As an auto repair shop owner, you know how important accurate labor times are for locking in your profit margin on labor and growing your business. But how do you find a labor guide that you can trust and that works with your shop’s estimate process?
Switching to a newer labor guide can be tough for some shops. Many shop owners already trust their physical, paper labor guide; they’ve been using it for years! But that guide probably doesn’t include labor times for repairs on newer vehicles—not to mention it takes up a lot of space.
Digital auto repair labor guides are becoming standard across the industry because of how accessible they are and how they can be continuously updated with labor times for newer vehicles.
If you’re still using your old labor guide, or even a digital labor guide that isn’t working for you, it might be time to find a labor guide that will better meet the needs of your shop. Here are some key features to look for to narrow down your search.
Does It Pull Comprehensive Labor Times From Industry Leaders?
Reliability is crucial when it comes to labor guides. If the times are way off, your shop could either underestimate labor times and lose money, or overestimate labor times and overcharge customers.
Reliable times come from reliable sources. So, one of the most important features to look for in a labor guide is where it sources information about its labor times. If that labor time data is from an unreliable source, you’ll risk creating labor rates that are either too low or too high.
But with a labor guide that pulls comprehensive labor time data from industry leaders, you can keep your shop profitable with the peace of mind that you’re basing your labor rates off of accurate labor times.
Does It Add New Labor Times in Realtime?
The auto repair industry is constantly undergoing changes. To stay competitive, it’s crucial that the labor guide you pick adds labor times for new vehicles and jobs periodically.
For instance, let’s say you use a labor guide that hasn’t been updated since 2015. If a customer walks in with a 2019 Honda Accord, your shop’s service advisors won’t have a good foundation to use when creating labor estimates.
When researching different labor guides, find out how often the teams behind each guide add new times. Ideally, you want a labor guide that pushes updates in realtime, right alongside rapid shifts in the industry. Realtime updates will ensure that you’re always working with the most relevant information.
Is The Labor Guide Built Into Your Shop Management Software?
Chances are that you’re already using a shop management system that includes features such as repair scheduling, parts ordering, and DVIs.
Having a shop management system with a built-in labor guide has several advantages. In short, you’ll:
Avoid spending time painstakingly digging through multiple systems. Instead, you’ll be able to access everything via one login.
Get better functionality. Since the labor guide is built-in, navigating through everything will be more intuitive.
Be able to quickly pull labor times as you build labor matrices, and will then easily be able to incorporate that data into each new repair order.
Have an easier time training your team because they’ll be learning how to use the labor guide in the context of a system they’ll be using every day.
Gain high value for the money you’re paying. Rather than making separate payments for separate solutions, you get a better deal by sticking with one solution that has a built-in labor guide.
Here’s how Tekmetric user Stephane Grabina of Excluservice puts it: “We saved a bunch of money, and the estimate writing process is much faster because the labor guide is built into the system.”
Is Your Labor Guide Easy-to-Use?
Think about the times you’ve had to deal with a clunky piece of software. It probably involved lots of wasted time and frustration as you tried to figure it all out.
Labor times are one of the most important data points for your shop. If you and your service advisors have to hunt down the information you need from a difficult-to-navigate user interface, you risk losing valuable time that you could instead be putting toward growing your business.
An intuitive automotive labor time guide also has a major benefit when it comes to training service advisors. The easier a labor guide is to use, the faster you can train your team—and have them building accurate estimates and repair orders in no time.
Always seek to get a demo of the labor guide you’re considering so you can see first-hand what the interface looks like, and what it’s like to navigate it. During the demo, pay attention to these factors:
Does the labor guide have repairs categorized in a clear, logical way?
Is it easy to find the repair type you’re looking for?
Does the labor guide list all labor operations associated with a job?
Does the labor guide list all parts associated with a job?
Does the labor guide make it easy for you to view the average times associated with each repair?
Can you easily pull the information from the labor guide into a labor matrix?
Is Your Shop Management System Backed by a Responsive Customer Support Team?
