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Rock On: How Orderry Helps Guitar Repair Shop Stay in Tune
Read about how Chicago's famous guitar service increased revenue by weeding out inefficiencies.
Guitar repair shops are niche businesses with unique processes. Enthusiastic entrepreneurs in this industry wear many hats, ensuring that instruments sound their best and the business remains profitable. However, organizing jobs, inventory, and customer data can be challenging without the right tools.
Table of Contents
Rock Bands' Favorite Guitar Service Combines Technology and Craft
Making the Switch to a Modern System
Organizing All the Work in Orderry
Proved by KPIs: Transitioning to Orderry Increased Revenue
Rock Bands' Favorite Guitar Service Combines Technology and Craft
Since 1996, Third Coast Guitar Service has catered to a niche market of guitar repairs, restoration, and customization. The business operates from three locations: the main full-service hub in Chicago and two smaller satellite shops. The satellite locations are one-man shops that can handle 80% of the work, while the central location takes larger jobs.
The business offers the expertise of 10 technicians combined with state-of-the-art equipment, including a PLEK Machine for top-notch fretwork. The owner, Chris Eudy, has extensive experience in guitar repair and continues to be hands-on in the business.
Orderry is great for niche businesses like fixing guitars. That kind of service is very localized. 30 years ago, you could go to any music store in any small town, and there would be a guy at that music store who could fix your guitar. All those stores are gone now because of Amazon and the Internet. And all those guys now work for me in one spot. We don’t offer on-site service, so you must bring us your repair. We don't sell guitars. We make stuff better or restore it to its originality. That's what we do.
Chris Eudy
Owner of Third Coast Guitar Service
Running a niche business, too? Let Orderry organize all your work on one convenient platform.
Making the Switch to a Modern System
Before Orderry, Third Coast Guitar Service relied on the Microsoft Access database created in 1996 for its operations. Although the Internet was not widely available then, the database served its purpose by digitizing operations previously conducted on paper. The database could be used across all business locations thanks to a virtual private network.
Two years ago, Mr. Eudy transitioned from an MS Access database to Orderry for all business processes due to its customizability and ease of use. Although the initial system served well for many years, the increasing volume of information and the need for programming knowledge led to the switch.
Our initial solution worked well for what we needed to do: keeping things off paper and into a computer. However, you must know a fair amount about programming to set it up how you want. I'm a business owner, not a programmer, so I started the search for a SAAS solution.
Chris Eudy
Owner of Third Coast Guitar Service
Mr. Eudy recalls challenges in choosing a SaaS solution for his niche business, as most providers catered to on-site home repair, computer, or cell phone repair. He hoped to find repair shop software similar to solutions for bicycle repair, which he felt could fit his business. After trying a few online options, he stumbled upon Orderry, which he found to be similar to the logic of their previous system and, thus, easier for him and his employees to understand and use.
We use Orderry for every process. There's not a process for which we haven't used the system since we switched to it two years ago.
Chris Eudy
Owner of Third Coast Guitar Service
Watch in a live demo how easily Orderry can organize your business
Organizing All the Work in Orderry
Besides having a similar logic, Orderry provides many helpful features that were not available in the on-premise solution used before. One of the things Mr. Eudy greatly values is that the software integrates client, asset, inventory, and work order information into a single system. Another benefit for him as a business owner is the ability to filter work orders by assigned techs and see each employee's current tasks and jobs.
The best part of Orderry for me is that the data on clients, assets, products, and work orders are integrated, organizing all the work in one place.
Chris Eudy
Owner of Third Coast Guitar Service
Convenient filtering in the web-based work order system
Next is the status feature, which allows Mr. Eudy to track the progress of work orders (e.g., whether a part is back-ordered or an estimate is awaiting client approval), which is a critical tool for organization and efficiency. He also appreciates the mobile app's convenience for tasks like inventory checks, where he can simply scan a tag to pull up information.
I do use Orderry for inventory. That's one thing I didn't do before because everything was basically on paper. Everything is a lot for inventory… and with Orderry, that's so easy to enter stuff into the system.
Chris Eudy
Owner of Third Coast Guitar Service
Inventory in the Work Orders app
Orderry's ability to adapt to different business types and needs and its user-friendly nature makes it a robust tool for guitar repair business management. Whether handling work orders, managing customer and asset information, or aiding in inventory management, the service repair software has proven its worth in streamlining business operations and making life easier for the business owner and his techs.
Orderry is incredibly intuitive. If you're used to using any kind of database, it is very familiar. And the fact that I can modify the program so easily makes a huge difference to me because that's what I want. I'm not a cookie-cutter business. Guitar repair is not typical. And that's why Orderry is so good for businesses like mine.
Chris Eudy
Owner of Third Coast Guitar Service
Proved by KPIs: Transitioning to Orderry Increased Revenue
Implementing the new solution has increased productivity, efficiency, and customer service in many ways. Each technician’s output is now easily tracked, which allowed Mr. Eudy to replace two employees who had left with one new hire.
With Orderry, all my employees are more productive, which is easily shown on paper. I just now have to hire one technician to replace two. It's clearly made a big difference in how much each technician is putting out and what their output is every day, every month, and every week.
Chris Eudy
Owner of Third Coast Guitar Service
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Orderry also improves overall business management, allowing for easy detection of inefficient processes and real-time monitoring of work progress.
We keep better track of what's happening, and things get done more efficiently. We can easily add extra things that customers may request in Orderry. All that just makes us able to generate more revenue because we're not losing money on things that don’t work.
Chris Eudy
Owner of Third Coast Guitar Service
Another big benefit for Third Coast Guitar Service is the ease of customer communication. Orderry allows quick access to work order details when clients call. It also sends out automatic notifications when work order statuses change. This improves customer service by keeping clients constantly updated on what is going on with their repairs.
Orderry’s automated status updates greatly reduce customer upset. If the part is still on backorder, it's not gonna get done any sooner, or any cheaper, clients just want to know.
Chris Eudy
Owner of Third Coast Guitar Service
We thank Mr. Eudy for sharing his story of the successful switch to Orderry and how it adapted to the unique operations of his guitar repair shop. We wish Third Coast Guitar Service continuous growth through automation.
