CRM for a repair service centre

ServiceCenterSoft is repair-tracking software with a customer database built in. Each customer is one card showing all their devices and repairs, phone numbers, company, a "regular" or "difficult" label and your own notes. There is no separate CRM to buy and keep in sync with your job records: a customer appears in the database the moment they bring in a device.

The CRM a workshop needs — and the one it does not

"CRM" usually means sales software: a pipeline, deals, calls, reminders for the salesperson to ring back. A repair centre hardly needs any of that. There is no "deal" to close — the customer has already come in and the device is already on the counter. The cycle is different: you book it in, repair it, hand it back, and a year later the same person brings in another phone or a washing machine.

So what a workshop wants from a CRM comes down to three things:

• find the customer quickly while they stand at the counter, without creating them twice;
• see at a glance what this customer has brought in before and how it went;
• tell them the device is ready, instead of answering "any news?" calls.

That is exactly what the software does. What it does not do is listed honestly below.

One card, every repair the customer has had

The customer card holds the name, phone number and a second phone number, email, company, town and address, and internal notes. Below them is a list of all their job sheets — number, device, date booked in, status and price — with the total number of repairs above the list.

This shows what usually only the owner remembers. The customer is back for the third time with the same laptop — perhaps it is time to suggest a replacement rather than another repair. There was an argument at collection last time — the notes say what about. The card opens in one click from any job sheet, and any job sheet opens from the card.

Find a customer by any digits

Everyone writes phone numbers differently: with a country code, with a leading zero, with dashes or spaces. The search matches on the digits, so "067 123" finds the customer however the number was typed. You can also search by surname, company name or email.

There is no separate step for adding a new customer: the intake form searches the database, and if the person is not there, the fields for a new card are right on the same page. The job sheet and the customer are saved together. The database grows by itself, with no separate chore of "putting customers into the CRM".

Labels: regular, VIP, difficult

Each customer can be given a label from your own list. The label shows in colour next to the surname in the job list, so the front desk notices it before even opening the card. You choose the names and colours: some shops want "regular" and "VIP", others "difficult" and "prepayment only".

A label is not about a discount at the till but about how to deal with the person: a regular can be promised a date without a deposit, while with a difficult customer it pays to record the condition of the device especially carefully.

Companies and partners

When a device comes from an organisation, the customer card has a "company" field, and the search finds the customer by it too. For those who send you repairs regularly — electronics shops, office suppliers, other workshops — there is a separate partner list. The partner is set on the job sheet, and the job list can be filtered by it: you see how much equipment came from each partner and where it stands now.

Keeping the customer informed: email and portal

When the device is ready, the front desk presses a button and the customer receives a ready-for-collection email. You edit the wording yourself. The email is sent deliberately rather than automatically on a status change, so the customer does not get one if the status was set by mistake. The same email can be resent no more than once a day.

You can also switch on the customer portal. The login is the phone number; the front desk hands out the password at intake. In the portal the customer sees only their own repairs, read-only: status, dates, price and whether it is paid. They do not see the work log, the technicians' names or internal notes. The portal stays off until you switch it on in the settings. More on customer notifications.

Who can see the customer database

Customers' phone numbers and addresses are what an employee can take with them when they leave. That is why viewing customer cards and editing them are two separate permissions. A technician can see job sheets without access to the customer database, and the front desk can see and add customers without seeing reports or stock. Permissions are checked on the server, not just by hiding buttons (branches and permissions).

What our CRM does not have

Better to find out here than after paying:

• A sales pipeline or deals. A workshop does not need one; if you also sell equipment, use separate software for sales.
• Telephony. The software does not make calls or record them.
• SMS. Not sent and not planned: they cost money. Email, a Telegram "ready" message and the portal work.
• Bulk mailings. You cannot send a promotion to all customers from the software — emails go out only about a specific repair.
• Loyalty points, discount cards or birthday greetings.
• Export of the database to Excel. If you need it, it is custom work at the hourly rate.

What you get

• A customer database that fills itself — with every intake.
• The history of each customer: all devices, repairs and amounts on one card.
• Search by any digits of the phone number — no duplicates in the database.
• Labels the front desk sees before opening the card.
• A record of the companies and partners who send you repairs.
• A ready-for-collection email and a customer portal instead of "any news?" calls.
• Customer contacts visible only to the people who need them.

What it costs

The CRM is not sold separately — the customer database is already part of the software. One price for the whole workshop, with no extra charge for staff or branches.

You can try the customer card and search without signing up — in the demo. How a technician works through a repair is described on repair workflow.

Frequently asked questions