Repair business owners often find themselves in a rut. You are putting in the long hours, using the right repair management software, hiring new technicians, and marketing your business on social media. Yet, you can’t seem to grow, the grind is getting worse and your frustration levels are out the roof. At this moment, you feel only a miracle can save your cell repair shop.
Hold on – there are multiple ways to wriggle out of the slog and a miracle ain’t one of them. You need to dedicate time to plan your business’s growth, look for ways to innovate, market your products or services effectively, and more.
Let’s look deeper into how you can grow your repair business.
Make Time To Plan
Most repair store owners make the mistake of spending too much time doing repairs or other tasks that can be delegated. As an owner, you must spend 4 to 6 hours in a day planning and strategizing on how to grow your business.
Even if hiring a new employee will drastically reduce your profits, you have to look at the larger picture. In the long run, you will be able to minimize the expense and maximize the profits.
If you think you have depleted the potential of your existing revenue sources, look into other revenue streams. Find out what your target audience is and make personas so you can plan your marketing campaigns accordingly.
Spend time thinking of ways you can make more sales and grow your revenue. If you are a cell repair shop, offer device sales as well. If you are offering both, add device accessories.
You should also automate your repair shop using a good point of sale software like RepairDesk that also helps in repair ticket management, inventory management, employee management, reporting, and more.
See what’s bringing in the most profit and focus on that. Stop offering services that aren’t very profitable or are rarely asked for.
Research and invest in ways to improve your store’s efficiency. Join repair shop and business-related groups/communities on Facebook, Reddit, and other platforms to learn from other people’s business plans and strategies.
Focus on your Customers
Another mistake most new repair shop owners make is focusing on paying rent and making the maximum amount of profit. However, you need to focus on your customer’s needs and the profits will take care of themselves.
Do not look towards instant gratification. Establish your grounds by creating value for your customer instead of lowballing them to make more profit out of them. Because if you do that, you will continue to hustle for the rest of your life without any respite. You will not create a loyal clientele and struggle to bring in new customers all the time.
Denis Gutsu, who just opened his third cell repair shop in California, believes in the one hundred rule.
“One customer tells ten customers, ten customers tell ten customers. That’s a hundred customers and all of a sudden, your reputation goes down because of that one customer. And that’s what a lot of owners don’t take into consideration today.”
So, you need to put yourself in your customers’ shoes and provide quality services. Because the one hundred rule applies to good customer service as well. It may depreciate your profits in the short term but you’re likely to increase it in the long term.
Your Employees are your Business’s Backbone
Merely hiring employees doesn’t cut it – you are not just looking for labor. You’re looking for someone who is passionate about the business and owns it. Someone who has the spark to get the job done and the drive to learn more and improve. A single driven employee will bring more value to your business than three indifferent ones.
Moreover, happy employees will beget happy customers. And happy customers will keep on coming back to you, increasing revenue. As per a Harvard study, your employees will be up to 31% more productive if they are happy. The same study states that a happy sales team is likely to drive up your sales by 37%.
Suffice to say, if you want to keep your employee retention rate high, keep your employees happy. Because hiring a replacement will cost you 16% to 213% of the existing employee’s salary.
But what makes your employees happy? Monetary rewards and benefits are always a good idea. RepairDesk’s repair management software has the tipping feature integrated within the payment module, which can increase the employees’ motivation to do a good job.
Jeff Sandridge of The Smartphone Medics hit $1 million during the pandemic in 2020, says,
“The best part the employees like [about RepairDesk] is the function of tips so the employees can be rewarded for doing a good job. They make more money that I don’t have to pay them. They like their jobs more, and they do a better job with the customers because they know if they do a better job, they get a bigger tip. So, it’s really a win-win situation.”
Moreover, another cell repair shop owner gives his employees a $5 bonus on selling each device that has been on the shelf for too long. This incentivizes the employees to do a better job.
As a business owner, you also need to look for other sources of motivation in your employees, for instance, some may be motivated by the idea of professional growth, others may be motivated by recognition and achievement. Such initiatives will increase employee productivity and happiness simultaneously.
Additionally, it is imperative to train your employees regularly. Ideally, keep a weekly staff meeting to discuss grievances and provide feedback. These are little things that can improve the repair shop culture and motivate your employees to get better and work harder.
Innovate and Expand
There are many benefits to innovation and all of them result in increased revenue. To start off, a company that fosters a culture of innovation and is open to new ideas will have motivated employees.
Reed Hastings in his book No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention talks about leading with context, not control. This means bringing your employees on board about the company goals and giving them space and confidence to achieve the goals without controlling their processes.
Another way to innovate is to research your competitors’ strategies. See if they’re offering services or products that you aren’t which you can add to your business.
Research on what marketing tools other successful repair stores are using and try to implement them. Automation
Ask yourself these questions!
What puts you on the map?
What are you offering that is different from what is being offered in the market?
Once you figure out your business’s unique selling point, you can improve, innovate and sell better.
Innovation should not be limited to the service. It should extend to company operations as well. Smooth operations will increase productivity by saving time and resources which the RepairDesk repair management software can help with. The software also helps discover trends that can be used to make future decisions regarding business development.
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Another way to grow your business is by adding in-demand services like micro-soldering. If your technicians are not familiar with micro-soldering, train them or look for an expert to outsource it. If you are focusing on repairs only, sell devices and accessories too. You must train your employees to upsell and cross-sell to increase revenue.
Believe in the Power of Social Media
A lot of people use social media for marketing but not many do it right. It needs a lot of testing before you crack the code and penetrate into your intended market. However, once you hit the sweet spot, social media marketing is cost-effective and brings in results fast.
Test which social media platform works best for your cell repair shop. Put up posts on all platforms and monitor the traffic each brings to your business. One month is a long enough period to get a fair idea of which platform is bringing in the most traffic. Choose the best three out of the lot and stick to them. This will help you reach more relevant people, which will bring in more business.
Moreover, social media campaigns are trackable. This means you can determine the success or failure of a campaign and as a result, get an insight into what your audience is looking for.
If you are not familiar with the specific metrics, take up an online course and learn about them. This will help you create better campaigns and bring in more traffic to your page or website.
Offer Deals
It might sound like you are losing money if you are constantly offering deals or giveaways. However, it usually has the opposite effect.
You are enticing people to visit your cell repair shop and then upselling or cross-selling.
In fact, the owner of YCD Electronics, Andrew Mourer says that they have a 60-day rule at their shop. If a device doesn’t sell for 60 days, they put a discount on it.
“We typically have a rule of thumb. Anything that sits on the shelf for more than 60 days without selling through, we mark it down and it goes on sale. The idea is that every spot on the floor is valuable and we should always have something there that [customers] are more interested in and are gonna buy.”
Collaborate and Create Partnerships
Another great way to increase sales is by creating partnerships and collaborating with organizations.
Find businesses that target the same audience as you but aren’t competitors. Make sure their service doesn’t clash with yours. You can collaborate with them and do cross-promotions.
For instance, create partnerships with hospitals, government organizations, schools, private companies, etc. to generate a reliable source of revenue.
You can collaborate with an influencer/Youtuber in your area and get your repair shop promoted. You can also partner up with charities that will not only help you with brand-building but also add value to your community and promote your business.
Repair business can be challenging but if you equip yourself with the right skills, you can make it work. It doesn’t matter how your business is doing right now; you can still turn your fortunes around.
