Peanuts to Profits With Thor Schrock
Peanuts to Profits With Thor Schrock

Only 2 days remain to get Schrock Innovations’ Preventative Maintenance Checkup on sale for only $19.99! This is the FINAL maintenance checkup sale of 2009, so it you miss this one its a long wait until 2010!

We are “officially” launched the sale on last weekend’s Compute This radio show, and our staff has done an amazing job keeping up with the workload. Unlike the previous sale, our turn around times are very reasonable (3 days or less).

A PC Maintenance Checkup is a complete head-to-toe examination of a computer that takes between 8 and 12 hours of bench time to complete. Our Maintenance Checkup is normally a great deal at its usual price of $60, but for next week only we will be discounting that price to an amazing $19.99.

We have a bit of a lunch tradition at Schrock Innovations. Each day one of my employees asks, what are we getting for lunch? The chorus of “i don’t know” and “not Jimmy Johns again” normally echos through our 2,000 square foot service center.

After some discussion we all agree on a place and each employee takes a turn buying lunch for everyone else.

Scott suggested we try something new as a favor to him. He told us we would not be sorry. He asked if we could order lunch from White or Wheat Sandwich Shoppe.

I tend to welcome my employees unofficially on my blog once they have worked for us for a few weeks and we know they are the real deal.

In fact, it’s almost an inside joke among Schrock’s employees that once you make it on Thor’s blog you know you are good to go.

If that’s the case, then I am happy to report that Schrock’s newest employee, Scott Long, is good to go. Scott will be taking on a management role in the Lincoln Service Center.

Scott brings an official Apple certification to Schrock as well as additional HP and Dell certifications. Anyone who has been through the certification process for these three companies understands the training and experience required to gain these certifications. His presence in the service center will help us keep our turnaround times to same-day or next day.

In the Money section of today’s Omaha World Herald Schrock Innovations was featured as a “business makeover”. After our recent changes in Lincoln, our Omaha location is paling in comparison and I know we need to do something about it.

We have a set of plans in place for it, but when Stephanie Monge offered me the opportunity to sit down with not just one, but a team of consultants about our plans I could not pass it up. Here is the article as it appeared in the paper today:

One of the things that made Schrock Innovations a leader in the local computer repair market over the past 10 years was the company’s ability to communicate with its customers in a personal and meaningful way.

Schrock Innovations has hired Alison “Ali” Clausen to occupy a new position as Communication Coordinator that will help ensure the company continues to lead its competition with every customer interaction.

Schrock has grown considerably since the late 1990’s and consultants have told me that it is inevitable that our levels of customer contact and service will have to go down for the company to grow to the next level.

When I started Schrock there were very intelligent business minds who told me what I was attempting to do was impossible, and with the help of some of the most talented and dedicated technicians in Lincoln, we proved them wrong. I refuse to believe that we can’t do it again.

Hiring computer technicians is always hard for Schrock Innovations. Many PC repair shops can simply look for a person with good tech skills, but at Schrock we have to find a person with great tech skills, good people skills, and most importantly a dedication to customer service.

After nearly three weeks of searching, we found the person we needed in Jon Popek.

We are still getting settled into our new computer repair service center, but we allowed a camera crew to come in and do a little filming for a commercial we are running to promote our new location.

Lincoln, Nebraska is the 7th best metropolitan economy in the country right now. That is a good thing for Nest Furniture, because with their poor customer service I wouldn’t be surprised if they are still around next year.

Maybe the owner was having a bad day. Maybe his dog died. Maybe he had a fight with his wife just before we came in. The point of this post is that NONE OF THAT MATTERS. Small businesses need to understand that the quality of their service – especially in an industry as competitive as furniture – is what separates failure from success.

Here is the situation my wife and I encountered at Nest Furniture today as we tried to give them $500 for a pair of tables for our new service center. Needless to say, our order has been canceled and we will not be back again. How would you have handled this one?

We are within days of opening our new Service Center and we need another full-time technician to ensure our customers receive the service they expect. You can apply online for the position on the Schrock Innovations Website.

We are looking for a computer technician with insane customer service skills. We understand those combinations are rare, so we are willing to pay accordingly to get the right addition to our staff. The person filling this position will be expected to:

* Work one-on-one with customers in their homes to solve computer problems
* Computer Repair in our Lincoln Service Center
* Help Customers over the phone and through the Schrock Desk
* Assist Walk-in Customers
* Conduct Advanced Data Recovery Procedures on Failed Devices
* Go above and Beyond under all circumstances to ensure our promise of insane customer service

Schrock Innovations will be moving to its new Lincoln home at 2801 Pine Lake Road on February 10. The past few weeks have been a frenzy of construction, ordering, planning, and executing, but it is all finally falling into place.

I debated on whether or not I should post progress pictures, but I decided in the end that I would rather post an online photo tour once everything is said and done. As many of my readers know, we have needed an upgrade in our facilities for some time.

Here are just a few of the differences between our current Service Center and the new one: