Uncategorized

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text] June 22, 2023[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”Why Real-Time Inventory Management Is Important” font_container=”tag:h2|text_align:left|color:%230091cd” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]In today’s business landscape, the importance of real-time inventory management cannot be overstated. This powerful approach to inventory control enables businesses to achieve operational efficiency, enhance customer satisfaction and maximize profitability. In this blog, we will understand what is real-time inventory management and explore its many benefits. Let’s get started –

 

Firstly, What is Real-Time Inventory Management?

Real-time inventory management refers to the practice of continuously monitoring and updating inventory levels in real-time. It involves leveraging advanced technologies and data integration to provide businesses with accurate and up-to-date visibility into their inventory. In essence, it enables businesses to have a comprehensive understanding of their stock levels, including information on product availability, location and movement.

 

Benefits of  Real-Time Inventory Management

  • Streamlines Supply Chain Management:
    One of the key advantages of real-time inventory management lies in its ability to provide accurate and up-to-date visibility into inventory levels. Gone are the days of relying on outdated information or guesswork. Real-time insights empower businesses to make informed decisions, resulting in a streamlined supply chain process. By having a comprehensive view of inventory, businesses can minimize stockouts and overstocking. Real-time inventory management ensures optimal inventory levels, minimizing costs and ensuring a smooth supply chain process.
  • Prevents Stock-Outs:
    Thereafter, one of the most significant advantages of real-time inventory management is the ability to avoid stockouts. By having access to inventory tracking, businesses can accurately monitor stock levels and proactively restock when inventory reaches a predetermined threshold. This helps prevent stockouts and ensures that products are always available to fulfill customer orders. Avoiding stockouts not only enhances customer satisfaction but also maximizes sales opportunities and revenue potential.
  • Enables On-Time Delivery:
    Real-time inventory management enables businesses to have precise visibility into their stock levels, facilitating more accurate order fulfillment and improved delivery schedules. By knowing the real-time availability of products, businesses can confidently commit to delivery timelines, reducing the risk of delayed shipments and ensuring customer satisfaction. Meeting delivery schedules consistently helps build trust with customers and strengthens relationships, leading to repeat business and a positive brand reputation.
  • Cost Reduction and Increased Profitability:
    Efficient inventory management directly impacts a company’s financial health. Real-time inventory management enables businesses to optimize their inventory levels, preventing excess inventory and stockouts. Carrying excess inventory leads to higher holding costs, and increased risk of obsolescence and ties up valuable capital. Conversely, stockouts result in missed sales opportunities and potential customer attrition.

    By implementing real-time inventory management practices, businesses can significantly reduce costs, improve cash flow and increase profitability. Minimizing holding costs through optimal inventory levels allows for better allocation of resources. Simultaneously, maximizing sales opportunities by avoiding stockouts translates into increased revenue and profitability.
  • Facilitates Multi-Location Inventory Management:
    For businesses with distributed warehouses or multiple locations, real-time inventory management simplifies the complex task of inventory tracking across various sites. By integrating inventory systems and leveraging real-time data, businesses can monitor inventory levels, movements and transfers between warehouses seamlessly. This facilitates efficient inventory allocation, reduces discrepancies and enables businesses to respond quickly to changes in demand across different locations.

    For 4 tips on good inventory management in repair centres, click here.
  • Improves Forecasting and Planning:
    Accurate forecasting and planning are crucial for effective inventory management. Real-time inventory data provides valuable insights that can be leveraged to improve demand forecasting and inventory planning. By understanding customer demand patterns and market trends, businesses can minimize lead times and optimize production schedules.

