OTTAWA – Ever had to go through the harrowing experience of handing off your wireless device – the handheld tether for your entire life – to your service provider because it’s on the fritz only to have to wait a week or longer to get it back? Well Mobile Klinik, the brainchild of former wireless industry heavyweights, is here to make the process of fixing a mobile phone as painless as possible.
The company held the official opening of its first store at the St. Laurent shopping mall in Ottawa on September 14. Mayor Jim Watson, company staff and other local dignitaries were on hand for the ribbon cutting. (At right are Rob Bruce, right and Watson, middle.)
Mobile Klinik, which was founded by Rob Bruce (former head of Rogers Wireless), Ken Campbell (former CEO at Wind Mobile) Alain Adam and Naaman Zorub (who are behind AZ Wireless, which is the company running Wind Mobile’s stores), aims to fill a gap in the cellphone market. As mobile penetration has topped the 80% mark in Canada, there is a need to provide effective servicing of this growing number of devices. The company says it will fix a device in one hour and provide a warranty for the labour and parts.
Rob Bruce, an investor and partner with the new company, told Cartt.ca in an interview that as more people buy their device outright as opposed to subsidizing it through a wireless plan and with individual handset insurance rates totalling upwards $120 a year, using Mobile Klinik services makes a lot of sense.
“The model out there today is largely, take it some place and take your chances. Whether you’re taking your chances on the capabilities of the location or whether you’re taking your chances on how long it’ll take you to get it back, none of them are really satisfactory solutions and I think we’ve got a better answer,” he says.
Mobile Klinik leverages the business model of its sister company Point Service Mobile (PSM), an outfit based in Paris, France. It has operations in several European countries and recently entered the African market. (Mobile Klinik is a franchisee of PSM.) And while the market for mobile phone repair in Europe is larger than it is in Canada, the opportunity here with its 26 million subscribers is still considerable.
Bruce explains that data indicate that approximately one-third of all cellphone users at any given time experience a problem of some significance. That’s a big market for Canada, he says, noting that it’s even larger than that because many people have multiple devices.
“And if even a third of that third decides to show up to a store, we’ll have way more business than we could ever hope for. Obviously there are other solutions solving that but nonetheless we think it’s a very big market both in terms of dollars and units,” states Bruce.
“If even a third of that third decides to show up to a store, we’ll have way more business than we could ever hope for.” – Rob Bruce, Mobile Klinik
The former Rogers Wireless executive was reluctant to talk about the specific capabilities or the types of problems that can be fixed, but he says the most common repairs can be done in under an hour. In fact, Bruce says 82% of the problems that handsets encounter can be fixed in 45 minutes. And as for the types of devices Mobile Klinik can fix, he adds that if the device was sold in significant volume in Canada, the company carries the parts to fix it.
For the obscure phones or ones that are a little older, people may have to wait a little longer to get their phone back as the store may have to order a part. But generally, people will be able to drop their phone off, go do some shopping and pick it up later that same day.
Mobile Klinik hopes to open a total of 60 stores in its franchise territory. The company not only has the rights to Canada, but also parts of the United States, including the North East and Texas.
“I’d like to be proven wrong and have it be a bigger number than that. But it’s early days and I think like every new business in spite of the fact that we have a franchisor with lots of information, we’re mapping into new markets, seeing how it works and we’ll iron things out, make it as good as possibly can be for the Canadian market and we’ll role as quickly as we can,” says Bruce.
