Hey Everybody in Portland Computer Repair Land,

Recently we have been experimenting with new in shop pricing. Previously we completed all work at an hourly rate, $75/hr, but the last few weeks we have tried doing fixed price service for some of our most common jobs.

Take virus removals for example, these are now done at a flat rate of $150, because in the past the vast majority took 2 hours, and cost $150.

However, by switching to a flat rate, even though we make the same amount of money, we achieve two things that matter to me a great deal -

1) Reduce customer stress – by telling customers a fixed price before we begin, people call less to ask how we’re doing, and if we’re going to make it within 2 hours. This saves the staff a lot of stress, because we’re always paranoid about every billable second, and the customer a lot of stress, because they know what their cost will be.

2) Increase the sense of community – maybe it sounds silly, but I do my best to foster a sense of community around our little computer repair shop. As any of you who have been customers recently know, when you leave we ask you to put in a pin in the map for where you are from in Portland. We also have our (very small) lending library that people take books out from now and again.

I understand that a computer repair shop is not a watering hole, or a coffee house, but I still do feel like we are a part of the community and I want the community to feel like we are a part of it.

Now that relates to the cost issue because flat rate pricing spreads the risk and reward amongst all of our customers. Sometimes, virus removals only take an hour, but in the new system, those people pay $150. By that same token, sometimes virus removals take 4 hours, and those people also pay $150. In a flat rate system, everybody is helping out everybody else, and we as a community can keep the pricing consistent.

Thanks everybody,

-Zac

This entry was posted on Friday, March 5th, 2010 at 12:22 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.