    Real-time inventory management facilitates data-driven decision-making and adaptive planning strategies. With accurate and timely information, businesses can make proactive adjustments to inventory levels, respond swiftly to market fluctuations, and stay ahead of the competition.
  • Enhances Customer Satisfaction:
    In today’s era of instant gratification, meeting customer expectations is paramount. Real-time inventory management plays a pivotal role in fulfilling customer orders promptly and accurately. By having accurate and up-to-date inventory data, businesses can provide real-time information to customers regarding product availability, estimated delivery times and order tracking. This transparency builds trust and confidence among customers, allowing them to make informed purchasing decisions.

    Imagine a customer searching for a specific product on an e-commerce website, only to find that it’s out of stock. With a real-time inventory management system, businesses can update stock availability in real-time, avoiding customer disappointment and potential lost sales. By exceeding customer expectations, businesses can foster loyalty and gain a competitive edge in the market.
  • Optimizes Workflows:
    Last but not least, real-time inventory management allows businesses to optimize their workflow by improving inventory visibility and automating key processes. With accurate and timely inventory data, businesses can streamline order fulfillment, warehouse operations and procurement processes. By eliminating manual and time-consuming tasks associated with inventory management, businesses can allocate resources more efficiently, reduce errors and improve overall workflow productivity.

 

 

Case Studies Showcasing the Importance of Real-Time Inventory Management

Implementation of Real-Time Inventory Management at Walmart:
Walmart, one of the world’s largest retailers, implemented a real-time inventory management system to streamline its operations and enhance customer satisfaction. With thousands of stores and a vast inventory, maintaining optimal stock levels across locations was a challenging task.

By leveraging advanced technologies such as RFID tags and barcode scanning, Walmart achieved real-time visibility into its inventory. This enabled the retail giant to enhance inventory tracking, monitor stock levels and automate replenishment processes. The implementation of real-time inventory management had a profound impact on Walmart’s bottom line. The company reported a significant decrease in stockouts, leading to increased sales and improved customer satisfaction. Additionally, the improved inventory accuracy allowed Walmart to optimize its stocking strategies, reducing excess inventory and minimizing holding costs.

 

Boosting Brand Image With Real-Time Inventory Management – Zappos:
Zappos, an online retailer known for its exceptional customer service, embraced a real-time inventory management system to provide a seamless shopping experience for its customers. With a wide range of products and a commitment to fast delivery, maintaining accurate inventory visibility was critical.

Zappos integrated its inventory management system with its e-commerce platform, enabling real-time updates on product availability. Customers could view real-time stock levels and make informed purchasing decisions. The integration also facilitated order fulfillment, ensuring that customers received accurate information on delivery times and tracking updates.

By implementing real-time inventory visibility, Zappos improved customer satisfaction and loyalty. Customers appreciated the transparency and reliability of the information, reducing frustration from potential stockouts or delays. This resulted in increased customer retention and positive word-of-mouth referrals, contributing to Zappos’ success as a customer-centric online retailer. These real-world case studies demonstrate the tangible benefits and importance of a real-time inventory management system.

 

Conclusion

Embracing technological solutions and leveraging real-time inventory data empower businesses to make data-driven decisions and adapt to ever-changing market demands. Businesses seeking to optimize operations, enhance customer satisfaction and maximize profitability cannot overlook the importance of real-time inventory management.

 

How RepairQ Supports Real-Time Inventory Management

RepairQ is a leading software company that specializes in providing repair management software for repair businesses. With a focus on streamlining operations and enhancing customer experiences, RepairQ offers a powerful and intuitive platform designed specifically for repair shops, mobile repair technicians, and other service-oriented businesses. By leveraging RepairQ’s innovative technology, businesses can effectively manage their operations, improve efficiency and deliver exceptional customer service.

