not common practice now, it can already be done and it is just a matter of time before it is common practice. If this is all true, then it only means that mobile device repair will only increase, be it PC, Apple or Android.

When I say that I see computer repair decreasing while mobile device repair increases, I am referring to PC repair as we know it today, not what it will be tomorrow. And since it seems that this is the direction that computers are going, I want our business to be known for being able to repair todays (or the futures) technology, not yesterdays. I am thinking of the future for my business. Right now my business name says that we primarily fix PCs, while in truth, we primarily fix mobile devices. We will always fix PCs, regardless of its form, but I do not want the word PC in our business name to give the impression that we only do PC repair and not mobile device or Apple repair. Plus, having a different name that says we fix gadgets in general will allow to better and more specifically target markets that we want to cater too, like mobile device and Apple repair.

Unfortunately, most of today's PC users are cheap, high maintenance and don't understand quality. PC repairs take longer than Mac repairs and it's harder to charge more for the services. Even now, each of my mobile device techs with enough volume can make the business $150+ profit an hour when doing most phone repairs and they only require a small amount of space. A PC repair like virus removals can take between 1-3 hours and most shops can only charge around $100 for the service. That said, a lot of PC hardware repairs like screen replacements, power jack replacements, tune-ups, reinstalls and HDD replacements are highly profitable because they can be done quickly and with relative ease, but we do not see nearly as many of these repairs (except for hard drive replacements) as we do viruses removals.

Anyways, like I said, I am simply trying to transition my business for the future and I want to target those services that make the business the most profit with the least amount of hassle and overhead.

 

[SprinterTech-WI]

For the last 3yrs we do more mobile than pc. We just upped our min inventory levels and are continuing to expand that area.

Good to see the trends we see here in the north are the same down by you PCX

 

[Matthew Bradley]

For the last 3yrs we do more mobile than pc. We just upped our min inventory levels and are continuing to expand that area.

Good to see the trends we see here in the north are the same down by you PCX

Retail? Yes, the margins here can sustain a business but repair? We have two brick & mortar "mobile" repair shops around me and one I'm close friends with. The poor guy wants to slit his wrist at the end of the day (sorry, his words.. not mine). Your clientele is night and day from your PC/Mac customer. I do agree with PCX in that I'm seeing more and more PC based tablets come into the shop and I still see the occasional high end Samsung tablet but phone repair is a nightmare. It's not the repair itself - I prefer low level hardware repair anyway - it's dealing with the kids,err.. customers who are wanting them fixed while they wait because heaven forbid they miss a Tweet.

 

[PCX]

For the last 3yrs we do more mobile than pc. We just upped our min inventory levels and are continuing to expand that area.

Good to see the trends we see here in the north are the same down by you PCX

Good to see I am not alone!

Retail? Yes, the margins here can sustain a business but repair? We have two brick & mortar "mobile" repair shops around me and one I'm close friends with. The poor guy wants to slit his wrist at the end of the day (sorry, his words.. not mine). Your clientele is night and day from your PC/Mac customer. I do agree with PCX in that I'm seeing more and more PC based tablets come into the shop and I still see the occasional high end Samsung tablet but phone repair is a nightmare. It's not the repair itself - I prefer low level hardware repair anyway - it's dealing with the kids,err.. customers who are wanting them fixed while they wait because heaven forbid they miss a Tweet.

Actually, I believe it can. Not only have I seen an increase in cell phone repair stores in surrounding areas, I can tell you that we have actually seen an uptick in our profit margin since we have seen this transition. Just like there are ways to barely make anything on computer repairs, there are ways to barely make anything on cell phone repairs, but the opposite is also true. One big difference is that you require a lot more volume to make it work and obviously if you have a lot of competition, it will be much harder. Another factor is that most consumers look at cell phone repair as a commodity and while this is also true of computer repair, it is a lot easier to convince a consumer that there is a different in quality when it comes to computer repair than it is to convince them that the guy doing a screen replacement for half your price will not provide the same level of quality as you will. After all, they are all using Apple parts right? So, one thing that will be harder is to avoid price wars. And this is all probably due to the fact that we have to spend more time on compute repairs, whereas you can get an iPhone fixed in 15 minutes, so obviously monkeys can do it right?

