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Should I Repair a Clients Computer In-House or Onsite?
Whenever a clients phones me, I always try to determine whether the job should be done onsite or in my workshop. There are a few factors I will consider such as how long it will take, whether it needs to be done onsite and how much I trust that client.
Time
Time is probably the best indicator of whether a job should be done in-house or onsite. Some jobs such as virus scans, data backup and operating system installs can take hours and there often isn’t much else you can do with the computer during that time.
You could remain onsite for 3 hours while your clients computer finishes what it is doing, but it would be wiser to take the computer back to your workshop so you can work on something else in the mean time. If you have a decent volume of work you can have multiple computers doing virus scans, backups and OS installs at the same time giving you the potential to earn more money for the same amount of time.
Most successful technicians will try to automate these tasks by either scripting the job using a tool like AutoIT or to perform unattended operating system installs using something like nLite.
If you are the only person working in your business, there are only so many hours in the day which caps the amount of income you can make, by taking the long and automatic jobs back to your workshop you can get paid more for doing less.
Some Jobs Are Better Onsite
There are a handful of repair jobs that I will do always onsite such as printer installs and network troubleshooting. While I can download the driver for the printer in my workshop, most printer drivers require the printer to actually be connected in order to complete the install. As for network troubleshooting such as the clients internet being down, there are many factors outside of the computer that could be causing the issue such as their ISP having an outage in their area, their router being frozen or even an issue with the cabling at the location. With the exception of looking up ISP outages online, most of these I cannot do in my workshop.
Trust
Does you client trust you enough to take their $1000+ computer away with all their sensitive data back to your workshop? If it is the first time you have done any work for them they might have a problem with a stranger taking their computer. Luckily, there are steps you can take to put them at ease such as giving them some sort of signed receipt for the computer and let them know where the computer is going to be if they need it.
Of course, trust is a two way street. If your client drops off the computer, do you trust your client seeing the inside of your workshop with all your valuable computer parts lying around? I personally prefer to go onsite but when a client wants to drop off a computer at my home, I keep them at the door.
Just about every single client that has dropped a computer off to my workshop has been a great person but I have had some clients who were very suspicious, wanting me to do very suspect things such as removing a password for a laptop they didn’t know anything about. I tell these clients that I cant help them and send them on their way. I am always glad they never saw the inside of my premises; for all I know, they stole the laptop that they brought to me.
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I started out doing about 90% onsite but now, with an office, I do maybe 30-40% (residential) onsite for the very reasons cited by Bryce. I have many more people drop PCs off now too so I save plenty of travel time as well. It’s made my business more efficient, more profitable, and a lot less stressful.
@William, IMHO, charging based on what your service is worth is not unethical–it’s just good business. If you think it’s too high to charge a fair market value, then add some additional value to the service. Use the extra time to do some special tweaks that you know the competition is not doing.
thanks for the advices on how to handle situations…thanks…
Since this is a second job for me, and my city is rather small, I prefer to take machines back to my shop. That way I can get multiple repairs running at one time and still spend time with my family in the evening. I only have to do an in home repair once in a while, but it is nice to get that check right away!
I’ve run across a couple of HP wireless printers that have been a royal pain to install the software and drivers and get everything to work, sometimes taking hours. Any suggestions?
Thanks for the perspective Bryce. Another great piece that forces me to look hard at how I run my business.
Like Paul, I prefer to do repairs at my home office so I can be around my family and also keep an eye on all the animals on my small farm. I also have tools, parts and test PCs there which make life easier.
I often give clients the choice stating that they will pay for every minute if I am onsite. When it is in my office, I can give them a break as I feel a bit odd about charging clients an hour when the machine did all the work and I was out mowing the lawn or heaven forbid, drinking beer. Obviously I don’t give my time away but I try to be fair. Because I would rather be working at home, I try to make it attractive for them.
When I started my business, I took a course from a consultant who would book several appointments in a distant community and then charge all full price for his air fare and accomodations. I would struggle with that as I would charging 3 people for an hour when I touched their machines for 15 minutes and the machine did the rest. Perhaps I need to be more cut-throat.
Most machines I work on are in need of software updates, physical cleaning, and infection scan/removal. To do this in their home will usually require a minimum of 3 hours. Most customers just do not realize how long it takes to do the work. I will not remove and infection and then leave the system vunerable. I do not want my name associated with that type of work.
