Running a power tool repair store is no small feat. You are responsible for managing repair tickets, bills, invoices, and inventory, as well as overseeing your employees, among other tasks.
Your business needs to be sharp, reliable, and efficient.
However, many shop owners notice a decline in sales despite their best efforts. The question is why?
The answer probably lies in one of the three reasons
- Using outdated processes
- Mismanagement
- Missed opportunities due to being occupied with other things
So, if your store relies on a pen-and-paper system or outdated tools, it is very likely that you are losing customers and giving your competitors a chance to take your market share.
But don’t worry yet. This problem can be solved. How? The answer is to employ a power tools software.
Not only will it automate almost every process in your store, but it will also enable you to think more strategically about your business.
Let’s delve deeper into why this problem arises.
- Outdated Records
With manual handling of repair tickets, errors are inevitable. They cause frustration for both you and the customer. Manual tickets lead to
- Lost tickets
- Multiple false entries
- Missed deadlines
- Confusion over the nature of the job and eventually billing
Over 50% of loyal customers tend to leave a company for a competitor if your company is unable to satisfy their needs. That’s such a sloppy road, so you have to be careful!
- Mismanaged Inventory
One of the biggest problems with manual management is the fact that you’ll never know how many wrenches, drills, or saws you have. Not to mention how many cords or batteries you are left with.
Do you know what this causes?
Stockouts, and that too at random times. Imagine the embarrassment in front of the customer just because you ran out of screws. Yikes!
- Bad Customer Communication
Since you don’t get to have an automated system, in manual systems, there will be more instances when a customer calls to ask. “Hey, what’s the status of my repair?” and you’ll have to reply with the classic “Please hold (for eternity). I’ll look into the files.” The customers will not only hold on the call, but they will also hold those same grudges with you for a long time.
- Longer Check-out Times
Outdated billing and invoicing software literally frustrates both customers and employees. It takes too long to generate, and if you are doing it by hand, your customers will definitely question your handwriting skills!
Digital billing through software saves time, reduces errors, and makes the process easy for both customers and employees. A win-win!
- Lack of Business Analytics
Forget that you’ll ever have an up-to-date report of what parts are generating the most revenue, which employee is working the best, and how often you spend money on restocking.
Without informed insights, you can’t
- Make strategic decisions about your repair store
- Keep an eye out for sales
- Optimize your technician workload
- Look into profitable opportunities.
- No Online Presence
It is a digital world. Today, customers thoroughly search for you online and on digital platforms before making a choice. If your repair store isn’t visible online, you’ll fail to attract clients, which will result in a drop in sales.
How Power Tools Software Turns the Boat in the Right Direction?
A reliable power tools software will offer robust features and maximize your efficiency.
Automated Repair Ticket Management
From the moment a customer comes into your repair store to get their drill fixed to when they leave the store with a fixed one, you can track everything from the repair ticket.
The software allows you to be in charge of keeping track of everything from technicians to billing and sales.
Real-time Inventory
You’ll know all the time which item is in stock and which is just damaging your sales.
Light-Speed Billing
You can easily check out the customer in a matter of a few minutes using the software’s billing and invoicing feature. It will automatically create an estimate from the ticket, which will make your life 10x easier.
Customer History
You’ll have a record of every customer that ever steps in your power tools repair store. You can easily use that to create loyal customers and guaranteed sales.
Data and Insights
Accurate reports on every sale, inventory, ticket, and employee will enable you to develop a strategy that is guaranteed to increase your sales.
Immediate Actionable Steps for Change in Sales
Here’s what you should do to improve your sales instantly.
- Identify where errors are occurring the most in your repair stores. Do the audit.
- Bid farewell to manual repair tickets and billing.
- Use software to automate customer communication through SMS or email.
- Rely more on reports
- Encourage your customers to give a review. You can use a marketing automation tool to ease your load.
Final Thoughts
Sales don’t suddenly drop overnight. There is always a pattern that leads to their decline. The best way to recover from it is to identify what the pain area is and use solutions such as power tools software to automate the processes of repair tickets, inventory, and billing for you. It will reduce the maximum loopholes that may be causing your decline in sales.