Virus removals...how-to maximize

[axiomcrs2]

Hello,
I am wondering that we can and should receive more virus removals that come into our shop. How can a shop determine if it is getting the most business it can from this type of service? Do other shops actively try to maximize the number of virus removals that come into their business, or do they just let it happen? If there is some sort of effort to maximize this type of business, how do you determine if you have done that? Can a shop look at its local population that would be possibly using your services and say that their business should be receiving X number of virus removals per week? Can a shop look at some sort of Google search term study to figure that out? We feel that virus removal is a very serious service and should be done over several days in the shop. It looks like the general population is willing to let other businesses/shops do it remotely in a quick manner. This to us opens up the customer and the shop to some serious shortcomings/security holes. Also, these other services are competing for the same dollars, but not providing the same level of service. How do other shops approach this? Do you say well the customer is getting what they want even though it isn't sufficient?

 

[Kitten Kong]

I just let virus removals enter the workshop. I don't chase them what so ever. Have no need to. The vast majority of viruses are in fact spyware/adware related in any case.

I fail to see how your claim of removals should be done over a few days. With the right tools, and knowledge, you should be able to remove any infections within a day easily. This is both doing removals manually, finishing off with a scan or 2, or just doing scans.

I guarantee that when a pc leaves my workshop, it is cleansed of any infection(s), tuned up, all security holes patched (flash, java et al), and all windows updates completed as of the day it leaves the store. If by some reason I have missed something, I will certainly remove it free of charge. (This has happened less than 5 times in 10 years of trading).

To be honest, I would tone down your post a little, as it reads to me, that your claiming we are not doing our jobs correctly, if we don't take several days to ensure its clean. What I do, is perfectly sufficient for my clients.

There is no need to reload a machine each time there is a virus on a machine. (I know of some 'techs' and I'm using this term very loosely - Not TN members I have to add), who do just this.

This to me, is totally unfair on the client. Nuking a machine is a last ditch effort.

 

[axiomcrs2]

I dont't want to start some kind disagreement with anybody's virus removal procedure. I just wanted to say that this is one of the competitors. There are different schools of thought about this topic in the method and tools chosen. Also, I do realize that most virus removals are spyware/malware cleanups these days. Do other shops offer this service remotely? If we have a population of say 100k in our area, about how many virus removals should our shop expect? Can other shops offer their rough population number and average weekly virus removal checkins/remotes and whether they actively try to increase the traffic coming into the shop as it relates to this service?

 

[mraikes]

...snipped.... Can a shop look at its local population that would be possibly using your services and say that their business should be receiving X number of virus removals per week? ...snipped..... We feel that virus removal is a very serious service and should be done over several days in the shop. .....snipped...

Yup, virus removal is serious, but you're seriously mistaken if you think it routinely takes several days. Even if you follow a no-nukes policy like many of us, it shouldn't take much more than a day. On occasion you run into a B*tch that kicks your @ss. But that's the exception rather than the rule.

Nevertheless, you ask an interesting question that requires a way to know how many computers in a given geographical area are infected in a given week or perhaps month. I don't know of any way to do that with real accuracy, but perhaps we could rough something up.

McAfee has a site that reports the # of computers infected in North America (that have McAfee of course). Perhaps we can ballpark with that info. http://home.mcafee.com/virusinfo/regional

If we take their top 20 infections, assume no overlap (wrong of course, but we're just playing here), about 5.4% of the 850,000+ computers reported a virus in the last 7 days. Let's assume a double up on infections, since we rarely see just one. So let's say 2.7% to account for that.

If we're willing to apply that 2.7% to computers in general, regardless of the A/V installed, then . . . . Here where I live the population is about 92,000 (not counting WAY more people that live nearby.) Say, 4 people per home, maybe 1.25 computers per home (laptops & desktops), gives me . . . 28,250 computers. 2.7% infected . . . . that's 762 infected computers last week in just my modest sized community. Installed A/V would have handled a bunch of them without needing to call me. Techy users might deal with a bunch more themselves and untechy users just ignore the problem. So let's reduce that by 75% shall we?

That leaves me with 190 potential customers in my community last week for virus removals alone.

