Featured Repair Shop: iPhoneCare, Switzerland

Featured Repair Shop: iPhoneCare, Switzerland

Simon Czendlik informally started iPhoneCare in 2008 when fixing iPhones for friends and family as a hobby.  Soon it was obvious that there was a huge demand for this service, so he started offering his services over the internet. In 2009, Simeon Frei joined Simon Czendlik and greatly helped improve their corporate identity.  They established iPhoneCare, a now well-known brand-name throughout Switzerland.  It was clear from the beginning that the company would solely be based and promoted online without having an actual storefront.  Due to their rapid growth Simon and Simeon were able to expand from two locations to a third location in 2010 and four more in 2011. Several new locations are planned in cities all over Switzerland especially the French and Italian speaking parts of the country. Today, iPhoneCare is a major iPhone Reparatur Schweiz (iPhone Repair Shop) of mobile iDevices, located in 7 cities spread all over Switzerland.  At this time iPhoneCare fixes approximately 90 cellphones a day. Q: What really helped your business take off and what are some keys to your success? A:  When we started our company there were several competitors offering repair services in Switzerland.  Most had storefronts which meant a hefty up-front investment, high fixed costs and paying several employees to take care of the facility.  Since our service is solely based online and we are running our branches with a franchising contract, our franchisees are free in regards to how and where they do their repairs.  They have very low up-front investment and fixed costs.  Most of the franchisees offer their services from home, a small office or go to their  customers.  Because of these low operating costs iPhoneCare is able to offer extraordinary low prices and maintain a high quality standard.  No competitor is able to keep up with our daily low prices. What also makes us unique is that quality is a crucial key and philosophy of our company.  Simply doing the job is not good enough, and using poor quality repair parts  is out of the question.  iPhonecare is now known to offer some of the best quality in iDevices repairs available on the Swiss market.  Because our customers know that quality is such a high value for us, many customers have turned to us, due to their dissatisfaction with services offered by other companies.  Since the beginning many customers keep telling us that we have the best price - performance ratio available on the market.  Our reputation for high quality parts and repairs has generated new business, and in the past two years companies have sought our services.  We are now reliable partners for major businesses, civic administrations and schools that are using iDevices. A big milestone for us was finding eTech Parts a while back when we were facing big difficulties with poor quality parts which we directly bought from China.  We wasted many hours of our time and the time of our valued customers using inadequate quality parts.  Besides that the unreliability and constant changes in prices and lack of capable contact persons made it immensely difficult to keep the business going.  Just by coincidence we found eTech Parts and have been greatly satisfied with their support.  The quality of the products we buy is very satisfying and returns are made very easy and uncomplicated for us.  Because eTech Parts seems to have the same philosophy as we do, business is going good.  We are able to meet our customers expectations because we can rely on our supplying partner. Q: What advice for success would you give others? A:  The quality of a service offered speaks more than the best marketing.  If you offer good quality you will be successful, especially if it is consistent.  Also the proper handling of complaints is very important.  It is crucial for the success of a business to value the customer in a proper way, leading to more customers. The lower the price the more customers you get.  From our experience, having the lowest prices leads to a big part of our customer sticking to us.  In order to offer low prices and still have high margins you need to save money where it makes sense.  To us it makes no sense whatsoever to waste money on a fancy storefront.   A customer does not need to have a fancy storefront to wait in, while his or her cellphone is being repaired.  Although we want our franchisee to have a decent office or workplace where the customer can wait, we do not need a downtown location blowing up costs.  (In Europe prime locations are often found downtown). The right marketing is key to the right turnover.  Having the right marketing instruments is essential.  We are using a mix of online promotions, spreading business cards and promotional flyers at events where people who are present are known to use iDevices.  Also it has been a success to offer repairs at events with a small stand such as concerts, shopping malls and open air festivals. This sort of guerrilla marketing has proven to be greatly successful leading to increase sales. Q: What are some do's and don'ts? A:  There are several. Never try to save money by buying poor quality parts. The customer is always right.  Following this policy has proven to be a great success, even leading to further customers by word of mouth advertising from customers who complained and were happy with our handling of the situation. Never make promises you cannot keep.  Nothing is worse than promising a customer something that cannot be done. Have a clear vision of where you want to be in the future and have a clear strategy on how to get there.  You must follow trends and have a feel for the future development in the iDevice community.  You need to adapt and adjust your offers to the developing needs of your customers (e.g. home repairs, pick-up services, expanding of repair offers to new devices or brands, mail solutions for repairs, and more).  For example we also offer repairs for Samsung devices with our Samsung Repair Center or our hot Mac Ram SSD upgrade offered on our Apple computer site. Cheers from Switzerland! Simon and Simeon iPhoneCare .................................... eTech Parts sells parts to over 1,500 repair shops and tens of thousands of retail customers across the world.  Want to be a featured repair shop?  Please email pictures with a small intro and answer the same questions listed here (or create your own questions if you prefer).  This featured repair shop interview is aimed to promote our partner repair shops and help create a sense of community in the iDevice repair world.