Wired for customer satisfaction
By Dave Dreeszen Journal business editor | Posted: Sunday, August 19, 2007
Advanced Computers owner Brian Massey holds a MacBook Pro at his Sioux City store. Earlier this year, the small business became an authorized Apple reseller and service center. The store also relocated to a new larger location at Gordon Plaza II. (Staff photo by Tim Hynds)
As he prepared to head home last Tuesday, Advanced Computers owner Brian Massey got a call at his office from a woman seeking help for two ailing PCs.
It was about 7:30 p.m. The Sioux City woman asked if Massey could have the computers repaired and ready to pick up by 8 a.m. the night morning, when she and her husband planned to leave for their new home in Wyoming.
So, Massey stayed at his shop until after 1 a.m. to fix the computers -- one riddled with viruses and spyware, the other with a failing hard drive.
"They called and it was kind of like, 'I'd really rather go home, but I understand,' '' he recalled. "She bought a computer from us. She trusts us. She sees the work that we do.
"I know they're moving to Wyoming. We may never see from them again or hear from them again. But I know for a fact that one of our customers is taken care of and is happy.''
Performing service after normal business hours is commonplace for Massey and Advanced Computer's team of technicians.
"I've always had the philosophy you have to take care of your customers,'' Massey said. "When someone's in a pinch and needs something done, we follow through. We put in a lot of hours, and it's stressful, but it's also rewarding.''
Advanced Computers sells and services both PCs and Macintosh computers. Earlier this year, the store became an authorized Apple reseller and service center, and relocated from 4100 Morningside Ave. to a larger location in Gordon Plaza 11 at 3109 Gordon Drive. Since those moves in April, Massey said his overall business has increased about 15 percent. Customer traffic, meanwhile, has more than doubled.
"We have a revolving door,'' Massey said. "We have people in and out all day long.''
Advanced Computers is the only authorized Mac warranty center in Sioux City, and one of just two between Sioux Falls and Omaha. (The other is in Danbury, Iowa.) Previously, Sioux City area Mac owners had to take their computers to another city or even ship them to a warranty center in Tennessee, he said.
Full line of products
Initially, he said, Apple was only going to let Advanced Computers service and sell its computers. Apple typically limits the retailing of its music players and televisions to its own Apple stores and large retailers and national catalogs. But Massey made his case for being able to sell the full Apple line of products.
With the exception of the iPhone, every product on the Apple store Web page is available at Advanced Computers. (AT&T Wireless has an exclusive two-year agreement with Apple to carry the iPhone, a combination mobile phone, music and video players and Web browsers.)
On display in the Advanced Computers showroom are iMacs, MacBooks, Mac minis, iPods, iPod shuffle, iPod nano, Apple tv and various accessories and software. The store is awaiting its first shipment of the new iMac desktops, which the computer maker introduced to great fanfare earlier this month. Massey said he has taken 12 orders for the sleeker versions of the all-in-one desktops, available in 20-inch and 24-inch versions.
Massey said one big advantage of buying a Mac at Advanced Computers is the store can make its own upgrades, like adding more memory or storage. Such orders through the online Apple store, he noted, typically take six to eight weeks for delivery.
"If you buy that machine from me, I'll have it ready that same day,'' Massey said.
Advanced Computers also sells its own new PCs. The computers, which carry a three-year warranty, are custom built to best fit how the customer primarily plans to use it, from downloading video and musics to playing online games.
The store also performs all kinds of service work, from installing new hardware and software to cleaning off the latest viruses or repairing the registry.
For $19.95, the technicians will run a full diagnostic on all the hardware and software. They then let the owner know what they found out, and provides an estimate of what it would cost to fix it. The shop has a standard hourly rate of $60.
Naval background
Massey, 36, has been hooked on computers since his days at Bishop Heelan High School. After graduation, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, where he served as a yeoman on an aircraft carrier. Upon his discharge two years, he returned to Sioux City and joined MCI in Sergeant Bluff. After five years, he moved to Omaha where he became a field representative for MCI.
He then moved to Denver where he managed a restaurant, returning to Sioux City in 1999 to be closer to my family. After attending Western Iowa Tech Community College and Bellevue University, he went to work at a computer service center that's now one of his computers.
Seven years ago, he started his own company. It's grown to a small business with six employees. To keep up with the growth, he is looking at adding yet another technician.
During the hiring process, Massey said he has applicants take a four-page test that gauges their overall knowledge of computers. It covers everything from motherboards and operating systems to software applications and digital cameras.
"With what we do, you have to be so well rounded,'' he said.
Massey credits his brother, a graphic designer in Omaha, for getting him to think about forging a relationship with Apple. "For the last 10 years, all I've been hearing is 'Mac, Mac, Mac,' '' he jokingly said of his sibling.
After hearing last year that Apple would begin offering Macs that run on Microsoft's Windows operating system, Massey's interest peaked. Massey said that will create a demand for technicians who can service and repair such desktops and notebooks.
"If you have somebody like me, I'm a PC guy, but I like a lot of features in the Apple operation system,'' he said. "Now, I can buy a computer and get the best of both worlds.''
Advanced Computers, 3109 Gordon Drive, is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. For more information, call (712) 224-5555.