No matter how intuitive and reliable a software solution is, it’s important that it’s backed by a responsive customer support team. With any type of software, there will inevitably be feature updates and bug fixes.
If your team ever encounters an issue with the software, you’ll want to have access to a steadfast customer support team who can help you quickly work through those challenges. Dependable support will minimize downtime at your shop—you’ll spend less time trying to reassure annoyed customers who just want to get back on the road while you’re trying to figure out why your shop management system is down.
Additionally, having a responsive customer support team means you’ll be able to suggest new features, as well as tweaks to existing features, for them to consider. A team that’s receptive to your feedback means that your voice will be heard as the labor guide, and the solution it’s built into, continues to evolve.
Tekmetric: Shop Management System with Built-In Labor Guides
When it comes to accurate labor times for auto repair shops, Tekmetric has got you covered.
With Tekmetric's built-in labor guide, you can access trustworthy labor times in seconds, and seamlessly incorporate them into your workflows for building labor matrices and repair orders. No third-party labor guide subscription required.
Prasanth Chilukuri understands the challenges that shop owners face each day with gaps in their efficiency and margins, which is why he co-founded Tekmetric with Sunil Patel in 2016.
Vehicle Service Pros published some of Prasanth’s tips for strategically growing an auto repair business with a shop management system like Tekmetric.
You can access his full piece here, or check out some of the highlights below.
Balance Is Key to Making Better-Informed Business Decisions
Shop owners make countless daily decisions that affect their customers, their team, and their business.
Making good business decisions is essential to keeping everyone happy and keeping the lights on in the shop, but how do you know what the right decision is?
According to Prasanth, the key to any successful business is finding the right balance between soft skills like intuition or relationship-building and hard skills like data analysis.
Both types of skills are important, but knowing when to employ each one is the trick to making better-informed decisions and growing your business.
Intuition is useful when shop owners have to make split-second decisions and often goes hand in hand with interpersonal skills. The auto repair industry isn’t just about cars, after all; it’s about people, too.
By learning how to pick up on cues and anticipate the needs of customers, employees, and vendors, shop owners can foster long-lasting relationships that grow alongside their business.
Of course, there’s only one way to know whether your shop is truly turning a profit: look at the numbers and analyze the results. Data can support any hunches you have about the health of your business, for better or for worse, so you can plan accordingly.
But if your shop is still tied to manual methods, gathering key information about parts usage and labor costs is probably not easy or convenient.
Why Manual Methods Just Can’t Keep Up
A shop management system might not be able to make business decisions for you, but it can help shop owners make sense of their key metrics and data. According to Prasanth, looking at the cold, hard facts is essential to boost the efficiency and profitability of the shop.
The science of data might seem contrary to the art of intuition at first, but they’re more related than you might think. As Prasanth describes, data can add support to a shop owner’s intuition or observations and reveal key information that can’t necessarily be gathered from conversations with customers and employees.
Unfortunately, trying to sort through the shop’s data by hand can be exhausting and often means missing family dinners to crunch the numbers after hours. And manually calculating daily, weekly, or monthly metrics can quickly become a headache with much larger room for human error.
Without real-time reporting tools, inventory counts and gross profit can’t necessarily be trusted and will always provide an out-of-date view of your business at best.
Being tied to manual processes for data collection also means being tied to the shop and losing out on valuable face-to-face time with the customers supporting the business.
As a result, shop owners are often left making the difficult decision between nurturing their intuition and building relationships, or focusing on the data and shop profitability when both are essential to the long-term success of the business. With Tekmetric, you can do both.
Get the Full Picture With Tekmetric
Tekmetric is a shop management system that comes fully equipped with business reporting tools within a repair orders software suite.
Tekmetric tracks key performance indicators like employee efficiency, parts usage, and profitability ‘round the clock so shop owners can focus on the more high-level aspects of their business.
Real-time reports are always available with numbers that are already calculated and organized.