To make it work, you have to find other things to charge for, like housing repair and upsale items like cases, screen protectors and accessories. You also need to promise fast turn around times (one hour or less is ideal, two tops) on the most popular phones and at most a one day turn around times on iPads. Life time warranties help give you a competitive edge, but selling extended warranties will help increase profits. And if you even think for a moment that an issue might have been caused by your techs or a defective part, you better take care of the customer, even if you can't return the part and you have to eat the cost. In most cases, you will make up that cost with their future business (assuming they were not bad customers trying to get one over on you) and their referrals as you will be known as the company who takes care of their customers. In our area 3 of the 4 cell phone repair shops have a reputation for screwing over the customer and not honoring warranties. They all come to us now.

So like I said, there is a way to make it profitable and there is a way to make it so you want to kill yourself. And I would not suggest abandoning PC or Mac repairs in place of cell phone repairs, but abandoning the idea of doing cell phone repair could literally cost you business. We have competitors that do both repairs and if we did not do cell phone repair and a customer went to one of our competitors and they actually did a good job, guess what, we probably lost that customer and their future business. I can't count the number of times a customer has come in for the first time for a phone repair and then returns again shortly thereafter a computer repair. My goal is to avoid people making the assumption that all we do is PC repair and not cell phone repair (although obviously our marketing and word of mouth is obviously working) and instead, I want a name that says that we are gadget or tech specialist and that we repair everything tech. Of course while we do want them to make that assumption by the name we choose, we will market our business for the repairs we want to do and provide the rest at a premium.

 

[untoldtech]

Good to see I am not alone!



Actually, I believe it can. Not only have I seen an increase in cell phone repair stores in surrounding areas, I can tell you that we have actually seen an uptick in our profit margin since we have seen this transition. Just like there are ways to barely make anything on computer repairs, there are ways to barely make anything on cell phone repairs, but the opposite is also true. One big difference is that you require a lot more volume to make it work and obviously if you have a lot of competition, it will be much harder. Another factor is that most consumers look at cell phone repair as a commodity and while this is also true of computer repair, it is a lot easier to convince a consumer that there is a different in quality when it comes to computer repair than it is to convince them that the guy doing a screen replacement for half your price will not provide the same level of quality as you will. After all, they are all using Apple parts right? So, one thing that will be harder is to avoid price wars. And this is all probably due to the fact that we have to spend more time on compute repairs, whereas you can get an iPhone fixed in 15 minutes, so obviously monkeys can do it right?

To make it work, you have to find other things to charge for, like housing repair and upsale items like cases, screen protectors and accessories. You also need to promise fast turn around times (one hour or less is ideal, two tops) on the most popular phones and at most a one day turn around times on iPads. Life time warranties help give you a competitive edge, but selling extended warranties will help increase profits. And if you even think for a moment that an issue might have been caused by your techs or a defective part, you better take care of the customer, even if you can't return the part and you have to eat the cost. In most cases, you will make up that cost with their future business (assuming they were not bad customers trying to get one over on you) and their referrals as you will be known as the company who takes care of their customers. In our area 3 of the 4 cell phone repair shops have a reputation for screwing over the customer and not honoring warranties. They all come to us now.

So like I said, there is a way to make it profitable and there is a way to make it so you want to kill yourself. And I would not suggest abandoning PC or Mac repairs in place of cell phone repairs, but abandoning the idea of doing cell phone repair could literally cost you business. We have competitors that do both repairs and if we did not do cell phone repair and a customer went to one of our competitors and they actually did a good job, guess what, we probably lost that customer and their future business. I can't count the number of times a customer has come in for the first time for a phone repair and then returns again shortly thereafter a computer repair. My goal is to avoid people making the assumption that all we do is PC repair and not cell phone repair (although obviously our marketing and word of mouth is obviously working) and instead, I want a name that says that we are gadget or tech specialist and that we repair everything tech. Of course while we do want them to make that assumption by the name we choose, we will market our business for the repairs we want to do and provide the rest at a premium.