RepairQ’s comprehensive repair shop inventory management helps your team maintain fresh stock with first-in-first out handling, manage extra stock in the warehouse or transfer from store to store, and know where every piece of inventory is going and why in a real-time environment. Listed below are some of the key features of RepairQ that help businesses streamline their operations and boost efficiency –

  • Track inventory across your organization
  • Manage serialized stock rolled up by SKU
  • Track multiple suppliers rolled up by SKU
  • Maintain accurate levels with cycle counts
  • Quickly see SKUs that need re-ordering
  • Manage purchase orders and inventory receiving
  • Track RMA items, batching, and reconciliation

To learn more about RepairQ or schedule a free live demo, contact us.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Development, Education, Uncategorized

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January 7, 2020[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”Leveraging Email Marketing Lists to Improve Customer Engagement – Zapier + RepairQ” font_container=”tag:h2|text_align:left|color:%230091cd” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_separator align=”align_left” el_width=”10″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]With the continued reach of social media advertising, business owners tend to overlook the power and effectiveness of email marketing. Many small businesses are focusing primarily on increasing their social media following rather than developing growth in their email marketing, which is limiting their full marketing potential and effectiveness. Not to say that you shouldn’t put significant effort into social media advertising, we are huge proponents of social media for small businesses, but rather you should put just as much effort into creating and implementing an effective email marketing strategy.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row equal_height=”yes” content_placement=”middle”][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]

Why would I invest so much time and energy in email marketing?

When used properly, [email marketing] can leverage sales, generate new customers and help in their retention. While social networks first need to engage people so that they can become customer[s]” (DAN). In other words, email marketing is one of the best ways to turn leads into customers, customers into frequent customers, and frequent customers into loyal customers or brand advocates. In comparison, social media campaigns have to first engage the audience within a minimal time frame, and then communicate any call to action. With email marketing campaigns, the email is the only thing on the customers’ screen when they open it, so there is more time for the audience to engage with the campaign. Also, when customers open an email, they are already expecting a call to action in there, so it is much easier to convince them to click through it. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”10061″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row equal_height=”yes” content_placement=”middle”][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Targeting and Messaging: Social Media vs. Email Marketing

Social media campaigns can be highly effective because they allow you to be personal with your customers through updates, announcements, promotions, and replying to comments/direct messages. But each social media platform has restraints. Twitter only allows you to utilize 280 characters to convey your message to your audience. Instagram is primarily built for pictures or a one minute video, accompanied by concise captions. Facebook is more lenient, but massive priority is given to unique video and photo content, which can take significant time and energy to put together. LinkedIn is a great platform for professionals to connect, not so much to promote products and services. By being a platform that is more expressive and lenient than social media, email excels because it is a hybrid of each of these platforms. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row equal_height=”yes” content_placement=”middle”][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]You can minimize your text, but you don’t have to because there is no character limit. You can attach a video that is as long as you’d like. You can include professional or personal language throughout your email campaigns so that you connect with the receiver and make them feel more comfortable to reach back out to you. When you write a post for one of your social media channels, you address your audience as a whole, as audience segmentation doesn’t play a part in social media. But by using your email marketing software correctly, it allows you to address people individually by name, split certain topics only for certain members of your list, and eventually arrive privately in their personal inbox” (Inboundrocket.co). Last, but certainly not least, you can customize your email to be more appealing and attention grabbing to the subscriber by using images and banners that you would otherwise use in social media campaigns. With all of these factors combined, plus great knowledge of your target audience, you can easily establish an impressive conversion rate and strong relationships with your customers. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”10059″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

You have your customers’ information in Mailchimp, now what?

This is the most critical stage of your email campaign process. Based on your knowledge of your customers, you will now have to segment your customers into smaller groups that share common characteristics. “The importance of market segmentation is that it allows a business to precisely reach a consumer with specific needs and wants. In the long run, this benefits the company because they are able to use their corporate resources more effectively and make better strategic marketing decisions” (study.com). When you perform segmentation to your email subscribers list, you’re still keeping that personal feeling between you and the group of consumers because you cater to each group based on that common characteristic they share. You make a campaign that speaks to them in a way that only that group can relate to and will appreciate, just like with social media platforms. 

