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

When we were planning the new Schrock Innovations Lincoln Service Center we knew we needed a solution for displaying inventory and we were going to need a two-placement point of purchase reception desk. What I didn’t know was that we could get all of that from the same company that was doing our custom flooring. […]

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:

Today is the last day to purchase an Ultimate Upgrade PC at Schrock Innovations and receive the free double your memory upgrade from 2 GB  to 4 GB! Be sure to stop into the service center to find out how the Ultimate Upgrade can take any old, tired PC and give it new life!  If […]

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.

The non-event that was the Conficker virus sparked a ton of media attention on April 1. In one afternoon two TV crews visited the new Schrock Innovations Computer Repair Service Center in Lincoln, NE to talk about the virus.

In both interviews I predicted that the virus would be a non-event, but that the bot network left behind could be leveraged at a later date for just about anything.

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.

Schrock Innovations will be holding our first Preventative Maintenance Checkup Sale of 2009 this weekend to promote the grand opening of our new Computer Repair Service Center on the corner of 27th and Pine Lake Road.

Although we are “officially” launching the sale on this weekend’s Compute This radio show, you are invited to bring your PC in now and beat the inevitable rush!

The Midlands Business Journal ran a special technology section on the 13th and I was interviewed for the article on green technology.

It was an opportune time for them to interview me on the subject because I was in the midst of replacing a ton of Schrock Innovations’ outdated tech equipment with modern, more energy efficient gear.

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.

Last month Schrock Innovations screwed up badly repairing a customer’s computer. Our customer had a Sony notebook and Best Buy said it would take 2 weeks for a warranty repair. The customer was going to Spain in a few days and needed the notebook. They brought it in to us for a speedy repair and in our zeal to provide a superior service experience, we fell flat on our faces.

There are only two ways for businesses to survive an economy in recession. They can lower service levels and hunker down for the economic storm or they can raise your service standards and position themselves to take customers from their cowering competition.

The way your company handles difficult situations is more important than anything else if you are working to take customers from your competitors. Here is what we did wrong, why the laptop did not make it on the plane to Spain, and why we ended up buying our customer a whole new Sony notebook on our dime. How would your company have handled this situation?