Business intelligence (BI) has a bad reputation for being too complicated to generate and therefore unnecessary for mid-market businesses. That you need specialized software that’s expensive to get the reports you need.

It doesn’t need to be for your service business. And there’s no better software to do this than the one that’s used to run your business.

There’s already a complete record of what you’ve done, who’s done it, and how much you’ve earned doing it. This is often all you need to get started.

If we had to put that in the context of a service business, you can find exactly what’s impacting your turnaround time. Which processes take the longest to complete? You can then break down these processes into tasks and use automation to improve it.

Or you could forecast the most common types of repairs. This should impact how you prioritize stock and inventory as well as technician hiring.

1. Improve productivity

Productivity can be complicated to measure.

For instance, as a business owner or a service manager, you might know the number of repairs completed by each technician.

That number by itself is not a good measure of productivity. Other factors like type or complexity of repair, type of device, and number of customer interactions might have an impact on final output.

It would help your decision making if you had a report that combines all such factors. This is particularly important because as a business owner you should look at processes, and not just individuals.

Of course, without the right combination of reports, this time is probably going to be wasted. So create dashboards that measure the most critical parts of your business.

In a repair business, that’s the service workflow. Your customers don't differentiate between various tasks, and are only concerned with how long it took to fix their phone or computer.

Fixably has built in reports to track:

1. Technician efficiency: Time taken per stage of the repair, number of repairs, repairs per day/week, types of repairs per technician and so on.
2. Repair tracking: Time taken per stage in the repair process, types of repairs, types of issues, device types, and more.
3. Stock and inventory reports: All the products you have in stock can be tracked for any time period that you want.
4. Per location: If your business has multiple locations, you can track all of these by locations and combine them for the business as a whole.

Plus, our advanced reporting module enables you to create custom reports. You can choose the data available within Fixably and our team will create the report for you.

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"The way we improve efficiently is by managing the time (it takes to complete a repair). From when the device is brought to the service center (it is being tracked). How many days since it was moved to the service department? How many days did it take to complete the repair after we got the part from Apple? It's helpful so that we can comply with Apple's recommendations."

Ricardo Vargas, Managing Director, Microtec

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2. Offer better customer service

Generally, having one source of customer data is the most efficient. This would ensure that everyone within your business has access to the information necessary to offer great service.

Plus, it becomes easier for business owners and service managers to create reports if everything is tracked on one platform.

For instance, you can track the most common types of repairs. You can then estimate a realistic turnaround time and manage customer expectations much better. It also enables you to create faster processes for each service type.

Fixably offers reports that go beyond this as well.

1. You can create reports on the different types of customer communications for instance. Within Fixably, technicians can set a repair status to reflect real-world scenarios. This way you can track the average time it takes for customers to take action on things like cost estimates.
2. With Fixably, you can manage service agreements for customers who’re on long-term contracts. This then enables you to create reports that can both improve how you provide service to these customers and prove to them that their investment was worth it.
3. You can separate reports — with comprehensive and complete data on all repairs you’ve done — for all of your biggest customers.

3. Better return on investment, profits

Eventually, all business intelligence must point you towards increasing profits. This is especially important for service businesses.

Why?

• You work with low margins, especially if you’re authorized by manufactures like Apple.
• You work in a competitive market where your customers always have a cheaper option if they’re willing to use third-party manufactured parts.
• You’re a customer-facing business with high expectations of service experience.

With the right reports, you can address all three challenges.

You can improve margins by both lowering turnaround time and offering a service that is worth a premium. You can plan for customer expectations. You can train your service managers to identify and catch bottlenecks before they impact your revenue.

For instance, technician salaries would account for a significant part of your overhead. So why pay them to do anything other than repair? Following the data on the repair workflow can ensure you’re set up to maximize the use of their time.

And you can have weekly and monthly dashboards set up so that it’s not a one-and-done process.

At the basic level, you get:

1. Financial reports: Monthly profit, revenue reports, revenue reports by types of repairs or devices, accessory sales, upsell sales.
2. Location specific financial reports: Each location has its own challenges and it’s necessary to generate separate financial reports.

Business intelligence needs the right reports to make the difference. We, at Fixably, understand service business models — especially Apple Authorized Service Providers. This enables us to aid you in tracking the most relevant data and creating the right reports.

Would you like to book a demo to learn more?