Gadget repair shop moves forward with attention to details
When developing his smartphone repair shop, Gadgik! owner and founder Shanon Dickmyer was set on making the Southlake store stand out.
“You have a little 500-square-foot shop with the back room,” he said of the standard repair store. “Somebody brings their phone in and then the guy disappears in the back room with your phone. [You think,] ‘Hey, what’s going on back there?’” he said.
At Gadgik!, a brand of Dickmyer’s consulting company, Alleviance Inc., the service is no secret. Smartphones and iPads are repaired in a glass-plated clean room where customers can see the procedures firsthand. It is one of the many elements Dickmyer has pursued to make Gadgik! live up to its name, which is a melding of the words “gadgets” and “magic.”
The idea of a cellphone repair shop first occurred to Dickmyer in 2007, when he was working in California as a 20-year veteran of the industry. Cellphone repair was done through insurance companies, but Dickmyer was looking for a simpler format, such as the quick, walk-in style of watch shops.
He was not the only one with the idea. Dickmeyer said there were nearly 170 smartphone repair shops in the Dallas-Fort Worth area alone in 2016.
Gadgik!’s repair room offers walk-in service and services screens, batteries, charging ports, speakers, Wi-Fi and more without a precharge fee. The products themselves are always handled with care. Technicians must walk through an air shower before entering the clean room, which is built to resist static, humidity and dust.
The surrounding store sports its own line of phone cases and screen protectors as well as headphones and cameras from partners i.am+ and iON. Dickmyer said he tries to adapt his products to fit the needs and interests of his customers. If a customer brings a phone in for repair after dropping it on the sidewalk or from the top of a ladder, employees take note for future case designs, Dickmyer said.
Dickmyer hopes to expand to more locations over the next few months but said he enjoys Southlake.
“I think the customer base has been fantastic,” he said. “Everybody talks. They know value when they see it and they know quality, and they’re not afraid to share it.”
Gadgik! Cell Phone Repair
2140 Southlake Blvd., Ste. K, Southlake
844-442-3445
www.gadgik.com
Hours: Mon.-Sat. 10 a.m.-8 p.m., Sun. 11 a.m.-6 p.m.
