The bench is a business, not a favour
Repairs are usually the highest-margin work in an independent shop and the worst-documented. A tidy work order process fixes both the margin and the phone calls.
Step 1 — Intake that protects you
Capture at intake, before the instrument leaves the counter:
- Owner name and phone, and the serial number of the instrument
- Reported fault, in the customer's words
- Condition notes and photos — existing dings, cracks, buckle rash
- Estimate authorisation limit ("call me over $150")
- Accessories left with it: case, strap, pedal, mouthpiece
That photo set has ended more disputes than any policy sign ever printed.
Step 2 — Quote before you cut
Quote parts and labour separately. Customers accept a $95 labour line far more easily when they can see the $12 nut it sits next to.
Step 3 — One status per job
Received → quoted → awaiting approval → in progress → awaiting parts → ready for pickup → collected. A job in exactly one state is a job you can report on. "In progress" for three weeks is a job you can chase.
Step 4 — Awaiting parts is not in progress
Separating those two states is the single highest-value change most shops can make. It tells you instantly which jobs are blocked by a supplier and which are blocked by your own bench capacity.
Step 5 — Call at the point of change
Two calls win the customer for life: the quote call, and the ready call. Everything else is noise. Log both against the ticket so nobody calls twice or not at all.
Step 6 — Measure turnaround
Average days from received to ready, per technician. Publish it internally. Turnaround is what customers remember and recommend — not fret levelling technique.
Templates and software
Grab our free printable repair work order template if you want to start on paper today. When paper stops scaling, work order software for repair shops keeps parts, labour, status, and the customer's history on the same ticket, and instrument repair work order software ties each job to the unit's lifetime service record.
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