Repair to the Fix-It Shop

In an era way before “recycling” and “repurposing” were so common in consumers’ vocabularies, haughty people would speak of “repairing to the parlor” after dinner. Now that recycling has become a highly competitive endeavor, repairing to the fix-it shop might work out nicely after lunch for down-to-earth-friendly retailers.
     E-waste recycler EnvironCom in the UK gets an edge over the competition by repairing broken televisions, washing machines, and refrigerators. An article in this week’s Bloomberg Businessweek reports that the company makes higher profit from doing the repairs than from disassembling items that can’t be fixed.
     EnvironCom is not a small to midsize retail business. The tag line on the website is “The UK’s largest independent electrical reuse and recycling specialist.” They employ about 200 people and operate on a ten acre site. The items they refurbish come in bulk from large organizations and local recycling centers.
     Still, the possibilities of you making money from doing repairs do carry over. What might make sense for you?

• Offer advice to shoppers on how to do their own repairs, then sell them the supplies to do it. 
• Give customers credit for trade-ins to encourage purchase of new items, then refurbish the used items to sell them. 
• To distinguish your store from others carrying similar merchandise, offer extended service contracts (ESCs) on the merchandise you sell and ensure quick turnaround by doing necessary repairs on the premises.

     Extended service contracts are a profitable add-on sale for you. They also can add to customer satisfaction, since if a product fails to function properly, a good ESC avoids the customer having to exchange or discard the item.
     Researchers at University of Maryland, Rice University, and Carnegie Mellon University suggest there are situations where an ESC is a worthwhile expenditure for the consumer:

• Purchasers who operate on a limited budget can find it difficult to pay for replacing the product if it breaks or in handling any unexpected costs for repairs.
• Purchasers of pleasure-related technology products don't want to be deprived of use of the item. They're willing to pay for an ESC that offers prompt replacement of the product if the defect can't be fixed immediately.
• Purchasers who are expected to repair every broken product in the home—maybe a husband being viewed this way by his wife—might be happy to pay a fee to avoid the trouble of repairing at least this one product.

Click below for more: 
Base Your Changes on Your Strengths 
Make Extended Service Contracts Worthwhile