I agree 100% with Bryce about installations such network and printers.
Dont give to much ground to your clients or they walk all over you. I am an exceptionally nice guy in that area, and have already suffered. I feel I’m customer service first, tech support second… gotta be careful though. I worked for a crane company for a while, and even if the crane is in the same place but working for two different people, both people get charged the full travel costs. I personally divide travel costs up between two clients, but after that each client gets charged half. Everyone is happy at the reduction but less likely to complain next time when its full price.
As a second note I was just searching for automated tools for installations, so thanks for suggestions, will check out AutoIT and nLite.
I give the client the option of whether to work on the system onsite or take it back to my workshop. I tell them if I am sitting onsite the meter is running even while I sit there and watch updates run. If I take it back to my workshop I give them a flat price because I can work on other systems while the updates are running. The clients usually take the later.
I think it is ethically grey to work on multiple computers simultaneously and charge full billing for all. I take computers back to my shop so as not to have to charge for the hours when I am just watching it spin. In this way, I am able to give good service to those less able to pay for an otherwise expensive procedure.
It all depends on the situation, I suppose. Some customers are extremely reticent to let their PC’s out of their sight, but some things just can not be done there and then.
Agreed with about everyone here. We offer an on-site service at a rate that’s inline with the averages in our market and a pickup/drop-off service with a flat rate.
By using economies of scale and creating efficiencies like what Bryce mentioned and some other neat tricks like several kvm switches on the bench… we can have up to 15 computers per bench running at a time and while one is processing the data that we fired at it… we’re firing more at another machine.
Now if we were charging an hourly rate for our dropped off computers… that’s another story. Then I can see the ethical dilemma in charging multiple people for the time they’ve paid for.
In our situation… not so much as we bill a flat rate, so who cares how long it takes us (besides us) so long as we do quality work and provide better service than the majority of our local competition.
Thanks for share this nice info related a good way that is how Repair a Clients Computer In-House or Onsite?
This type of situations realy depends on how you managed things in the past. If all your past customers spread the word that you do make house visits, then you can’t get out of the loop.
Myself, I enjoy asking them to pay me a visit if its such an emergency. The interest is in both sides, but more on the clien’s side.
I offer the same rate onsite or offsite but for jobs that will take an estimated hour or more I tell them I must take it back to my shop for lengthy scans/repairs/tests etc. My work is preferred to be done at home because I can multitask and quite frankly I don’t enjoy people over my shoulder the whole time, it’s irritating sometimes. But some work is easy and takes less than an hour. :) Those are my favorite jobs.
If problem is simple I fix at client place. Otehrwise I prefer to work at my home and sametime I can see and play with my 3 wonderful kids.
I NEVER fix a customer’s computer at their home. Never have, never will. There are simply too many of them that want to teach YOU about computers. They lean over your shoulder and try to explain things to you, as if they’re the techs, and they’re teaching you how to fix it. To say that’s annoying is an understatement. Also, there are usually other things screwed up about the computer, which someone else in this forum mentioned. Tons of updates needed, needs serious defragging, etc. There MUST be a certain level of trust between myself and the client, and I make it completely clear that if they want ME to work on it, then they’re going to have to let me remove it from their pad. If not, then feel free to find someone else. I get 100% of my business through word of mouth. I don’t advertise at all, other than to give my customers a few of my business cards. They in turn tell their friends about me. Even though I only accept jobs where I bring the computer back with me, it doesn’t slow down business at all. As with some of you, fixing computers is NOT my first job. It’s a 2nd job / hobby. Even so, I pull in a nice amount of change. Not enough to pay the rent, but enough to pay my side bills. So I’m cool with it. I choose when or IF I want to take on a customer at ALL. I can turn away customers and not feel like I’m not going to be able to pay my rent.
the.desolate_one@yahoo.com
I would have to say that the one thing you have to keep in mind before going to a customers house is first find out what kina equiptment your dealing with. Is it an old pc with pc100 ram or are you dealing with a pc with ddr3. With that being said you must know what kinda computer they have not just what the symptoms are as what one pc can do in minutes one may take an hour or more. I aslo ask if they have high speed internet as dial up can take forever just a few other things to thing about before makin the journey to someones house.