It was about 7:30 p.m. The Sioux City woman asked if Massey could have the computers repaired and ready to pick up by 8 a.m. the night morning, when she and her husband planned to leave for their new home in Wyoming.
So, Massey stayed at his shop until after 1 a.m. to fix the computers -- one riddled with viruses and spyware, the other with a failing hard drive.
"They called and it was kind of like, 'I'd really rather go home, but I understand,' '' he recalled. "She bought a computer from us. She trusts us. She sees the work that we do.
"I know they're moving to Wyoming. We may never see from them again or hear from them again. But I know for a fact that one of our customers is taken care of and is happy.''
Performing service after normal business hours is commonplace for Massey and Advanced Computer's team of technicians.
"I've always had the philosophy you have to take care of your customers,'' Massey said. "When someone's in a pinch and needs something done, we follow through. We put in a lot of hours, and it's stressful, but it's also rewarding.''
Advanced Computers sells and services both PCs and Macintosh computers. Earlier this year, the store became an authorized Apple reseller and service center, and relocated from 4100 Morningside Ave. to a larger location in Gordon Plaza 11 at 3109 Gordon Drive. Since those moves in April, Massey said his overall business has increased about 15 percent. Customer traffic, meanwhile, has more than doubled.
"We have a revolving door,'' Massey said. "We have people in and out all day long.''
Advanced Computers is the only authorized Mac warranty center in Sioux City, and one of just two between Sioux Falls and Omaha. (The other is in Danbury, Iowa.) Previously, Sioux City area Mac owners had to take their computers to another city or even ship them to a warranty center in Tennessee, he said.
Full line of products
Initially, he said, Apple was only going to let Advanced Computers service and sell its computers. Apple typically limits the retailing of its music players and televisions to its own Apple stores and large retailers and national catalogs. But Massey made his case for being able to sell the full Apple line of products.
With the exception of the iPhone, every product on the Apple store Web page is available at Advanced Computers. (AT&T Wireless has an exclusive two-year agreement with Apple to carry the iPhone, a combination mobile phone, music and video players and Web browsers.)
On display in the Advanced Computers showroom are iMacs, MacBooks, Mac minis, iPods, iPod shuffle, iPod nano, Apple tv and various accessories and software. The store is awaiting its first shipment of the new iMac desktops, which the computer maker introduced to great fanfare earlier this month. Massey said he has taken 12 orders for the sleeker versions of the all-in-one desktops, available in 20-inch and 24-inch versions.
Massey said one big advantage of buying a Mac at Advanced Computers is the store can make its own upgrades, like adding more memory or storage. Such orders through the online Apple store, he noted, typically take six to eight weeks for delivery.
"If you buy that machine from me, I'll have it ready that same day,'' Massey said.
Advanced Computers also sells its own new PCs. The computers, which carry a three-year warranty, are custom built to best fit how the customer primarily plans to use it, from downloading video and musics to playing online games.
The store also performs all kinds of service work, from installing new hardware and software to cleaning off the latest viruses or repairing the registry.
For $19.95, the technicians will run a full diagnostic on all the hardware and software. They then let the owner know what they found out, and provides an estimate of what it would cost to fix it. The shop has a standard hourly rate of $60.
Naval background
Massey, 36, has been hooked on computers since his days at Bishop Heelan High School. After graduation, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, where he served as a yeoman on an aircraft carrier. Upon his discharge two years, he returned to Sioux City and joined MCI in Sergeant Bluff. After five years, he moved to Omaha where he became a field representative for MCI.
He then moved to Denver where he managed a restaurant, returning to Sioux City in 1999 to be closer to my family. After attending Western Iowa Tech Community College and Bellevue University, he went to work at a computer service center that's now one of his computers.
Seven years ago, he started his own company. It's grown to a small business with six employees. To keep up with the growth, he is looking at adding yet another technician.
During the hiring process, Massey said he has applicants take a four-page test that gauges their overall knowledge of computers. It covers everything from motherboards and operating systems to software applications and digital cameras.
"With what we do, you have to be so well rounded,'' he said.
Massey credits his brother, a graphic designer in Omaha, for getting him to think about forging a relationship with Apple. "For the last 10 years, all I've been hearing is 'Mac, Mac, Mac,' '' he jokingly said of his sibling.
After hearing last year that Apple would begin offering Macs that run on Microsoft's Windows operating system, Massey's interest peaked. Massey said that will create a demand for technicians who can service and repair such desktops and notebooks.
"If you have somebody like me, I'm a PC guy, but I like a lot of features in the Apple operation system,'' he said. "Now, I can buy a computer and get the best of both worlds.''
Advanced Computers, 3109 Gordon Drive, is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. For more information, call (712) 224-5555.
Story Comments
Read More and Post Comments 2 comment(s)
Please note: The following are comments from readers. In no way do they represent the views of The Sioux City Journal or Lee Enterprises. We will not edit or alter your comments, but we do reserve the right to not post or to remove comments that violate our code of conduct. No comment may contain potentially libelous statements; obscene, explicit or racist language; personal attacks, insults or threats. Terms of Service
Aaron wrote on Aug 19, 2007 1:59 PM:
Stacy wrote on Aug 19, 2007 1:56 PM: