Repair: On-Site vs Workbench
When working on your customer's computer, should you perform on-site repair, or take it back to your workbench to perform the work?
Some considerations:
- Estimated Repair Time
- Trust and Your Customer's Concern for Privacy
- Parallel Jobs
- The Customer Likes to Look Over Your Shoulder
- Slow Backups
Estimated Repair Time - How far away is your customer? If they live half an hour away from your office, is it worth the trip back to your own workbench for an hour repair? If you feel you might be able to quickly solve the customer's issue on-site, then make it clear to him that you will be glad to take a look, but there are no guarantees. You can provide a quote over the phone for repair regardless of whether the work is done on or off-site. Yes, the burden is now yours if you need to take the computer off-site, but by reducing uncertainty you move the customer toward the sale.
Trust and Your Customer's Concern for Privacy - Does your customer trust you with her computer? She might expect to see some identification, like a driver's license, before leaving you with her PC. Don't let her copy it though - have a prepared statement, e.g., "it is my policy not to let customers copy my driver's license." It helps to hand her a professional looking business card with contact information at that point. If your customer insists that repair is done on-site, you might explain that you'd be happy to do so for X dollars, but that she can save money by letting you take the computer back to your workbench since some of the diagnostics will take a long time.
Parallel Jobs - If you're able to get a few computers on the workbench, all running scans and diagnostics at the same time, then you increase your work throughput and profit, while maintaining availability in case another customer calls in the meantime.
The Customer Likes to Look Over Your Shoulder - Do you feel uncomfortable working while the customer looks over your shoulder? You might have to accept this to some degree, but you can avoid it by explaining that the customer will save money if he permits you to take your computer back to the workbench. Some customers will test you, trying to get extra free work by making various "small requests" as you repair their computer.
Slow Backups - If you are going to back up the entire computer using imaging software before working on it (typically a 5-hour process), then it almost always makes sense to go back to your workbench.