A few good recommended segmentation samples for repair shops include duration (how long they have been your customers), type (did they come in for service, purchase a new phone, or buy accessories), and location, which is especially helpful if you are expanding to online operations or multiple physical locations. 

Have a question about this feature? Get in touch with our support team if you can’t find the answer in the knowledgebase article[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/6″][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”2/3″][vc_column_text el_class=”custom_sass”]

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Thabiso Ndiraya

Thabiso is the marketing intern for ServiceCentral. He is a helping hand for SEO and market research projects related to both ServiceManager and RepairQ. Outside the office, you can find Thabiso chasing a ball around the soccer field, strumming random notes on a beat up guitar, or devouring a Braum’s vanilla ice cream cone in 3 minutes.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space height=”16px”][vc_custom_heading text=”Related Posts” font_container=”tag:h1|text_align:center|color:%230091cd” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_empty_space][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”3″ item=”8679″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1579118568913-0c6f5b57-a15d-3″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Community, Education, Events, News, Uncategorized

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January 10, 2018[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”” font_container=”tag:h2|text_align:left|color:%230091cd” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_separator align=”align_left” el_width=”10″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

A Tulsa-based software company, RepairQ, is merging with ServiceCentral Technologies to improve the quality of life for small business owners around the globe.

Traditional brick-and-mortar retail is evolving every day and small, local businesses are  painfully realizing that it’s time to adapt or slowly slip into obscurity. RepairQ and ServiceCentral have banded together to make that overwhelming concept a bit less daunting by equipping retailers, who see the potential of device repair, with the tools and resources to connect big brands with local consumers.

Local brick-and-mortar retailers suffer year over year in an ever-changing market where the customers’ focal point is no longer the product, but rather the service experience. However, one industry that isn’t floundering is the device repair industry. Why is that? A study shown by SquareTrade explains that one in three smartphones will either encounter repairable hardware issues or become damaged over the period of their usage. That, paired with the increased cost of consumer electronics over the past five years, encourages consumers to hold onto their devices for longer periods of time, which in turn positively affects repair industry growth. Even Dish Network has started to branch out from its traditional satellite installation offerings by offering a delivery-based device repair service.

The cell phone repair industry is booming, with an estimated 4 billion in revenue last year and an expected three percent increase by the end of this year. The merge between RepairQ and ServiceCentral is embracing and harnessing that growth to help OEMs, like Apple and Samsung, connect with more local, authorized repair companies. If fact, Apple has recently announced they are expanding the availability of it’s “Horizon” machine to more authorized repair centers. Not only does this help the brick-and-mortars with their supply chain network, but it also supports the end user by providing a cost-friendly and convenient alternative to OEM specific retailers, like the Apple store. According to an article in the Economist, “Authorized dealers are often far-flung, much more expensive than independent ones and often cannot fix a problem.”

“Authorized dealers are often far-flung, much more expensive than independent ones and often cannot fix a problem.” 

RepairQ and ServiceCentral’s partnership is focused on alleviating those issues for both customers and the local brick-and-mortars servicing them. Every two seconds, somewhere in the world, a smartphone breaks, cracks, or malfunctions. iPhone users alone have spent 14 BILLION dollars repairing their devices over the past ten years – and that’s ignoring the opportunity cost of travel, time, and energy! Our goal is to influence the market by enabling any level of business in the retail space to compete with the “big guys”.

This merger enables shops to simplify their processes required to offer repair services and their ability to serve consumers more quickly with OEM services, saving them (and their customers) time, effort, and money. For the many manufacturers of consumer electronics, this access to local retailers is unprecedented and brings proximity to end users like never before.

“For the many manufacturers of consumer electronics, this access to local retailers is unprecedented and brings proximity to end users like never before.”

As the repair industry continues to grow and the world’s reliance on consumer electronics deepens– people will need access to high skilled repair services and the original manufacturers will want more control over how their devices are repaired. As recent history has shown, the retailers who see the writing on the wall and make the moves to adapt to an evolving industry are the ones who will be left to serve the needs of the consumer.

