My First Customer: The Aftermath
By: Matthew Rodela on January 15th, 2009
Categories: Computer Repair, Phase 2:Trial and Error, Stories from the "Trenches"
So how did hings turn out with my first official customer as a business owner?
If you’ll recall in my initial post on the subject, a customer was referred to me a bit before I was fully prepared to start taking on customers. I decided to take the client, mostly for experience, but also to get a bit more money into my business account. The lady wasn’t too specific about the problem (are they ever?), but I thought it sounded like a corrupt HD. Turns out that it was.
My girlfriend ended up picking up the computer from the customer at her workplace and in turn I picked it up from her. I lugged the bulky 4 year-old HP to my car and drove it home. I still don’t have a proper work area at home. I live in a small apartment and don’t plan on taking much work home with me. I have a feeling it will be a while before I have a real “work bench”. Instead, I unplugged my secondary computer (I have two workstations in my bedroom room) and plugged in the HP.
The computer displayed a message during POST saying there was a critical S.M.A.R.T. error detected on the Primary Master Disk Drive and to back-up all data immediately. I wont get too technical here, but the end result was that the hard drive was damaged to the point that it was not immediately recoverable. In other words, the hard drive was fried.
I was kinda bummed initially. My first service call turned out to be one that I couldn’t immediately fix. I called the customer and told her the news. Her hard drive was corrupt to the point that she would need to get it replaced. I gave her three options:
- I could attempt to transfer and salvage any files from the broken HD onto a new HD, though I couldn’t guarantee that any data was salvageable. I would charge her for the new HD, and the hours spent doing the work.
- I could purchase and install a new HD for her computer without transferring data. It would cost less hours, but she would loose any important data if she had any.
- She could buy a new computer.
She agreed to #3, which was also what I recommended. After 4 years and a failed HD, it’s about time to consider getting a new box.
So, my first job turned out to be a dud. I didn’t fix anything, instead telling the customer that her machine was DOA.
Can’t win ‘em all right?
But this isn’t by any means a failure. A big part of this business will probably involve telling people that they’re better off buying a new computer. Sometimes people just need a professional opinion to realize it’s time to let go.
What I will do, for cases like this, is to make sure the customer has the best service possible, so that this wont be the last time she asks for my help. I want her experience with me to be so pleasant and memorable that she wont have any choice but to think of me when she inevitably has problems with her next computer.
This was also an excellent learning opportunity. What are some lessons I’ve taken from this?
It’s going to be more difficult than I thought to find time to actually take on clients. I wasn’t able to pick up the computer myself because I had to work late on that day. I also wasn’t even able to take a look at the computer until the following day because I was so busy with other things. I’m going to really need to get better at managing my time and take care not to over-promise on time lines. I’ll be sure to take on new clients at a low and progressive pace. I don’t want to over burden myself.
I need to firm up my prices and stick to them. I think I slipped up a little on offering such a low price to this customer. From now on, unless the customer is a direct friend or relative, I will charge full price. Thanks to my readers for really drilling this into my head!
Communication is key. When all is said and done, it’s how you talk to the costumer that will keep them coming back. In this case, I think I did well. I was a little hesitant to call her and let her know that her hard drive was most likely gone. Luckily, after I explained what happened, the steps I took to diagnose it, and gave her some options, she seemed ok with everything,. She ended up thanking me more than once for helping her out.
All in all, I feel good after my first “official” service call. I have a long way to go before I’ll be ready to toss the day job and pay my bills with Jiffy-PC, but I’m confident I’m on the right track to making this a success.
January 16th, 2009 at 1:33 am
In my opinion you should have fixed the computer. The system was only four years old, and if she’s a typical user it was already a more powerful machine than what she needed. Personally I would have attempted to get any really important data first, and after that clone the drive to a new one. Assuming that was successful you’d only have about 60-90 minutes of billable work involved. Even with the cost of a HDD she’d still come out WAY cheaper than buying a new system, and there is a good chance all her data would be exactly the same.
At the very minimum you should have tried to upsell a service for the new computer. You could have pulled up a few websites for any of the big box stores around you, found something on sale, offered to go with her to buy it, set it up, get it connected to the internet, remove all the junk that comes pre-installed, set her up with a free anti-virus, do a basic optimization, cloned the drive, and then burn the image DVD.