I haven't pushed the extended warranties yet but we're about to start sell screen protectors get a lot of request for those. We already do cases and they sell *A LOT* w/repairs. We do a 25% price reduction on cases bought if you get service, people *LOVE* this special, we already markup cases 1500%. Most of those 'cut throat' pricing shops will go out of business because it's not sustainable and they're usually nazis about warranty because they use crap parts. We get screw ups from other shops *ALL THE TIME* and the other shop wont honor their warranties. I'm so outrageously liberal with our warranty, I'd rather spend $10 on new glass and keep a customer versus have you never come back and go elsewhere. My margin is 800-1000% on all repairs. Leveraging direct sales of parts from Chinese manufacturers I don't even argue anymore about warranty, if you really think we did you wrong I'll fix it again free (we dont get many of these, again, I've made the parts so cheap that I can afford to lose $20 every now and then). Again, you have to change your mindset. I get maybe 2 returns a month (less than a fracation of 1% of all people coming in), and as I've said before, I spent over $1500 on door hangers and got 5 customers (that's $300/customer in acquisition costs, spending $20 to keep people happy >>>>>>>>>>>> $300 to get a new customer), simple math/business strategy. customers come back because we stand behind our work, we have intelligent staff and we go out of our way to help people.

 

[ComputerPro]

Our business name now and has always included "PC" and despite this, we are now doing more mobile device repair than computer repair.

View attachment 4529

How do you think I feel, were called 'Computer Pro' lol. I think the word computer, PC, IT, could include all tech and be just fine. Most customers don't think of a PC as an acutal personal computer vs say a laptop etc. Our customers always call their systems some crazy mix of hard drive, power unit, tower, pc etc...
Our tablets and phone repair are still pretty small compared to our pc, laptop, networking stuff for some reason. Of course we haven't really pushed or advertised cell phones and tablets except for a small tagline on the back of our vehicles.

 

[PCX]

How do you think I feel, were called 'Computer Pro' lol. I think the word computer, PC, IT, could include all tech and be just fine. Most customers don't think of a PC as an acutal personal computer vs say a laptop etc. Our customers always call their systems some crazy mix of hard drive, power unit, tower, pc etc...
Our tablets and phone repair are still pretty small compared to our pc, laptop, networking stuff for some reason. Of course we haven't really pushed or advertised cell phones and tablets except for a small tagline on the back of our vehicles.

I think our name was great for growing initially, but not for continued growth. Unfortunately, a lot of people don't know we repair Macs (even though we do push and advertise it) and for both Macs and mobile devices, people are always asking if we repair them. Even though adwords are doing great for us, I think our referrals is what has really given us the push in the mobile device market.

We have always pushed phone repair pretty hard since we started few years ago, but it has only been in the last year that we have seen this much growth in that area.

 

[mlfixer]

Not sure if anyone mentioned this but lets not forget that businesses will always be using PCs. I just can't imaging my local dentist, lawyer, accountant or 100s of other business types using tablets in any near future. The exception to this would be restaurants or stores using POS; they seem to be making a switch to tablets gradually. So while the consumer may be shifting to tablets and mobile devices not everyone will be doing so. Of course lets not forget the older generation that is not into tablets and prefers the old desktop or laptop. The market in the end will consists of:

1) Tablet/mobile users - younger generation (teens to 50s), regular consumers
2) PC/Macs - older generation (50+), businesses/business services

 

[NYJimbo]

1) Tablet/mobile users - younger generation (teens to 50s), regular consumers
2) PC/Macs - older generation (50+), businesses/business services

I host a ton of websites and as the host you have the ability to go into any of their accounts through a master password. Now, we don't do this to snoop, rather to fix things that break or the customer has messed up. Sometimes a customer asks me to help them get started with SEO and one of the things I do is go to their stats logs(webalizer, awstats, analog) to help them get an idea of what they need to do with their site. After doing that countless times you start noticing trends. Right now we are finding an almost 50/50 split on PC/mobile visitors. When customers go to redesign their sites to take advantage of the new mobile formats, I always tell them to check the stats because in almost all cases we see that about half the visits are going to be from real computers. Its hard to tell if PC's are really on there way out because a PC user may use a phone for some things and not others. But with solid evidence of about half the visits being from real computers I don't think they are getting rid of them, but perhaps using them when a mobile device is not enough.

Once we see how people deal with Windows 10 I think we will be able to see the real future of personal computers. Just because people can use a tablet or phone, it doesn't mean they will always want to.