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Author

Jared Warren is the Digital Marketing Manager for ServiceCentral Technologies. He is the lead copywriter for all digital content related to both ServiceManager and RepairQ, and enjoys spending his time outside the office dedicated to his passions of competitive gaming, reading, and his wife Rachel.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space height=”16px”][vc_custom_heading text=”Related Posts” font_container=”tag:h1|text_align:center|color:%230091cd” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_empty_space][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”3″ item=”8679″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1559271220980-b4bd01c7-6bd7-0″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Community, Events, Uncategorized

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January 8, 2018[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”Title of Blog Post Here” font_container=”tag:h2|text_align:left|color:%230091cd” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_separator align=”align_left” el_width=”10″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

It’s 8:00 am. Time to wake up. Yeah yeah, I know – I’ve got it easy. I have a five minute commute to the RepairQ office, which is located near the heart of midtown Tulsa on a street lovingly dubbed by Tulsan’s as “Cherry Street”. Walking through the front doors (after finding a spot in our narrow-spaced, shared parking lot, I am greeted by the boisterous front desk attendant of our building, Charlene. She works for the high-end salon that we share a building with. After a passing greeting, I step through the glass door that leads into the bottom half of the RepairQ office.

The front room is outfitted for customer support and our Tulsa development staff, with Mac computers and extra monitors lining the workspaces. Each member has a setup of two monitors and is equipped with a hefty, over-the-ear headset so they won’t have to listen to me discuss things loudly in the next room with the marketing or executive teams. I greet the team cheerfully as I pass through the room, and am typically responded to with various grumbles like “It’s too early for this” or “For the last time, please stop talking to me before 9AM”.

As I slide a massive wooden barn door out of the way to gain entry to the marketing room, I am greeted by my bubbly teammate, Chelsea Williams, the Senior Graphic Designer at RepairQ. I plop down in my comfortable ergonomic rolly-chair and settle in for a long workday. The walls are painted a pale green color, and reflect the overhead soft white lights to create a calm, soothing atmosphere. Our room would best be described as eclectically artistic, with random artifacts littering the shelves, like a typewriter from the 1950’s, an original Macintosh computer, a hotdog hat, and an farcical imitation of Jackson Pollock painting done by someone’s kid.

There are also pictures of team members, silly awards, phone numbers, brand standard fonts and colors, and a torn-in-half phone book from our former Marketing Director (we bet him lunch he couldn’t rip it in half) hanging up on our walls. Its as big as the previously mentioned room, but for some reason, only Chelsea and I, and sometimes our boss James, occupy its space (as opposed to the seven members on the opposite side of the wall). Its cozy.

I grab my black notebook, which I take with me everywhere, and review my notes from the previous day. Then, I go through the typical morning routine, check my email, review any assignments that may be falling by the wayside, and wait for James, our direct supervisor, to drop in for our daily morning standup meeting. We will take a look at any outstanding projects that need attention, talk about upcoming UI updates, and discuss any major communications that need to be deployed to better engage with our customer base. We also use this time to schedule any meetings we may need with other departments, which is generally comprised of executive meetings with the development team.

That’s one of the endearing things about working at RepairQ. Even though the Tulsa office is relatively small, with approximately eleven in-office employees, we have double that working remotely solely on RepairQ. This can make communication and project direction a bit complicated when the individuals involved in the success of a project aren’t physically around for meetings and brainstorming sessions, so as you can easily imagine, we have quite a few teleconference and screen-sharing meetings via our technological lifeline, the internet.

After setting out a rough plan for the day within our team, we set to work on fulfilling our tasks. For me, that typically means scouring the dredges of the internet to find content for our social media accounts. Then, most likely, the marketing team will sit in on a sales demo, or have a meeting to discuss a specific project more in depth. Currently, that project that we are focusing heavily on is a mindblowing UI overhaul for the RepairQ software.

