Making The Most of Progress Bar Time

It happens to all the time to onsite computer technicians. You have to install some software or have to wait for a antivirus scan to finish which can take up to an hour. You have done everything else you could possibly do to the computer while its scanning such as cleaning out any temp folders and disabling unneeded programs in MSConfig. So what can you do during this time?

Anything Else?

Ask them if there is anything else tech related they need help with. If you are good with computers, chances are you are pretty good at figuring out electronics. Perhaps they don’t know how to hook up their new DVD player to the TV? or perhaps you could show them how to use their new digital camera. Whatever you help them with, it adds value to the service you provide and can give you “technology guru” status in their eyes. You may even get some sales out of them which leads me to my next point.

Put Your Sales Hat On

Be careful with this one, you don’t want to want to bring on the sales sleaze and bore the hell out of them. Look around the room, take note of what they have. If they have a laptop and you notice they have no wireless gear perhaps you could try and sell them a wireless networking setup. Try and work it into conversion and say it casually like “I like your little laptop over there. Is it new? a few of my clients have got those things on wireless networks and do their work outside by the pool”. If they take the bait you can begin the sales pitch, if they don’t then leave it alone.

Get To Know Your Client

This one has worked wonders for me and has increased client loyalty greatly. I cover this heavily in our article “Increasing Client Loyalty” which said:

Every time I am on a computer repair job while I am working, I try to find something to talk to them about whether it is just asking them about their business, how long they have been doing it or how it started. If you are doing home computer repair; ask them about something prominent in their house such as the painting on the wall, the football team flag or their pets. Become a friend.

Talking to a client while you do your work puts them at ease and gives them a sense of trust which can help with getting more word-of-mouth referrals.
In return you will have clients who wouldn’t dare hiring another technician as it would be like ‘betraying a friend’ to them.

To prove this works, earlier this year I went on a round-the-world trip which took 2 months. When I got back I had alot of messages on my answering machine. I called all of my clients back and it turns out 95% of them waited the two months for me to return instead of getting someone else to do it. You can read more about this story this article.

So there you have it, progress bar time doesn’t have to be boring.