RepairSmith: Car Repair, Delivered

This is the age where customized and on-demand services come directly to you. The e-commerce giants have made deliveries an everyday occurrence. And so has RepairSmith too, a CA-based company, that is bringing the at-home on-demand car repair services to many doorsteps.

Founded in 2018, RepairSmith offers a complete repair experience for car owners in their driveway. RepairSmith has a presence in over 325 cities across California, Nevada, and Arizona, with additional service locations opening in 2020.

The company is led by the serial techpreneur, Joel Milne. We interviewed him to know more about how the company differentiates itself in the industry. Here are the excerpts from the interview:

Q. Why do you think your customers frequently request for your service?

Consumers are increasingly accustomed to the ease of at-home on-demand services, from food delivery to dog grooming. Meanwhile, the traditional car repair experience hasn’t changed in half a century.

Knowing car owners want more, RepairSmith did the research to uncover the real pain points for car owners and built our company explicitly to solve them. With RepairSmith, car owners get upfront pricing, online scheduling, expert technicians – who are RepairSmith employees, not gig workers, to ensure the highest level of quality.

Q. How are you able to bring repair direct to your customers?

RepairSmith is the first and only transparent, full service at-home car repair and maintenance solution. Certified technicians provide the ultimate convenience by bringing car repair to car owners in their driveway or workplace. All RepairSmith technicians are employees of the company and drive custom-outfitted, Mercedes-Benz Sprinter, Metris or Cab Chassis vehicles equipped with quality tools and parts to deliver a five-star experience.

The company also provides services to fleets including corporate/employee, rental, rideshare, and government vehicles, in addition to location-based service for employers and property managers. RepairSmith is backed by Daimler AG, one of the world's most successful car companies.

RepairSmith is creating an opportunity for traditional skilled laborers to be part of the future of automotive with an exciting career opportunity at a growing tech company. The option for a technician to be part of a tech company, with perks like equity, salary, and paid time off provides technicians with an exciting alternative career path.

Q. Tell us about your offerings.

RepairSmith offers a complete repair experience for car owners in their driveway available for most makes and models, with the exception of any antique or specialty vehicle type. All service is backed by a 12-month or 12,000-mile warranty. Services include all repair and scheduled maintenance such as oil changes, brake pad replacement, check engine light diagnostics, battery replacements, and more.

Q. How does Free Instant Quote work?

Car owners can receive a free, instant quote on our website or by calling us by providing information about their vehicle, including year, make, model and requested services, and the location where they want their vehicle serviced. RepairSmith leverages the data to build a quote that is competitive. All quotes are provided before the service is completed.

Q. What measures have you taken for COVID-19? What is 'No-Contact Car Repair'?

We launched our ‘No-Contact Car Repair’ service in mid-March. This was a proactive measure we took immediately in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure our technicians would be able to continue to serve customers while maintaining safety in our community.

Our ‘No-Contact Car Repair’ service eliminates all contact during appointments. Car owners can simply leave their keys in their mailbox before their appointment, arrange for payment over the phone and our technicians can communicate with photos/video via text. Our technicians are wearing masks and gloves at all times are also disinfecting high-touch areas such as steering wheels, keys, door handles, and more.

In addition to launching ‘No-Contact Car Repair,’ we recognized that our communities needed help. So, we launched our company’s first charitable program to help our communities impacted by COVID-19 by donating $100,000 in free repair service. We added an additional $10K when we launched in Phoenix.

To deliver the most impact, we offered up to $500 in free repair for anyone who experienced a loss of employment due to COVID-19, this included a range of recipients from teachers to bartenders. Many of these people turned to delivery jobs and having a running car helped their livelihood during such an uncertain time. Additionally, we offered a $500 free repair credit to any frontline worker who required their vehicle to help their communities including nurses/healthcare workers, grocery/pharmacy store workers, essential services, and delivery drivers. In total, we delivered 267 services across 90+ cities.

The Techpreneur

Joel Milne, CEO

Mr. Milne is a technology entrepreneur who has a special interest in building consumer-facing products. He has served as CEO, COO, and CTO for his previous companies and has raised over $100 million in venture financing and scaled multiple businesses nationally. He founded his first tech company soon after graduating at 21. He is an advisor to numerous startups and is active in the Southern California startup community.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Queen’s University and an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.

“RepairSmith is the first and only transparent, full service at-home car repair and maintenance solution.”

“RepairSmith is creating an opportunity for traditional skilled laborers to be part of the future of automotive with an exciting career opportunity at a growing tech company.”