Noon… Lunchtime! We typically either bring our lunches from home or walk across the street to Reasors, a local grocery chain, and when I say “we”, I mean Josh, our web developer, and myself. They have the best chili in town, which helps make a cold, blustery day a bit more bearable. After enjoying my chili, I sit back down and finish out my day with meetings or other marketing related tasks. Once I have the desire to take a break, I meander out through the north side of our room, which leads to a staircase that takes you upstairs.

Once up the stairs, it opens up to display several different offices: an architect firm occupies one, the others are tended by a team of casino specialists and tech gurus. Wandering further down the corridor, I am greeted by a common area that has plush leather couches, a big screen TV, and various snack-type foods shored up in round, plastic dispensers. After a handful of granola or goldfish, I stretch a bit, and then head back to my office to wind things down.

Five o’clock rolls around eventually, we say our goodbyes and head home to our loved ones. Until the next morning where I clamber out of bed to do it all again. I do really look forward to Fridays though, because James brings us all donuts, churros, sausage rolls, or some other confectionary delight that makes working here a bit more awesome.

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Author

I am text block. Click edit button to change this text. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space height=”16px”][vc_custom_heading text=”Related Posts” font_container=”tag:h1|text_align:center|color:%230091cd” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_empty_space][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”3″ item=”8679″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1698754889782-e85536a6-932a-2″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Now Presenting RepairQ Roadmap: Quarter One

We know RepairQ plays a big role in running your business, and that’s why we want to give an even clearer picture of what’s coming in 2017! To accomplish that, we’re opening up the lines of communication in hopes that you’ll help us continue to create the best platform to run a repair business.
To kick things off, we’re announcing the first three major releases below. There are many other items in the pipeline, but we are committed to delivering these features by the dates listed. We hope this gets you excited to partner with RepairQ in 2017, and we eagerly anticipate your feedback along the way. Here’s to your success in 2017!
  • Supplier Tracking Upgrades
  • Special Order Part Upgrades
  • BETA: Integrated Printing
  • Performance Enhancements
  • Electronic Signatures Upgrade (Custom Forms)
  • File & Image Uploads
  • Device Search
  • BETA: Business Intelligence Suite for Enterprise

1.12  |  March 21

  • BETA: Q-POP™
    • Electronic Signature Capture for waivers & payments
    • store promotions
    • ticket summary preview
  •  Business Intelligence Upgrades

 

beta

Q-POP™ Early Access Opportunity

We are seeking a limited number of power users interested in gaining early access to Q-POP™ in a private beta. Private beta testers will be the first to experience the feature and provide us with real-world feedback to help refine and shape the future of Q-POP™ before its initial release.

To learn more about becoming a power user, contact our support team, and we’ll fill you in on the next steps!

Collaboration is Key.

Discuss releases, industry topics & even make suggestions for new features!

COMMUNITY FORUM ➜

FEATURE REQUESTS ➜

Integrated Printing (beta)

Integrate your printers with RepairQ to maximize your control over your print devices & tasks! With integrated printing, you can print directly to a paired printer without a print dialog. Common tasks, like printing a receipt after closing a sale, can now be automated. Plus, each printer can be assigned to a task and configured for appropriate margins, paper size, etc without leaving RepairQ.
Integrated Printing will be available in 1.10 as a ‘beta’ feature. This means we’re offering it earlier in an effort to collect real user feedback. If you’re interested in our beta initiative or how to provide feedback on our upcoming beta feature, integrated printing, click the link below.

