Utilizing technical expertise and innovation to establish a profitable repair business sounds quite intriguing. In the beginning, it might even be an easy setup.
But how does the situation change when you begin to scale your business?
You have to analyze sales numbers, help out employees struggling with unique concerns, and not to forget, look for ways to boost revenue.
Unlike common perception, repair shop operations can become too complex if you rely on customers’ discernment. Initially, the results might depict high customer satisfaction, but as your operations scale with time, the matter may go out of your hands.
With your cell phone repair business growing, there are new challenges to overcome, important decisions to take, and key responsibilities to assign. So what are the success-proven practices for managing and scaling your repair business operations?
Automation
Let’s begin by addressing one of today’s hottest buzzwords – Automation, the ultimate key to streamlining and accelerating business processes and saving valuable time.
Automating your repair shop operations using a cloud-based technology partner is the way to save time. The time you save can be spent on improving the quality of work and enhancing your customer support services, a value proposition no technology can replace
Once you have laid the groundwork for automation and defined the key supporting elements, consider the following strategies to take your repair shop further.
Implementing Systems and SOPs
SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) are powerful tools that give you the liberty to define the way everything should be done in your repair business. These seemingly simple rules also allow your business to run smoothly even when managerial personnel are not present.
Firstly, repair businesses should not rely on and act upon a client’s discernment unless they have defined a game plan.
For instance, if your process is dependent solely on what the customer says, you will be running as many different processes as the number of orders. This is the first thing you want to avoid if the aim is to scale your repair business.
Starting from simple processes like disposing of trash, all the way to completing a complicated repair, the absence of SOPs can make everything very difficult.
The target is to plan ahead and ensure that your repair shop’s infrastructure is designed in a way that all necessary resources are available at all times. This means none of the operations should be dependent on singular entities, especially on the presence of a specific employee in the shop.
Invoicing and Ticketing Through POS Software
One of the most important steps is to automate your job tracking, ticketing, and invoicing process. This is a great way to add a layer of professionalism to your service, reduce the time taken to complete administrative tasks and improve the shop’s daily financial management. Your employees can channel this saved up a time to improve the quality of repairs and answer the queries of customers.
With RepairDesk’s automated ticketing and invoicing system, your business can track finances and minimize the risks of errors. Allow your customers to place orders conveniently through a streamlined ticketing system, monitor repair jobs internally and create a win-win situation for both your business and your customers.
Marketing for Brand Awareness
Reach out to a larger audience by designing and executing effective marketing campaigns. Having an online presence allows businesses to increase their customer base and improve engagement.
Nothing helps your business communicate with customers like social media. As you scale your business, your operations change accordingly – so let your audience know that. Scaling can mean hiring new technicians, offering a new kind of service, or opening stores in new locations.
Improve Customer Services
No business grows without loyal customers. Taking that into account, the way your repair business connects with its customers says a lot about its future orientation.
When you create strategies to scale your business, it’s important not to compromise the quality of customer service. With changing times, the nature and requirements of your customers keep changing,
Train your customer support personnel for new changes, so they are prepped to deliver excellence. The easiest way to do this is by keeping customer support teams in the loop while planning and executing your next strategy. Also, like every other department, customer services should have SOPs.
Spare Parts and their Usage
While we are on it, another important aspect to consider is carefully selecting your parts and accessories suppliers. Although your business might initially find it more suitable to go for parts that come at a lower price, this strategy will not help.
When these parts are not of great quality, they reduce the quality or your repair services. Also, inexpensive repair equipment is not manufactured with an ergonomic design, meaning your technicians will not have a good time doing the repairs.
Even if the price margin is considerably high, go for quality products. According to technicians, repair shops that buy the best tools and spare parts available are more likely to cut down on costs in the long run.
For instance, technicians should always grab the farthest left screen and the top small part from the stock to ensure the inventory cycles.
What to do with parts that are removed from inventory during repair?
- Only take the spare parts that are required for the job
- Use bins, organizers, and bubble bags where necessary, and keep them in designated places
- Implement RepairDesk to update the status of the spare parts once it’s removed from the inventory
- Place boxes and bubble bags containing cell phones in a clean space
- Test spare parts and follow the defined procedures to report malfunctioning spare parts
- Place small parts in the same bags or sections they are taken from
- Apply tape over the battery terminal and place it in the battery bin after it is used
Inventory Management
With RepairDesk’s inventory management system, you can keep track of items in stock and never run out of spare parts and tools to complete repairs.
In order to scale your repair business, inventory cycling is also important. In this case, the simplest of SOPs can significantly improve your internal processes and ultimately accelerate repair orders.
Keep Looking Forward
Expanding your current set of services, serving a bigger customer base, opening a new repair shop and other opportunities for scaling require careful planning and execution. Once you know how to get your head around that, it’s important to keep moving forward.
Implement the useful guidelines above and see your repair business prosper.