 

[lan101]

I host a ton of websites and as the host you have the ability to go into any of their accounts through a master password. Now, we don't do this to snoop, rather to fix things that break or the customer has messed up. Sometimes a customer asks me to help them get started with SEO and one of the things I do is go to their stats logs(webalizer, awstats, analog) to help them get an idea of what they need to do with their site. After doing that countless times you start noticing trends. Right now we are finding an almost 50/50 split on PC/mobile visitors. When customers go to redesign their sites to take advantage of the new mobile formats, I always tell them to check the stats because in almost all cases we see that about half the visits are going to be from real computers. Its hard to tell if PC's are really on there way out because a PC user may still use a phone for some things and not others. But with solid evidence of about half the visits being from real computers I don't think they are getting rid of them, but perhaps using them when a mobile device is not enough.

Once we see how people deal with Windows 10 I think we will be able to see the real future of personal computers. Just because people can use a tablet or phone, it doesn't mean they will always want to.

Exactly I fully agree. I see the same thing on my own site. I also wondered though since it's about computer repair if people were searching for computer repair businesses on their phone or tablet lol. It's good to know that you are seeing that trend too with other sites.

I still think things will stay roughly the same in my neck of the woods for the next couple years regardless of what windows 10 does. At the same time though, it's good to be prepared for the changes that could come. The nice thing about being in a rural area is a lot of times I can read things on here from you city guys and then I start to see the trends in the next year

I also fully agree on the 50 and up crowd using computers more. I see a lot of them have the latest iphone or latest samsung and barely know how to use it. Some do know how to use it well but still prefer a "bigger screen" for certain things. A lot of the 50 plus crowd doesn't like change of course so I think they are more likely to want to stick with the computer that they know best. As I approach 30 this year, I do kinda ponder as my clients get older and pass on to greater things....where does the future lie? I just figure as long as there is technology, we will be needed for something. It's up to us if we want to keep up or jump off the bandwagon.

 

[HFultzjr]

This is what I see in my area. Other markets may be different.

Phones: Customers are too "cheap" to have them fixed. They can go to their cellular provider, sign a new or upgraded contract, get a new, re-furbished, or reduced cost phone, and be on their way. Or, they can switch providers, with some even paying the fees to switch. A small opportunity to maybe provide data recovery by me.

Tablets: Disposable items
I may get some revenue for data recovery. Some don't even know they have an SD card with data on it!
Then they go to the next "insert $79.99 special here" and move on.

Sure, their are a few "higher end" customers, but for me, they are few and far between.

I'd like to hear if others are seeing this as well.

Harold

 

[sapphirescales]

This is what I see in my area. Other markets may be different.

Phones: Customers are too "cheap" to have them fixed. They can go to their cellular provider, sign a new or upgraded contract, get a new, re-furbished, or reduced cost phone, and be on their way. Or, they can switch providers, with some even paying the fees to switch. A small opportunity to maybe provide data recovery by me.

Tablets: Disposable items
I may get some revenue for data recovery. Some don't even know they have an SD card with data on it!
Then they go to the next "insert $79.99 special here" and move on.

Sure, their are a few "higher end" customers, but for me, they are few and far between.

I'd like to hear if others are seeing this as well.

Harold

To date we've only fixed a handful of phones and tablets, and at the end of each repair we decided it wasn't worth it. I even made almost $200 PROFIT on a Droid with a cracked screen. But it was 3 frustrating hours picking little shards of broken glass with tweezers. I'd honestly rather spend 10 hours working at McDonalds then fix that thing again.

As for demand for phone and tablet repair, most people are just calling around to find the absolute cheapest price. I'm not interested in being in a market where it's a race to the bottom in pricing. There are some shops that are making MAYBE a $20 profit off most repairs - and that's using cheapo knock-off parts! There's no way I can compete with that. Not if I want to actually be able to pay the rent.

 

[pcpete]

We are not yet in the market and can't speak from experience, but if it is like computer repair, clients will pay a couple hundred dollars to fix a $300 laptop screen so why not fix an iPad screen? Certain people like to repair and not buy new, those are our computer repair clients and will be our future mobile device repair clients.

 

[HawkinsPC]

Again, my area sucks. They all go to the criminal (you know, just out of jail for burglary) and let him fix their phones and cheap tablets. These people want the cheapest repairs with the crappiest parts.