Supplier Tracking Upgrades

  • Supplier tracking for ticket items will receive several upgrades:Adding an item onto a ticket using the supplier’s SKU will now always grab in-stock inventory FIFO (first in, first out) for the matching supplier (when available). In addition, a new setting is available to enforce/override the item’s supplier if no matching item is found in stock for the supplier. These two features give you the ability to effectively enforce accurate supplier tracking with the use of supplier SKU barcodes.
  • New setting will enable ticket item search results to show items grouped by supplier, so you can pick the correct supplier’s item by hand
  • Managers have the ability to override the supplier tracked for an item from the ticket in the event the wrong supplier’s item is pulled

Special Order Parts: Ticket Item Overrides

It often makes sense to use a “catch-all” item for special order parts. However, this can make cost and supplier tracking for special orders more cumbersome. The new ticket item override feature makes tracking the appropriate cost and supplier for special order parts much easier.
— Cost Override
Administrators can enable cost overrides with a new catalog item setting. This will allow Shift Leads, Inventory Managers, and Managers to update the cost of an item directly from the ticket. This includes both inventoried and non-inventoried items. This opens the door for you to track your special order parts using a simplified process with a non-inventoried catalog item while still tracking variable COGS, which was previously not possible. In the past it was necessary to use an inventoried catalog item in order to track variable COGS.
— Supplier Override
Administrators can enable supplier overrides with a new catalog item setting. This will allow Shift Leads, Inventory Managers, and Managers to update the supplier for an item directly from the ticket. For those of you wanting to track special order items without keeping inventory records, you’ll be able to track the supplier for non-inventoried items on the ticket.

RepairQ Performance Upgrades

Application-wide performance upgrades are coming! Nearly all features in RepairQ will see an improvement in load times, with some features and pages improved more than others. Our pilot customers have experienced a 90%+ speed increases in loading of the ticket edit screen, a 90% improvement in loading the ticket queue, and a 50%+ improvement in loading the inventory summary, just to name a few specifics. We are very excited to get these upgrades to you!

To ensure a smooth transition, the performance upgrades will roll out to groups of RepairQ customers over the weeks following the 1.10 release. You will be notified via a separate message when your application receives the performance upgrades.

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Beta Feature Opportunity

In 2017, we’re providing our users earlier access to key features like Integrated Printing. We encourage you to check this new beta feature out and provide us with your feedback so we can continue enhancing it to meet your business needs.

Ready to upgrade & accept chip cards?

 

We thought so. RepairQ, through continued partnership with Bluefin Payment Systems, is now accepting pre-orders for EMV enabled, PAX S300 credit card readers.

You can start accepting EMV chip transactions on day one, allowing you to immediately reduce counterfeit card fraud and increase payment functionality.

Pre-orders are on a first-come, first-served basis, and shipments are expected to begin in the next few weeks. So don’t wait – upgrade today!

Improve your security & enhance the payment experience.

Learn More    |    Pre-Order

Swappa Repair Network – Pilot Program

We are excited to announce that RepairQ is working with Swappa as they launch their pilot program for the Swappa Repair Network. The Swappa Repair Network was created to offer broken device solutions to Swappa’s more than one million monthly visitors by providing localized referrals to participating repair shops.

Benefits for RepairQ Customers

As part of the pilot program, Swappa is providing a free account to RepairQ customers, which can be upgraded at a $25/month introductory price to gain full functionality. The free account includes your store name, address and phone number.

 

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Paid Features

  • Ability to receive repair leads sourced from Swappa’s one million monthly visitors
  • Customizable store page on Swappa with a link to your website
    • Add logo and pictures of your location
    • Editable text description of your hours, services, etc.
  •  Stats tracking visits and visibility
    • Frequency of your store appearing in Swappa’s local search
    • Visits to your store page on Swappa
    • Visits to your website from Swappa
    • Count of other stats such as directions, phone and website clicks for your location
  • Introductory Pricing Designed to provide ROI with one repair
  • Customize your page with pictures of your location and a text description of your services.

 

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Next Steps

We hope this opportunity can help increase visibility for your stores and drive additional repairs.

In the next three to four weeks, the program will transition to open sign-ups allowing for any other locations you may have to be added along with the addition of other repair shops that are not part of the pilot.

