JCD Repair - Chicago
Everyone at JCD Repair takes great pride in providing high quality repair service and top-notch customer service at a great price. This is true from the owners right down to our technicians and receptionists. We love seeing our customers walk away happy and we're really good at making that happen.
Many companies make these claims. Here's what we do to make sure it happens for our Chicago customers:
- Experience. Having fixed thousands of devices for people, we know what we're doing and we do it very, very well. But we don't expect you to take our word for it. See what real customers have to say.
- First-Rate Training Program. We've learned a lot since starting this business in 2007 - and not just about fixing things. Our 6 week training program for new employees insures that their not only ready to fix your iPhone or iPad when you come in, but they'll also know how to treat you with respect.
- Cool Store Front. We believe that part of good customer service is a pleasant environment for customers. To that end, we took the time and effort to design a store front that looks good and allows our customers to relax while their repair is being done. We've put up art from local Chicago artists, invested in cool & comfortable furniture, and have a set of magazines so you have something to do while you're without your phone.
- Efficient Repair Stations Our Chicago store not only look good but we've taken the time to insure an efficient and comfortable work environment for our technicians. This allows them to fix your device quickly and properly. We've organized a orderly and clean workstations with complete tool sets, ample space, and quick access to replacement parts.
- Good Suppliers A repair is only as good as the replacement parts that are used. That's why we've searched through dozens of suppliers to discover the select few that can consistently provide us with high-quality parts at a fair price.
- Buy in Bulk It's no secret that the more product you buy, the better your pricing. That's why our home office buys all the parts for all of our stores. This means we can buy hundreds of replacement parts at a time. We then pass this savings on to our customers by offering some of the most competitive repair prices on the market.
- We Treat Our Employees with Respect. You might wonder how this leads to high quality work and great customer service. The reason is because we truly believe that happy employees equals happy customers. To make this happen we try hard to pay a good hourly wage, offer all employees bonuses that are a percentage of company profits, offer daily bonuses for the really busy days, and offer as much flexibility as we can to accomodate our employees schedules to make sure they have time for the other important things in their lives.
- Guaranteed Results All of our repairs are guaranteed for 90 days from any parts or workmanship defects. Read all about our warranty details.. But don't worry, it's very rare that anyone ever needs to use our warranty. We fully test all of our repairs before calling them done to catch any mistakes or defects before you go home.
Story of JCD Repair in Chicago
Chicago was the second JCD Repair shop we opened up. A lot of people ask, "How did you go from one shop in Seattle to a second shop in Chicago?" The answer is simple: Matt McCormick, the founder of JCD Repair, decided he wanted to be closer to his family (he had originally moved from Madison, WI to Seattle to work as a computer programmer for Microsoft). That move happend in March of 2009 and the Chicago office has seem some pretty amazing changes since then.
Our first Chicago location was at a small, shared office space in the Ravenswood neighborhood (on the corner of Montrose and Ravenswood). At that time we were still going under the name Jet City Devices. Customers back then had to sit on a bench in the hall while Matt took their iPhones back into his office to fix them. Credit card payments were entered right on Matt's laptop when he'd come out to deliver the fixed phone.
After about a year, the Ravenswood space just got too small. Plus Matt's fellow office mate's got tired of the constant refrain of, "Hello. Jet City Devices. This is Matt. How can I help you?" This was said every time the phone rang and it was ringing a lot by March of 2010.
After a brief experimental stint at an Orland Square Mall, we moved the company to an actual retail space in the Jefferson Park neighborhood, hired our first two employees, and renamed the company from Jet City Devices to Chicago Smart Phone Repair. The next year would prove to be extremely interesting, educational, and turbulent as we learned out to run a successful business with employees and deal with a bad decision in location.
It turned out that our Jefferson Park location, which was right next to two freeways and a blue line stop, was not as ideal as it first seemed. The problem was that we discovered a hard truth about Chicagoans: Those that live in the suburbs will drive just about anywhere but people that live in the city, millions of people, will not travel more than a couple of miles to get their phone fixed.
As a result of moving to Jefferson Park, we lost almost half of our business from the Ravenswood location because half of our customers were in that Chicago urban dweller demographic. So not only had we just significantly increased our costs by hiring employees, but we had lost a lot of revenue. This was hard and painful but in the end, it taught us some great lessons.
When our lease was up at the Jefferson Park location in May of 2011, we moved our shop to its current location at the corner of Fullerton & Southport Ave on the western edge of the Lincoln Park neighborhood. Just like the move to Jefferson Park had cut our business in half overnight, the move back into the city doubled our sales overnight. It was a crazy time in which we had to hire 2 new employees and completely redo all of our inventory systems to keep up with demand.
Today, with one final name change, to JCD Repair, we find ourselves in a great place. We have 4 employees in our Chicago shop, record sales, and as a company we have plans to start expanding our Chicago model into other midwestern cities. It has been a fun and exciting time and we expect that we are just getting started!