If you look at the map of businesses listed in our Repair Directory, you’ll notice something exciting: we have added a new borough! After having moved to 3space International House in Brixton, we wanted to get to know local businesses better. That is why we have added repair businesses in Lambeth to our directory.
Now we have added 11 more businesses, that repair a wide range of products. Have a look for yourself:
Reliability criteria
We have also asked our community for feedback on the criteria we use to list businesses. The respondents agree that five reviews are not enough to deem the business reliable. While we are aware that online reviews are not fool-proof, we still see them as a good way to understand how satisfied customers were with a business or shop. Therefore we have now doubled the required number of reviews to 10 and will gradually implement this change in the spring.
The other criteria remained the same: Businesses need to offer a warranty on their repairs and have a trading address. If you’d like more background information on the Repair Directory, find it here.
We refer people to professionals
We believe that repair businesses are essential to our work. The repair data we collect at our events shows that, while we can do quite some fixes ourselves, about a quarter of the repairs we see require a specialist. In these situations, we often use the Repair Directory to refer our participants to repair businesses nearby.
Businesses also play a key role in our campaign for the Right to Repair. Planned obsolescence and devices that are impossible to open create barriers to repair. This endangers the business of many people who work in the repair sector. Therefore, we are engaging repair businesses in our campaign to make sure their voices are being heard. Businesses that would like to show their support can endorse the European Right to Repair campaign.
What’s coming next
This year will have more updates to the Repair Directory in store. We’d like to add more boroughs, so if you work in a waste authority or with a council waste team, get in touch about sponsoring its expansion.
Besides listing more boroughs, we will make the update process more participatory. We know that we have a wealth of local knowledge in our community. Therefore we want to offer our community members across London the chance to get involved with the Repair Directory.
We’ll be exploring a business model that can sustain this effort and take it beyond London, to scale.
Watch this space!