Back in the day, when your phone was broken, you’d likely drop by any phone store to try and get it fixed.
But did you know that many of these phone stores would actually outsource the fixing to others who specialise in phone repairs?
This means longer wait times and heftier repair fees due to the middle men involved.
Nine years ago, SPR Tech was established to provide a better, more standardised solution.
From glass to screen
The man behind SPR Tech is Jason Kuan, the CEO and founder.
Having never pursued his tertiary education, Jason entered the workforce at a young age. He had been working in the glass manufacturing industry when he injured his hand.
With that injury, he began thinking, “Is this line of work really what I want to do?”
While he was recuperating, a friend happened to talk to him about the phone repair industry. That sparked an interest in Jason, who began looking into the field. Seeing its potential, he took up some courses to learn how to repair phones.
Not long after completing the courses, he decided to start offering his own repair services. He would go door-to-door to different phone stores, liaising with them to fix up phones as and when the jobs came in.
After some time, he began noticing the gap in the market for a specialised repair shop where all kinds of phone users could drop by for a myriad of servicing.
With that realisation, Jason opened the first SPR Tech store, one of many more to come.
An increasingly competitive industry
Today, there are 16 SPR Tech outlets across the Klang Valley. Aside from phones, they can also fix up gadgets like earbuds, tablets, watches, and more.
“Any brands you mention, we likely can do it,” Jason said.
When it comes to repairing your devices with third party service providers, though, a concern is quality. To that end, the CEO shared that SPR Tech actually has its own academy that trains its own staff as well as external students.
Continual research and improvement is conducted, too, to ensure that the team is constantly up-to-date with the latest technology.
However, competition is something that is unavoidable even in the phone repair industry.
While affordable pricing is key to SPR Tech’s positioning, the company isn’t interested in engaging in a price war or racing to the bottom. As Jason said, there’s always someone somewhere doing things for cheaper.
“I think for us, our standout point is our customer service. Our main metric is customer satisfaction. We work with the goal of positive feedback in mind,” Jason shared.
Of course, almost every company can (and likely does) say that. But actually achieving that is no simple task. Looking up SPR’s branches, it does seem like many of them have high ratings, ranging around 4.8 to 5.0 stars on Google.
Jason shared that they are working on growing a customer experience department that will actively seek feedback to encourage customer loyalty and quality service.
The CEO shared that in the past, many might have looked down on the career, but it actually requires a lot of advanced skills to grow in this field.
In a way, thanks to SPR Tech’s growth, Jason has helped phone repair become a more professional—and perhaps more respectable—line of work.
Opportunities come to those who are ready to grab them
When asked about whether he foresaw SPR Tech’s growth, Jason shared that it was something he gave some thought to. “You need to have a blueprint, after all,” he said. “Slowly, it was built into a reality.”
But interestingly, the majority of SPR’s outlets were actually just opened in the past handful of years. In fact, prior to the pandemic, the team only had one outlet. Jason always had the intention to grow the business, but he bided his time and waited until the iron was hot before striking.
When the MCO happened and rent for shop lots became cheaper, Jason knew that the day had finally come for him to rapidly expand. So, expand he did. In just three years, they expanded to 16 stores.
“You must build a strong foundation,” he advised. “So that when the opportunity comes, you can grab it, and you can break through.”
Expanding SPR
Thus far, all of SPR Tech’s outlets are self-owned, but Jason has solid plans to expand to other states in Malaysia.
Specifically, he aims to grow by way of franchising, and has secured the proper credentials to offer such opportunities. Introducing franchise opportunities can also allow SPR team members to grow and become entrepreneurs in their own right, too.
The challenge now is finding the appropriate people to work with.
“The SOPs are all in place, so that’s not a problem. It’s about what kind of people are carrying out those SOPs,” he said. “Money and technique aren’t the challenge, it’s the people.”
Looking back at his journey, Jason noted that finding the right talent is a challenge that SPR Tech has always dealt with. And it’s because of the right talent that the business was able to blossom.
“At the start, I had my hands full, busying myself with everything from left to right,” he reminisced. “But as you grow, you start having departments that you can delegate the responsibilities to.”
By identifying the right partners, running the business became easier. With the right talents in place, Jason was able to let go of the day-to-day operations and focus on his own strengths in growing the business.
“After all, one person’s capabilities are limited,” he said. “But when you gather multiple people, something that was challenging to you might not be challenging to them.”
Having been doing this for nearly a decade, Jason has no doubt collected many experiences, both positive and negative ones. As a seasoned entrepreneur now, there’s lots of advice and lessons he could share, but ultimately, it all boils down to one thing.
“You must have a dream,” he said. “For example, for myself, I wanted to take a very simple industry and achieve something that is not quite simple. That’s my motivator. For others, they have to find their own.”
Featured Image Credit: SPR Tech