 

Visit Swappa

RepairQ-LogoServiceCentral Logo

NEWS RELEASE

September 6, 2016
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

REPAIRQ CONTACT
James Schellhorn, CEO & Creative Director
Phone: (918) 615-9610
Email: support@repairq.io

SERVICECENTRAL CONTACT
Steve Teel, President & CEO
Phone: (404) 870-7070

SERVICECENTRAL & REPAIRQ PARTNER TO BRING EXPANDED REPAIR &  WARRANTY SERVICE OPTIONS TO LOCAL RETAIL

Local support options improved turnaround times, increasing customer satisfaction

TULSA, OK – ServiceCentral and RepairQ announced today a partnership and integration of services that will greatly expand the electronic repair service network.

ServiceCentral is the leading software provider for managing enterprise service operations for OEMs, carriers, and large repair/refurbishment depots. RepairQ is the leading software provider for retail repair service management. Together, they will offer end-to-end service network solutions for enterprises managing post-sales service operations.

This new alliance will bring an expanded network and combined resources to OEMs, carriers and other enterprises that wish to leverage the broad reach of retail ‘brick-and-mortar’ storefronts to extended warranty fulfillment directly to consumers.

“We have long envisioned connecting the growing retail repair industry to enterprise networks needing to improve their service to consumers,” RepairQ CEO James Schellhorn said. “We believe the retail channel holds a huge advantage based on proximity and personal service to streamline warranty fulfillment and are excited to innovate a solution that brings the greater industry closer to the consumer.”

“With the combined knowledge and solutions of RepairQ and ServiceCentral,” Steve Teel, President and CEO of ServiceCentral continues, “we can offer a warranty support network to OEMs, carriers, and organizations that need more localized fulfillment, helping them connect with their consumers by proximity with a faster, more efficient warranty service, while retaining accountability.”

Over the coming year, RepairQ and ServiceCentral plan to announce a series of software innovations and combined services that will draw the greater post-sales electronic service industry closer together.

For more information regarding the service plans of the new partnership or to explore the potential of connecting post-sale service to local retail, interested parties are encouraged to contact ServiceCentral at partnersolutions@servicecentral.com or RepairQ at partnersolutions@repairq.io.

About ServiceCentral

ServiceCentral Technologies, Inc. provides Enterprise Service Management solutions that dramatically increase operational efficiencies and visibility while positively improving the customer experiences. Established in 1992, ServiceCentral streamlines and automates repair, RMA, warranty, and other critical reverse logistics processes with proven and configurable workflows and systems. Enterprise clients of all sizes – mid-tier through Fortune 100 – supporting high availability products and systems rely on ServiceCentral to optimize their service operations and improve customer loyalty and profitability.  www.servicecentral.com

About RepairQ

RepairQ is a SAAS product, developed by BrickWire LLC, that is used by retail networks domestically and internationally to manage retail sales and repair service operations. Since 2003, BrickWire has provided web applications consulting & development services & solutions in a number of industries and verticals. In 2011, BrickWire launched the retail repair industry’s first comprehensive business management software, RepairQ. Today RepairQ offers a software suite uniquely built to manage the daily operations of a growing network of store fronts. For more information on RepairQ, please contact sales@repairQ.io or 877-230-6317.  

Regardless of whether you choose to work this Labor day, take a moment to celebrate and acknowledge all the great CSRs, Techs, & Managers in your company. It’s their labor that is making this industry great!

For us, the offices will be closed in observation. We’ll reopen Tuesday at 9am CST.

If your blessed to have the day of, try one of the following this weekend:

  1. Read a book (If you dont own any change #1 to ‘shop for books’)
  2. Catchup on some Netflix (A new series Narcos was just released!)
  3. Eat some brunch (Ian recommends chicken and waffles)
  4. Take a day trip (we like the zoo)
  5. Relax! (You have plenty to ‘do’ on Tuesday)