Given my own business and that of my independent competitors (as far as I can tell) + number of clueless beings I always see standing at the Geek Squad and Staples counters, that may be a reasonable number. At least it's fun to think through.

EDIT: I suspect asking how many removals other shops do compared to their population wouldn't really be any more accurate than what I've ballparked above. SO many differences between shops (size, time in business, location, advertising, specialty niches, etc). Shoot, it's hard enough to compare pricing or anything else around here, much less an even less tangible thing like "Are you getting your share of virus removals?"

 

[Kitten Kong]

I'm not going to go into numbers on a public forum here, but to answer your questions quickly.

Yes, both shops, workshops, and we even have some members who do nothing but remote work (virus removals, spyware/malware tune ups etc). There is even a member who looks after other techs work remotely. So this business model is entirely possible.

Rough guestimation (depending on how many and how good your competition is), is 10%. This is my figure, of my local population. As to how many virus removals, so many factors on this.

What av are they currently running.
Is it up to date.
Do they actually have one.
Surfing habits.

It is impossible to say how many you would be getting. You will more than likely be getting more tune ups / malware removals compared to viruses.

Search the forum, the vast majority of answers are there already

 

[gadgetfixup]

If virus and malware removals took our shop even a day to complete, we'd be out of business quick. When you know what you're doing and have good experience you develop a routine and depending on the size of the drive and seriousness of the infection (most aren't serious) you should be able to clean a computer in under 2 hours. Granted you run into those odd-balls that might take you to task for a day (or 3) but that time isn't wasted, you'll learn during that time of better methods and procedures to clean and clear infections in the future.

If computer clean-outs are taking you a day or more you can't bill a customer correctly for that length of time and you'll be out of business quick. Once your clean-out rate goes over 2 hours labor cost you'll have customers complaining or declining repairs. To make it in the break/fix business you have to know your stuff when it comes to infections, identifying quickly what you're up against and the best course of action for you and your customer.

 

[glennd]

you should be able to clean a computer in under 2 hours

That's been my experience and in theory I can have four lined up on the bench all being worked on at once.

 

[gadgetfixup]

Yeah you have to multi-task and we have a tech on vacation so I'm killing time with 3 remotes open from home cleaning 3 systems at the shop so they don't get too far behind

Well that and I need the practice

 

[cypress]

I do virus removals remotely, In shop, or On site. I prefer to do In Shop always because I can work on multiple computers if needed, but I generally knock it down in 2 hours or less. After years and years you get an idea of what you are looking at like previously stated. Most of the stuff is junkware with toolbars. Within the first 20 mins I've already uninstalled crap from the Add/Remove and ran JRT to get the most common stuff out the of way. While I am doing that I am knocking out Start up programs and checking to see what Windows Updates are needed. I like to be extremely thorough with my work and I stand behind everything I do. If you do the same you shouldn't have any problems with clients be satisfied.

Lately this has been 75% of the work I do, with the occasional new PC or printer setup. Once in awhile I will do Diagnostics.

 

[Krilus]

I've kinda skimmed though this post to make a point so forgive me if its already been disccussed.

1) no matter what your population is, its impossible to guess how many virus removals you can expect.
- Whats your local reputation?
- Whats your marketing strategy (if any)
- Are you getting referrals from past clients (reputation again)
- I'm sure between the TN community we could list a 100 factors influencing this

2) If it takes you a week to do a virus removal on a customers computer, how many return customers will you have and what do you think that turn around is going to do for your business?

 

[axiomcrs2]

I don't want to get into a disagreement about how long it should take. I know for a fact that many shops do it the same way as ours. Let's just leave at the fact that there are multiple ways to do this task. Perhaps I'll start another thread where we can share our thoughts and methods for virus removals. Also, I know that this topic comes up periodically in the TN forum. As for keeping our customers happy, we know that everyone that uses our services are more than pleased. We try our best to monitor our shop's reputation and we are sure it is good. Thanks for the thoughts about a statistics-style approach to this question and using McAfee data. I will look at it from that angle, but I was thinking of coming at this from the other side. I would think that based on a shop's location and population density you would expect a certain amount of shop business. It seems that from what I can tell that shop's that are located in large metropolitan areas receive plenty of residential traffic, but what I can't tell is what shops that are in smaller towns are doing for residential business. There is probably some sort of rough number to expect, but I guess this type of metric is not what shops often share. I know that competition will factor into the equation, but what if the shop is the only choice in town and surrounding towns? Also, if the shop owner notices that virus removals coming into the shop are below the shop's average, do you try to increase some form of advertising, or some other method? Or do you just say well we are going thru a slow period?

