PC repair business owner. thoughts on subscription repair plans?

[HeyKitty]

So I own a PC repair store and I've been thinking of starting a subscription service for 2 reasons.

1: Gives me a for sure steady income.

2: For those customers with a dozen computers, (or break the same one a dozen times) will be worth it for them.

 

right now I do flat rates like:

$X bench fee

$Y virus removal

$Z OS install

$W data transfer

ect.

 

I was just curious on what I should do for subscription repairs?

 

20% off parts, 50% off services?

or for like $50 a month, you get $100 in store credit. (so I'd be winning for PC tune-ups, but loose if they need a new motherboard)

 

I know geeksquad does the percentage off normal prices... but I am just a small business, so what works for them, might not for me.

 

Just looking for ideas.

[Mug]

As a teenager, I did this. My business plan was essentially to make the most money out of people as possible. I now do it as a favour but only because I have a job now.

I'd simplify your pricing too, I had two flat rates, £50 and £30 depending on how much work I put into it, anything more than an hour or so, I'd charge £50. Complication of pricing means that customers are confused about what to get.

When you say "worth it for them", yeah that's true in their frame of reference but in yours, it puts you into a loss.

[soup]

$50 a month at roughly six months between breakages that's $300, have to have very high end equipment to go to that sort of level just for repairs .

 

You will get a lot of customers who bug you to "clean" their PC every week or so .  I would hazard that it works for best buy as they have every salesperson hassling their customers to take out a warranty (same idea as your subscription service idea) and so they will have the clean every week types along with those who are never (never say never) going to get work done amongst their X thousand customers, unless you are doing the same sort of level of business as them and are prepared to push your service as hard as they push their warranties you WILL make a loss..

 

 

 

[zMeul]

I worked for a business like this

we did monthly checks for virus scans, temp file cleaning, old registry entry cleaning

quarterly hardware inspection and cleaning (dust, insects) and defragmenting

we also offered a number of free emergencies per month, forgot how many

 

the contracts were signed per year

[MisterDeadeye]

Hmm. I think it would probably be more profitable and easier to manage if you did a 3, 6, 12-month subscription rather than a monthly basis. My idea(though I don't know what your current numbers actually are) is this:

 

3-month support plan:

-$X

-They can bring the computer in an unlimited amount of times

-Virus removal/OS install/data transfer can only be done ONCE per 3-month interval, PER computer

-20% off coupon for next purchase, can not be stacked with other coupons of the same nature

 

6-month

-$X*1.8

 

12-month

-$X*2.5

----------

Off the top of my head, other incentives to subscribe for the plan would be:

-Access to a support e-mail address so they can talk to you(or an employee, not sure how big you are) if something goes wrong. You'll probably have them come in for most cases, though there's a level of comfort for consumers knowing they can communicate with someone through e-mail

-Hardware cleaning/inspection(taken from earlier reply which I think is a really good idea)

 

 

As far as cancellation, they'd be refunded, but obviously the refund would be prorated, and there COULD be a cancellation fee if you choose. 

[HeyKitty]

17 minutes ago, MisterDeadeye said:

Hmm. I think it would probably be more profitable and easier to manage if you did a 3, 6, 12-month subscription rather than a monthly basis. My idea(though I don't know what your current numbers actually are) is this:

 

3-month support plan:

-$X

-They can bring the computer in an unlimited amount of times

-Virus removal/OS install/data transfer can only be done ONCE per 3-month interval, PER computer

-20% off coupon for next purchase, can not be stacked with other coupons of the same nature

 

6-month

-$X*1.8

 

12-month

-$X*2.5

----------

Off the top of my head, other incentives to subscribe for the plan would be:

-Access to a support e-mail address so they can talk to you(or an employee, not sure how big you are) if something goes wrong. You'll probably have them come in for most cases, though there's a level of comfort for consumers knowing they can communicate with someone through e-mail

-Hardware cleaning/inspection(taken from earlier reply which I think is a really good idea)

 

 

As far as cancellation, they'd be refunded, but obviously the refund would be prorated, and there COULD be a cancellation fee if you choose. 

I really like the you can get "these services" a certain amount of times within the time period idea. I may mark something up this week and toss the idea back at all of you.

[Dionyz]

I do not think subscription would be a good idea, since they can basically tell family and friends to bring the desktop / laptop to them, so that you will repair it. (If you give minor discounts on repairs then they wouldn't to the subscription.)

 

I would rather go to a warranty after repair. If you say something like ___  dollars a year, and your whole PC repair service is free. (Slap a void if removed sticker, and tell them it's only for that PC)... You can also do a family plan... But do email them once it expires, so that they know they need to refresh their warranty.. 

 

But this is of course after you repair their electronic, since you will increase credibility. 

[handymanshandle]

32 minutes ago, Dionyz said:

I do not think subscription would be a good idea, since they can basically tell family and friends to bring the desktop / laptop to them, so that you will repair it. (If you give minor discounts on repairs then they wouldn't to the subscription.)

 

I would rather go to a warranty after repair. If you say something like ___  dollars a year, and your whole PC repair service is free. (Slap a void if removed sticker, and tell them it's only for that PC)... You can also do a family plan... But do email them once it expires, so that they know they need to refresh their warranty.. 

 

But this is of course after you repair their electronic, since you will increase credibility. 

I'd agree with that. A subscription based service isn't a terrible idea however.

One way OP could prevent abuse of a subscription is on those void if removed stickers put like subscription account info on it (like an account number) and validate if that hardware is part of the warranty/service plan.

 

 

[MimigaKing]

Don't forget to put a note that any damage caused by water/liquids of any kinds will void subscription. Otherwise, i could get very expensive for you. 

 

Also, about your data transfer. Sure, that's okay if the drives are functional. Through you'd better put a note if the drive is unusable/dead/corrupted that you cannot do anything about it. Or if they REALLY want the data to be recovered, charge them extra for the RMA process which usually include data recovery (To my knowledge). Though if the drive is out of warranty, tell them that you cannot guarantee recovery and that it may/will take several weeks for an update and may cost up a LOT of money to get it back. 

 

You have to cover your back on these things. Think of everything

 

I would also personally put a closure that any PC having an OS that isn't supported by microsoft would be 2X the cost (OR MORE). There are too many 10-15 years old PCs with windows XP out there that you couldn't do much. I wouldn't personally give any warranty to or repairs on any of these pcs. If they want these repaired, just tell em instead of repairing, you could get them a better PC, brand new with warranty for cheaper. Then ask them what they can afford and build it.