Computer repair Tracking software
What CRM essentially is
While a CRM system may automate many workflows within a company it is mostly concerned with customer relations. It’s designed to automate mundane jobs like report generation (including financial reports) and support interaction with the customer, keeping all your data and processes in a centralized manner: store contact information, conversation and billing history, streamline lead generation, do template-based replies, escalate tickets, etc. On one hand, it saves you time and effort. On the other hand, it improves customer experience with your company. An all-around win.
Modern trends in CRM
Cloud is the current trend for pretty much everything. Do your job from anywhere, on any device. Almost all the CRMs that we reviewed here are web-based. It’s pretty obvious they can be:
- Self-hosted. The business hosts it in-house (or subcontracts this to an MSP) or in a data center on a VPS or a dedicated server.
- SaaS. Hosting is on the web application provider and the app is subscription-based (on a monthly/annual basis, annual becoming the most common offer).
CRM specifics for a repair shop
Repair shop business means getting money for fixing hi-tech stuff: PCs (desktop, nettops, desktops), mobiles (tablets and all kinds of new fancy hybrid touchscreen things), peripherals like printers and scanners, sometimes even domestic appliances (“you are an IT guy, fix my dish washer/iron/toaster, will ya?”). This also often includes regular maintenance normally offered by service desks.
This one ranks top in Google search for “crm repair shop”, so we couldn’t miss it. This CRM has neat looks and the home page says it’s specifically tailored for repair shops.
It’s always good to know that the developers have catered specifically for your niche, not just built a generic solution.
There’s even a free version with limited feature set and affordable paid plans, between 50 and 300 USD per month.
The solution offers an administrator portal and a client portal and a rich feature set:
- manage customer personal data;
- manage billing;
- communicate via SMS and email;
- automate invoice printing (supports bar codes);
- PBX/Phone call tracking integration;
- credit cards details storage;
- full-featured support ticket system with conversation history, reporting etc.
- job assigning (color coding, workload filtering, etc.);
- inventory management and POS integration (including procurement management);
- marketing automation (follow up marketing and other customer interaction and promotion features);
- integration with third-party services.
RepairShopR - Invoicing
RepairShopR - Create New Customer
Each of the above features has a lot of useful associated and interconnected functionality. As a whole, the system can be characterized as providing an exhaustive feature set for a repair shop/repair shops chain.
Yet another CRM solution. Has a free version and a paid one, with monthly pricing ranging between 16 and 70 USD per agent (if billed annually; with monthly billing it’s a bit more expensive).
The central features are as follows:
- support ticket system;
- customer communications via email, phone, live chat, feedback widget, facebook, twitter, mobile in-app suport;
- teamwork automation – job assigning, gamification;
- knowledge base for customer self-service;
- regional offices collaboration (distributed time zones, etc.);
- report generation (in different areas: customer interaction, employee workload);
FreshDesk - Support Tickets
It’s worth mentioning that being a more generic CRM, Freshdesk is missing some features that RepairShopr is offering. However, Freshdesk has an open API and supports integration with many third-party solutions. For example, worktime-based invoices for customers can be generated via integration with Freshbooks (accounting software).
