4 Quick Ways to Prevent Stockouts at Your Cell Phone Repair Store

Imagine you have an old customer who needs urgent phone repairs or a particular accessory instantly. He’s willing to pay you extra, but he will not wait.

You instantly start creating a ticket, and what do you find? The repair part or the product they want is out of stock!

The customer is disappointed and takes his business elsewhere. You are disappointed in losing a client and not restocking in time.

Understandably, stockouts can be the worst nightmare for any repair shop owner. And for good reason. Not only do stockouts result in lost sales, but they harm customer relations too.

Simply put:

Stockouts = Bad Customer Experience

A bad customer experience leads to a decrease in customer loyalty and eventually affects brand reputation.

The simple solution is to keep the highest-selling accessories and most commonly-used repair parts in stock. But how do you remember to keep everything in stock?

We give you 4 easy ways you can avoid going out of stock in your cell phone repair store.

Keep Tabs on Stock Levels

The best way to avoid low stock is to keep a minimum stock level. This level represents the safe amount of inventory items you want to keep before restocking your supplies.

To invest the right amount into inventory keeping, set up reminders for low stock. One of the best ways to do this is by using RepairDesk’s low stock warning feature.

Use it to keep a record of all inventory items, categorize them in groups, count on-hand quantity, transfer inventory from one store location to another, and create a ‘Purchase Order’ to quickly replenish your stock. 

Additionally, set up reorder stock alerts to make sure you don’t have to refuse another customer.

Prioritize Inventory Items via ABC Analysis

Dividing the items into priority groups can help you understand your stock better. Instead of controlling everything as a whole, categorize them and see what you need more and at what frequency.

That’s how you can quickly identify which inventory items are essential to your cell phone repair store.

A useful way to prioritize is using the ABC Analysis. It is about segregating your inventory into A, B, and C groups. Here’s how it works:

• Type ‘A’ parts/products consist of about 80 percent of all products used but account for 20 percent or less inventory stock.
• Type ‘B’ parts/products comprise about 25 percent of products used but account for about 30 percent of inventory stock.
• Type ‘C’ consists of about 5 percent of parts/products used but make nearly half of the inventory stock.

Conduct Regular Inventory Counts

You cannot predict and audit your inventory if you don’t have accurate results. Also, if you manually count your items’ list every week, the chances of error are high. One of your employees might miscount or forget to update the count sheet. Or a customer refunds an item that you forget to keep a record of.

The best way is to take help from a modern inventory management system. It can do a great job at keeping your stock levels in check.

Find some time to count your products and ensure that what you have on paper matches your store’s inventory. 

Preventing stockouts requires you to have real-time information on what you have on hand. You cannot do that if you’re only counting your stock once or twice a year. So, be vigilant and tally your real-time and on-record inventory once a month.

Track Inventory in Real-Time 

There are many disadvantages to manual inventory tracking, making a human error being one of them. You cannot instantly make corrections or adjustments to your inventory. Moreover, communicating with suppliers is another hassle.

You can automatically update your repair shop POS system using a sound inventory management system. A good inventory management system will track your inventory in real-time and move items in and out of stock locations as and when used.

The Final Word

Keeping track of products using a pen and paper or excel is time-consuming. It can also lead to huge mistakes. So, the best way to prevent stockouts is to implement a cloud-based system at your repair shop. 

It’s best to use a cell phone repair shop software that automatically modifies inventory levels as you close sales. This way you won’t have to worry about manually updating your records. Such solutions are also beneficial for multi-store locations because they allow you to manage multiple stores from one place.

Implementing the above methods will not only make your life easier but also help your employees manage your cell phone repair store inventory effortlessly.