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Top 4 Pain Points of Wireless Repair
The wireless repair industry often still looks like the Wild Wild West. Like in the West, there are new trails to be blazed and outlaws to be stopped. These outlaws don’t stop us from being excited about the future of the wireless new frontier, through repair. To keep your repair business moving down the trail, we wrangled some solutions to the Top 4 Pain Points in Wireless Repair.Common Cell Phone Repair Business Problems and Their Solutions: Top 4 Pain Points of Wireless Repair
[su_heading size="16"]Inventory Management [/su_heading]The problem:
The toughest part of inventory management is balancing the supply and demand. Stocking too many phone parts can lead to depreciation of the parts before you can use them and, ultimately, profit loss. Not stocking enough cell phone and tablet parts can also lose customers to better-stocked competitors. Ordering wireless parts as needed sounds like a great idea until you factor in all of the money spent on shipping and the risk during part shortages. Stock balancing is tough, but there is a solution.The solution:
- Track your parts usage per month. Set a predictable and repeating time for counting.
- Take note of which repairs are most popular, and thus which parts you keep needing, preferably in a sharable document for your employees to contribute to. Things may look different on paper than they do in your mind.
- Return defective products as needed, and record them too! It helps to have a partner with an easy return process and quality parts.
- Another option besides manual recording and tracking is software. Some all-in-one solutions are out there to handle everything from leads and ticketing to POS and inventory management. There is also inventory management specific software if you prefer. The benefit to all-in-one software systems is the ability to track and manage repairs throughout the entire process and help you plan for the future of your wireless repair business.
The problem:
Being in a race to the bottom of pricing is a bad place to find yourself. There are wireless repair shops out there that base pricing on competition or Apple. The place we see the greatest problems with this is in oversaturated markets. The problem is when cell phone repair businesses try to be both the best and the cheapest. Your pricing should reflect your services, not your competition.The solution:
- Think hard about the value of your services. Take labor into account, convenience, speed, warranty, and other factors that are already making your stand out from the competition. Factor in your rent and cost of goods sold to make sure your plan is sustainable long-term.
- Earn the trust of your customers, then keep it. Your technical skill and the durability of your repair should reflect that you take the time to do the repair the right way the first time.
- Your customers value the content that is on their device. Have respect for it. Don’t wind up in the news. Your reputation is at stake.
- Connect with the community. Show that you care and build some relationships. Honesty and transparency are important in our industry. Be an ambassador to wireless repair.
The problem:
There are several common misconceptions about electronic repair out there. Part of your role within the wireless repair community is to serve as an ambassador of sorts and educate your customers about the electronic repair industry. Though there is more information out there now than before about contacts and subsidies, you may still find yourself explaining to a customer that their precious device is worth much more than $199. Customers who understand the value of their devices and have a great customer experience are much more motivated to choose repair AND your cell phone repair shop. This is easier said than done, but there are plenty of real electronic repair shop owners who do it every day!The solution:
- Answer questions before they are asked. Anticipating customers’ needs is important in-store, on your website, and using social media. Use these platforms to inform your community and address common misconceptions.
- Don’t forget to ask questions too! Feedback is important. Surveys, informal polls on social media, or even a referral program can show you how customers REALLY feel about your device repair business. All of these are also a great opportunity for customers to spread the word about your business, which means MORE CUSTOMERS for you! Make sure to appreciate feedback and approach it as room to grow. If you hear a complaint, consider the benefits to your cell phone and tablet repair business if you resolved it.
- Use your walls for education! All it takes is a few posters to show information in a new way to your customers. What are common questions you get? Create visual aids to help answer those questions.
The problem:
We hear time and time again that hiring technicians is the #1 problem in the wireless repair industry. As tablet repair and cell phone repair shop owners across the nation continue to search for reliable hires the demand also keeps rising. Industry awareness is one roadblock to the hiring process, but so is the correct wireless repair training. It costs money to send a technician to cellphone repair training. It costs money to train in house due to time spent not repairing, tools, devices, and parts.The solution:
- Invest in your techs and show them that you want to grow with them!
- Look for someone who has a positive attitude. Wireless repair technicians need to be happy, like people, and LOVE technology. They need a passion for technology and customer service. Technicians need to be teachable and enjoy learning new things as new devices will always be released. You also need to make sure everyone in your phone repair shop is trained to understand everything they need to do their job.
- Great technicians are willing to grow and sacrifice. In order to continue to grow they will need to be open to new techniques and new ideas and technology continues to evolve. Choose technicians that would be excited for your business to grow and excited about the opportunity to grow along with it.
- Organization is key on a tech bench. Look for someone who is patient and organized. A chaotic person will only bring chaos to your shop.
- Humility is another key feature many great technicians have. They admit their mistakes and do their best to make things right for the customer. Find someone with integrity that is dedicated to doing the right thing even when you aren’t looking over their shoulder.