 

[Rayspcsolutions]

I don't want to get into a disagreement about how long it should take.

I would leave a topic out of your post that you are not ready to defend when you get push back from reputable techs here on the forum because they can and do disinfect a computer in a couple hours versus several days, Several days!?!? virus removal should never take several days with the odd exceptions that has already been mentioned.

I know for a fact that many shops do it the same way as ours.

Really? which shops? where?

 

[altrenda]

I envy you being in a situation where you are the only game in town, where there are no hobbyists or teenagers that remove malware for friends and family for free or for a pizza and beer. Or see this on tv http://www.mycleanpc.com or hear Malwarebytes ads on NPR, or do this http://lmgtfy.com/?q=virus+removal .Then there are those that just learn to live with pop ups and slow machines.

To get what you're after, you have to know how many Windows machines are in you target area, determine what percentage have malware at any one time, subtract those users listed above, and then determine how to reach the rest of them with advertising and word of mouth.

When you do all that and are successful with it, it's time to get out of the low margin computer repair business and get into market research and SEO where the real money is.

 

[Krynn72]

I'll chime in here and say that we also give an estimate of 2-3 days for virus removal turn around. In reality, i'd guess 50-60% get done for the next day, but some certainly do take us longer. The thing is, we have 1 full time employee working at each store, sometimes working alone, but usually with 1 part timer. We can get between 2-7 virus removals per day (today I think we had 4, on monday we had 5). We are also getting DC Jacks repairs, keyboard replacements, hinge repairs, iPhones, iPads, cracked laptop LCDs, hdd replacements, TVs, and lord knows what else. At my store this is all getting done by one full time guy (me) and 2 part timers who are each here different days of the week. Yeah... virus removals ain't getting done same day. The only service we offer same day is iphone repairs, which is 1hr turn around and we drop everything else to do it.

I can only recall one single person, probably this whole year so far, who said no to a V/R due to it taking a couple days. We serve almost exclusively residential customers, and some very, very small business customers, so nobody really needs their computer up and going THAT quickly. Unlike phones...

But to get back on-topic. Like I said, we can get anywhere from 2 - 7 on a day and it would be "normal" for us. Sometimes there's a drought with nothing for a couple days, sometimes we get slammed with more than that even. But that seems like the typical range we expect. We service an area of around 160k population, but have been at this location for 5ish years I think, and have been generating some great word of mouth advertising. We have some TV commercials on local channels but are thinking of dropping it. Not much on adwords, in fact for some reason we didn't even show up on Google until this year when you searched our name lol. But people love us and tell their friends and coworkers (I know this because it seems every day people mention that they got referred to us by multiple people they know). Other than the commercial which briefly mentions viruses, we do not specifically advertise it as a service. I think literally everyone will know that a standard "computer repair" shop will do virus removal.

 

[Krilus]

That's kinda what I am getting at here, if your normal turn around time is 3-4 days before you even get to a machine on your bench and you add 7 days to that then you are looking at about two weeks before the customer gets their computer back. If you are in a market that will support that then great, not all places will though and that two week turn around = customer lost to competition.

But to get back on-topic. Like I said, we can get anywhere from 2 - 7 on a day and it would be "normal" for us. Sometimes there's a drought with nothing for a couple days, sometimes we get slammed with more than that even. But that seems like the typical range we expect. We service an area of around 160k population, but have been at this location for 5ish years I think, and have been generating some great word of mouth advertising. We have some TV commercials on local channels but are thinking of dropping it. Not much on adwords, in fact for some reason we didn't even show up on Google until this year when you searched our name lol. But people love us and tell their friends and coworkers (I know this because it seems every day people mention that they got referred to us by multiple people they know). Other than the commercial which briefly mentions viruses, we do not specifically advertise it as a service. I think literally everyone will know that a standard "computer repair" shop will do virus removal.

