Growing companies are scaling fast, hiring quickly, and focusing on core business. Formal IT processes? That’s something you’ll get to… eventually.
But what happens when eventually arrives and a computer breaks and there’s no plan in place? Here’s a standard experience:
An employee reports a problem. The IT team (or the person wearing the IT hat that day) tries basic troubleshooting. When that doesn’t work, they need to find a repair provider and schedule an appointment around everyone’s availability.
At the first appointment, the technician diagnoses the issue but doesn’t have the necessary part in stock. The employee faces a difficult choice: leave the computer and be without it indefinitely, or take it back and return when the part arrives in 5-7 business days.
They opt to keep working, bringing the computer back. When the part arrives earlier than expected, they schedule another drop-off. The repair itself? Completed in just one day. But coordinating schedules means the computer can’t be picked up for several more days.
Total time from problem to resolution: 12 days.
Actual repair time: 1 day.
This is the reality at companies without a repair process—not because anyone dropped the ball, but because there was no clear process to follow in the first place.
The Hidden Costs of Not Having a Plan
Chances are, the sleepless nights founders experience aren’t caused by the need for a formal computer repair process. But consider what this 12-day timeline really meant:
- Productivity loss: An employee working at reduced capacity or juggling borrowed equipment for nearly two weeks
- Coordination overhead: Multiple people spending time scheduling, communicating, and coordinating drop-offs and pickups
- Delayed decisions: Three separate appointments that depended on multiple people’s availability
- Stress and uncertainty: No clear expectations about timeline or who was responsible for next steps
And this is a relatively smooth repair situation. No data loss, no critical deadlines missed, no complications. But it still consumed far more time and energy than necessary.
What a Repair Plan Actually Looks Like
The good news? You don’t need a Fortune 500 IT infrastructure to handle computer repairs efficiently. A solid plan can be remarkably simple:
- Designate a point person
Who owns the repair process from start to finish? This person doesn’t need to be technical—they just need to be the coordinator who ensures things keep moving. - Establish service relationships before you need them
Good news: if your computers are still under warranty, most repairs through authorized service providers are typically free—but you need to know where to go and how the process works before something breaks. Do your research ahead of time. Set up an account with an authorized repair provider, such as ComputerCare. The time you spend setting this up now could save you hundreds or thousands of dollars in out-of-warranty repairs down the line—not to mention the time saved scrambling to figure it out when someone’s computer dies.
- Create a loaner/backup device pool
Even one or two spare laptops can prevent a hardware issue from becoming a productivity crisis. These don’t need to be new—refurbished devices work perfectly well as temporary solutions. - Document the process
A simple one-page guide answers: Who do I contact? Where do we take broken computers? What information needs to be documented? How do we handle data backup? This prevents the process from being reinvented every time. - Set clear expectations with your team
Let employees know the typical timeline and process so they can plan accordingly. Mystery creates anxiety; clear communication creates confidence.
The Real ROI of Planning Ahead
Creating a repair plan isn’t about being overly formal or bureaucratic. It’s about respecting your team’s time and your organization’s productivity.
With a plan in place, that 12-day timeline could have looked more like this:
- Day 1: Problem reported to designated IT coordinator
- Day 2: Computer assessed, sent to pre-established repair partner, employee receives loaner
- Day 3-4: Repair completed
- Day 5: Repaired computer returned, loaner returned to pool
Same repair. Five days instead of twelve. No scheduling conflicts. No uncertainty.
Getting Started
If you’re reading this and thinking, “We definitely need this,” here’s the encouraging news: you can set up a basic repair plan in an afternoon. Start with these three steps:
- Document your current reality: What happened the last time a computer broke? Write down every step, every delay, every “we should have…” that came up.
- Identify your biggest bottleneck: Was it finding a repair provider? Scheduling availability? Lack of backup devices? Fix that one thing first.
- Write it down: Create a simple document that outlines the process. It doesn’t need to be perfect—it just needs to exist.
The goal isn’t to handle every possible scenario. It’s to have a clear path forward when (not if) computers break. Because in a growing organization, you have better things to do than spend 12 days coordinating a one-day repair.
