Your Computer Repair Price List Should Consider Geek Squad and Verizon

When you created your company’s computer repair price list, did you take into account the pricing structures of Geek Squad and Verizon? If not, perhaps you should. Here’s why.

Why Verizon and Best Buy/Geek Squad Have Partnered

A few months back, an article on Inc.com discussed how Small Businesses Get Their Own Geek Squads.

The basic premise of the article discusses how:

• Most small businesses don’t have the budget for in-house IT support.

• Geek Squad, part of Best Buy, and Verizon are partnering to deliver small business IT services.

Now regular readers of this blog may remember some earlier articles on similar topics, such as

• How Computer Support Services Can Sell Against “Best Buy for Business"
• Geek Squad Rates – Can Your Business Compete?
• How a Computer Consulting Business Can Take on National Competitors

But this article on Inc.com is a little different because this partnership focuses on two areas where Best Buy very badly needs help:

• Diversification of revenue into services, especially B2B services, where it’s better protected against the retail profit margin pressures of showrooming.

• Bypassing the need for expensive small business client acquisition by tapping into Verizon’s existing small business client base.

So what should independently-owned small business VARs, MSPs, consultants, and computer repair businesses do about reacting to this partnership with their computer repair price lists?

The simple answer: Not a lot. If anything, the pricing revealed in the article gives many independently-owned computer repair shops plenty of room to raise their prices.

Consider What Verizon is Charging for IT Help Desk Managed Services

For example, the article reveals the following about Verizon’s IT Help Desk managed services pricing:

• Basic hardware and software support for PCs and Macs: $15 per user, per month

• Premium hardware and software support (adds support for tablets and smartphones, plus backup service and “unlimited” Geek Squad assistance): $25 per user, per month

• Remote server administration: $135 per server, per month

• Remote network management: $90 per device, per month

What all this makes you wonder, however, is: If this Verizon and Best Buy/Geek Squad partnership is largely about selling managed services, where does recently acquired MindSHIFT Technologies fit in all of this? 

Make Sure You’re Not Undercharging

So where does this leave the independent-owned computer repair business? And what should this information do to their price lists?

This partnership should embolden independents to charge at the absolute minimum what the Verizon/Best Buy/Geek Squad partnership charges for Verizon’s IT Help Desk managed services.

So if your computer repair shop is supporting a local small business with 10 users, an on-premise server, and a basic router/access point, this partnership is giving you “permission” to charge ($25 x 10 users) + $135 + $90, or $475/month before you ever set foot on-site for on-site services or special projects. 

So who do you look to for guidance when establishing your computer repair price list? Besides price, what other competitive differentiators do you sell against national competitors? Please share your thoughts in the Comments box below. 

And to follow through on the tips introduced in this short article, especially if you also support SaaS and IaaS, be sure to enroll now in our free 7-day eCourse: Go-to-Market Strategy 101 for B2B SaaS Startups and Scaleups.