Owning a repair shop can be a rewarding adventure.
Along the way, you’ll enjoy special perks like the sense of accomplishment after transforming an electronic device, a glowing review from a happy customer, and the opportunity to serve your community.
But the best part of being a small business owner is the chance to make a profit.
So, what’s the best money maker for electronics repair shops?
In this blog, we’ll share three ideas to boost your shop’s revenue — plus three bonus tips for making more money as a repair shop owner.
3 Creative Money Makers for Electronics Repair Shops
While standard repair services like screen replacements will make up the majority of your business, you can set your shop apart from the competition and rake in more revenue by expanding your offerings.
Here are three unique services and products to inspire you.
1. Sell Ongoing Protection Plans
Selling protection plans is one of the easiest ways to make more money as a repair shop owner. Customers who purchase a protection plan can rely on your shop to provide ongoing repair and maintenance services at a steep discount or at no additional cost.
This upselling opportunity is a win-win for you and your clients. They’ll have peace of mind, confident that their devices are protected, and you’ll enjoy a steady stream of guaranteed business.
How To Do It
First, you need to outline the terms and conditions of your protection plan. Will you charge an upfront annual fee or charge customers monthly? How much will you charge? What types of services are covered under the plan? Will your protection plan guarantee free repairs or just a discount?
Once you’ve answered these questions, you can start marketing and selling protection plans. To track which customers have purchased a plan, use your repair shop point of sale (POS) system’s customer relationship management (CRM) tool.
Make sure each customer has a complete profile in your system, and add detailed notes about their protection plan coverage. That way, when they stop by for a repair or tune-up, you can check their account to ensure they receive their discount or free service.
2. Buy, Repair, and Resell Electronic Devices
Another money-making strategy for electronic repair shops is flipping used electronic devices.
Occasionally, a customer will come into your shop and decide to purchase a new device rather than repair their old one.
This situation presents a profitable opportunity for your store: You can purchase the used device at a rock-bottom cost, repair it yourself, and then resell it as a refurbished but completely functional electronic device.
How To Do It
Since you’re already an expert in restoring electronic devices to excellent condition, all you need is a system to manage the used purchasing and reselling process.
We recommend investing in a POS system with used and resale inventory features. This tool makes buying used devices, tracking your used inventory by IMEI or serial number, and reselling them easy.
3. Offer Electronics Accessories
Our final money-making tip is to become a one-stop shop for everything electronics by offering popular accessories alongside your repair services.
Let’s imagine that a customer stops by for a standard screen replacement. After you’ve installed a shiny new screen, you recommend they invest in a sturdy case and tempered glass screen protector to avoid future damage.
Instead of sending them to another nearby electronics shop, you can lead them to your sales floor to help them pick out the right case and screen protector — boosting your profits and customer satisfaction.
How To Do It
Managing a retail and repair operation is easy if you have the right tools.
Look for an electronics repair shop POS system that can:
- Process transactions for repair services and retail sales
- Monitor inventory for repair parts and retail items like cases and chargers
- Track sales history to reveal which products your customers prefer
A powerful POS system makes bringing in extra money from retail effortless.
3 Bonus Tips for Electronics Repair Shop Profitability
Offering the right products and services is half the battle when running a successful repair shop — but it’s not the only factor. Here are three more ways to boost customer satisfaction and profitability.
1. Shorten Repair Turnaround Times
If you’re constantly bogged down with repair tickets, it’s nearly impossible to grow your repair business.
Our number one tip to make more money is to shorten repair turnaround times. The quicker you and your team tackle repairs, the more jobs you can take on.
Repair ticket management software is your best bet for simplifying and speeding up your day-to-day operations. This powerful tool manages the device intake process, generates quotes, lets you assign repairs to technicians, and gives you a real-time overview of every repair in your shop and its status.
We recommend looking for one that notifies your customers when their devices are ready for pickup to eliminate another time-consuming manual step in the repair process.
Pro tip: Instead of switching between two separate systems to process sales transactions and manage repair tickets, invest in an all-in-one system that can handle all of your repair shop’s operations.
2. Spruce Up Your Marketing Strategy
Marketing is an often overlooked money maker for electronics repair shops. Even if you have great profit margins on your products and repair services, you won’t bring in nearly enough revenue if you don’t have enough customers flowing through your door.
There are two key parts of a successful marketing plan: attracting customers and retaining them.
Here are a few quick tips to attract customers to your repair shop:
- Become an SEO pro by claiming your Google Business profile and setting up a simple website for your business
- Offer an enticing promotion for new customers
- Post engaging social media content like maintenance tips or before and after photos of impressive repairs
Once a customer walks through your door, you have a new goal: keep them coming back. Here’s how to do it:
- Ensure high-quality customer service by training your staff and relying on a fast, modern POS and ticket management system
- Launch a loyalty program to give customers a reason to choose your shop over the competition
- Offer regular promotions on accessories or maintenance services to encourage shoppers to stop by
Connecting with new and familiar customers will build your shop’s reputation and lead to more sales over time.
3. Use Your Sales Reports
You can’t improve what you can’t measure — which is why your sales reports are critical if you want to make more money as a repair shop owner.
Your POS system’s sales reports reveal which types of repairs customers most commonly request, which accessories they buy most frequently, and which repair parts and products simply gather dust on your shelves.
With this data, you can tailor your service offerings, inventory, and even marketing strategy to align with your customers’ habits and preferences.
Make More Money With CellSmart POS
Ready to make more money as a repair shop owner? Then you need a powerful repair shop POS system to help you put these tips and ideas into action.
CellSmart POS has everything you need to shorten repair turnaround times, manage inventory, process transactions, learn about your customers, and launch marketing strategies like promotions and a loyalty program.
See CellSmart POS in action by scheduling your personalized demo today.