Don’t make the mistake of giving customers advice of what YOU would do. You are a computer user who knows what he’s doing. These people want to pay someone because they don’t know what they’re doing. They just want their stuff to work without any grief, and they want to pay for it.
Of course I don’t have all the information so you might have done the right thing, but even if you didn’t it was your first customer. Worst case you jumped over that first hurdle and maybe built some goodwill that will pay off later on. When starting out any job that ends on a good note is a big success.
On a side note you should really set up a workstation. It’s not reasonable to do everything on site, and even if it’s possible it’s often a lot cheaper for the customer if you do it at home. It’s better for you because then your revenue isn’t limited on how many hours you can work in a day, but how many computers you can pack into your workstation. You already have desk with a second computer so really all you need is a good KVM, a network switch, and maybe a small bookshelf to set tools and parts on.
[Reply]
Matt R.
Reply:
January 16th, 2009 at 8:57 am
Hey Jory,
Thanks for the advice! Sounds like you’ve been doing this for a while so it’s good to get another take on things.
I would have fixed the computer if that’s what the customer wanted, but she chose not to because a)she didn’t have any important data on the machine itself and b) she had already considered buying a new machine, so this sent her over the edge.
I’m considering offering her the services you mentioned for her replacement computer. I’m returning her computer to her today. (I’m returning her computer today and will speak with her about it.)
Haha, if you saw my workspace you’d understand why I really don’t want to start collecting computers in here. My second computer is used for my music recording gear, so it’s already pretty crowded. I will definitely make get one set up when I decide to do this full time, but right now, it’s not something I’m looking to do. This one computer was an exception (on a few levels) so from now on I’m really going to push for on-site service.
[Reply]
January 16th, 2009 at 8:22 am
I have to agree with Jory above. I had a customer whose laptop “died” and wanted to get pictures off it. I tried for about 10 mins or to get the laptop to boot up. When that didn’t work I said lets pull the drive out and pull data off the drive as a slave in my PC. after about another 15 mins I identified important documents and pictures and was burning the DVD for them.
From what you posted it sounds like you took the easy way out. I would rather have tried and then find out the drive is dead while trying to save information. The call should probably have gone “I tried to get information off the drive and (was or wasn’t) successful. You now have these options . . . .”
Also you don’t want to get too technical in discussing the issues, that is a mistake in my opinion. I bet some of that information would be useful to you readers about why you think the hard drive is fried.
[Reply]
Matt R.
Reply:
January 16th, 2009 at 9:13 am
Hi Joseph,
Yeah, I definitely would have tried to salvage the drive if the customer had “important” data that she needed. But she said she didn’t, so I left it at that.
I don’t think the default action should be salvaging the drive. If the user didn’t have any important data and just wanted a working computer, trying to transfer the data would have been wasted hours and I’m not going to charge the customer for something she doesn’t want done, that’s dishonest.
Sounds like we each have slightly different approaches to the same situation. And who knows, my approach might start changing once I take on more customers.
I’m just glad that the customer came away happy, and to me that’s the most important thing right now. I’m not in this to make money right now, I’ve got plenty of that. I’m working to build a customer base and experience so that when I finally AM ready to make this my bread and butter, I’ll be in a good position to do so.
I appreciate the feedback, it’s great to get some different viewpoints on this!
[Reply]
Joseph
Reply:
January 16th, 2009 at 11:12 pm
Ah I understand now that I have a bit more information. I’ve mostly had to deal with people who needed data out of the old box. The most important thing is understanding what the customer wants. Typically I have a few basic questions I ask the customer, this allows me to gauge the situation and get information about how far I should proceed if I hit a roadblock (like in your first case).
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January 16th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Well sorry your first paying job wasn’t as challenging and exciting as you hoped. At least you still took away some lessons. You’ll get’em next time! (although I don’t know who ‘em are…LOL)
[Reply]
Matt R.
Reply:
January 16th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Haha, that’s okay! That’s why I’m calling this phase of my business development “Trial and Error”! And I will definitely get ‘em as soon as I figure out what ‘em are!
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