 

[mraikes]

I'll chime in here and say that we also give an estimate of 2-3 days for virus removal turn around. In reality, i'd guess 50-60% get done for the next day, but some certainly do take us longer. The thing is, we have 1 full time employee working at each store, sometimes working alone, but usually with 1 part timer..... snipped....

You make a good point. However saying you're so busy that a one day turnaround isn't possible (LOTS of work but only 1-1.5 workers) isn't quite the same as the OP stating a virus removal "should be done over several days" or you risk "serious shortcomings and security holes".

 

[HFultzjr]

Working on multiple computers at the same time is key to maximizing your profits in Virus Removals/Tune-ups. Doing 1 at a time, I find at lot of time "waiting". Give me 3-4 a day and I'm a happy camper. A good tech should be able to do 3-4 (or more) per day. Multiple techs....3-4 x # of techs. This would include checking, updates, and an anti-virus up-sell and with maybe a backup procedure for a few. That's why I tell customers I do virus removals in shop, unless it's real easy one. Most couldn't afford my hourly rate doing 1 computer on-site. Of course you will run into the occasional one that makes you pull your hair out, but you will also come across some "easy ones". I don't offer remote removal, as 99% of the infected computers I see are usually after they are so bad, they will barely run! They don't come in until the customer has no other options. Amazing how long some put up with poor performance for such a long time.

 

[Porthos]

I don't offer remote removal, as 99% of the infected computers I see are usually after they are so bad, they will barely run! They don't come in until the customer has no other options. Amazing how long some put up with poor performance for such a long time.

AMEN brother.

Or there cheap sub $300 slugs.

 

[mr m]

Hello,
I am wondering that we can and should receive more virus removals that come into our shop.

I'm a mobile break/fix guy and would guess half of my calls are malware removals. I would think the way to increase malware jobs is to target with advertising, (usually a waste of money for me) or get so good at it that word of mouth makes you da man. I also ensure that my clients understand virus removal vs N&P by explaining that there programs, data, shortcuts, wireless settings, printers, icon positions, whatever, will be like it was before the intrusion unlike a big box store who puts it back to day 1.

I only remote in on working systems to do simple tasks. Like HFultzjr and Porthos said, by the time I get them they run like crap and I'm much better at troubleshooting when I can see, hear, smell and feel a PC.

I wish I could do a 2 hour removal. It's takes me at least a day so all malware jobs are brought back to my bench. I'm an old hardware guy so I always make sure the hardware is OK before wasting time removing the nasties. I changed my methodology and now start with an off line virus scan that can take 1-2+ hours on the average slowpoke consumer PC. Every now and then I get a homebuilt screamer but that is the rare exception. Then I run all the tools you guys do and manually poke around the registry, shortcuts etc. Most of the day I'm mowing the lawn, dancing on my drums or like today, will be replacing the steps to my deck while running the scans. I can't say how much finger to keyboard time it actually takes.

I've had one N&P due to viruses all year but I'd bet that they had issues before the malware bit them. Some clients call at every little thing but most seem to wait until the PC is unusable.

Off topic but I just had a new customer call because they couldn't print their emails. I get there and it took what seemed like 10 minutes just to open the email! She was fine with that and declined my malware removal service so I declined to fix her printer. Maybe she called one of YOU guys!

 

[axiomcrs2]

Perhaps we are in agreement. Actual tech working at a computer time versus how long the customer is without their computer. Sometimes it can take 2 hours just to clean up the malware in Add/Remove programs if it is bad. Also, working on multiple computers at once can affect the turnaround time. We are in a small town, pop. 11K, with the surrounding towns equaling approx. 19K from 2 towns where there isn't a computer shop and about 18K from parts of other towns where I feel that we have seen customers from. I would love to be in the range of 2-7 virus removals every day. It just seems that our shop could average a higher daily rate of virus removals thru some sort of concerted effort. I hate to do nothing and just be at the mercy of whatever happens. Thanks for your numbers Krynn72.