As part of managing clients expectations, it's important to educate your clients on the steps that go into formatting a hard drive, loading the OS, configuring device drivers, loading software applications, customizing the OS and applications and restoring data.

Educate Your Client

As a computer consulting business owner, you know replacing a hard drive is not as simple as removing the shrink wrap and installing the device into the PC. But, many times, your clients don't.

Or they just assume that all the OS files, device drivers and software applications will "magically" appear. This all may sound really basic, but taking a few minutes when discussing PC warranties with your clients to explain these issues.

How does the Vendor Handle Hard Drive Replacement?

You need to know how your preferred PC vendors handle hard drive replacement under warranty service. What kinds of labor are covered if a desktop PC or notebook hard drive needs replacement under the warranty?

Some vendors specify that the hard drive device needs to be just physically replaced and operational, and recognized by the PC hardware setup program. Under this form of warranty coverage, the technician's job is done the moment the empty (blank) replacement hard drive is installed in your client's PC.

The Real Cost

Unfortunately, as most PC vendors feel financial pressure to reduce their support and warranty costs, your computer consulting business clients probably will be subjected to a no-frills warranty service approach. Hard drives for desktop PCs are relatively inexpensive, around $100 to $200 at retail.

So it's important for your clients to understand that warranty service on a hard drive replacement generally doesn't cover the more substantial labor costs involved with restoring the hard drive and system to the pre-crash condition.

If your clients outsource this work to your computer consulting business, it easily could cost them $200 to $500 (or more) in labor to get that PC hard drive back to its pre-crash condition. Even if your clients' internal gurus handle the work, this easily could pull these internal gurus away from their "real" jobs for a half-day or more.

The Bottom Line about the Computer Consulting Business

The expense of recovering a crashed desktop PC hard drive tends to be more concentrated on soft costs, which most times aren't covered by the PC vendor's warranty, therefore we see more and more reason not to recommend purchasing extended warranty coverage with entry-level desktop PCs.

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