A bird’s eye view of the shop gives shop owners the power to tailor their business plan and strategy by:
Adjusting parts and labor matrices to maximize margins
Extending or removing a running promotion
Deciding to add more people to the team
Knowing when it’s the right time to expand the business with new bays or by opening a new location
Running a repair shop takes more than turning wrenches. It’s booking appointments, reminding customers to show up, following up on declined jobs – all while keeping bays full and the front office running smoothly.
But for most shops, staying connected with customers feels like a second job. Some rely on a patchwork of booking tools, texting apps, and review platforms. Others don’t follow up at all. Either way, things slip through the cracks. The result? Missed appointments, lost revenue, and customers who never return.
That’s why we built Tekmetric Marketing.
Not another system to learn. Not another login to juggle. It’s built right into Tekmetric, the platform you already trust to run your shop. With online booking, reminders, campaigns, follow-ups, reviews, and even a professional website all in one place, Tekmetric Marketing helps you keep customers engaged and loyal automatically – without piling more work on your plate. And it’s designed so anyone on your team can use it. No marketing expertise required.
More Cars. Higher ARO. Steady Repeat Business.
Every repair order holds untapped potential. A declined brake job today can turn into tomorrow’s revenue. A routine oil change can become the start of a long-term relationship.
Tekmetric Marketing makes sure those opportunities don’t slip away. Customers can schedule online 24/7, filling bays while you sleep. Automated reminders cut down on no-shows and keep the calendar steady. Follow-ups on declined jobs and maintenance turn “not today” into approved work. Seasonal campaigns help you bring customers back when business slows.
And if your shop doesn’t have a website, Tekmetric can build one for you, giving customers one more way to find you, book online, and keep your bays full.
As Ryan Froats of Yorktown Auto Care put it: “As an independently-owned shop, dedicating resources towards outreach and follow-up can be challenging. Tekmetric Marketing allows me to communicate with my customer base in a variety of ways, without tying up hours of my work week.”
That’s the difference between a full schedule and an empty bay. Between a one-time job and a loyal customer.
Turn Great Service Into Lasting Loyalty
Great service doesn’t stop when the car leaves the bay. Tekmetric Marketing makes it really easy to keep the relationship going. Post-visit follow-ups that check in with customers after service, showing you care and helping you catch issues early. Review requests that boost your reputation on Google, making it easier for new customers to find and trust you. Private feedback that gives you valuable insights to improve service and address concerns before they go public
Together, these touchpoints build trust, strengthen relationships, and turn satisfied customers into loyal advocates.
One Platform. No Missed Messages.
Because Tekmetric Marketing lives inside Tekmetric, all customer communication flows through one platform – from estimates and approvals to reminders, follow-ups, and promotions. No more bouncing between systems or wondering what’s been sent. Everything is tied to the customer profile, making communication clear, consistent, and professional.
Tekmetric Marketing also works in sync with your shop’s calendar, repair orders, and payments. Bookings instantly block off availability. Reminders align with scheduled work. Everything just works without syncing headaches or double entry.
And here’s the best part: Tekmetric Marketing is designed for busy shop owners and front office staff. It’s easy to set up, runs automatically in the background, and helps you grow your business without adding more to your to-do list – or requiring a marketing degree.
As Corey Hansen of Hansen Auto Repair shared: “It’s so convenient having everything in one place, right inside Tekmetric. I already have Tekmetric open for managing the shop and invoicing, so I don’t have to switch tabs or log into something else to engage with my customers. Having it all together just makes things faster—and for me, saving time is huge.”
Auto Repair. Done Right.
Tekmetric has always been the all-in-one platform that helps shops run better — from managing repairs to taking payments. Now, with Tekmetric Marketing, it’s also the platform that helps you grow faster, keep customers loyal, and deliver a better experience at every turn.
Turn every visit into the next one. With Tekmetric Marketing, it happens automatically.
Traditionally, there are four pillars to an auto repair shop that all support one another: the shop owner, technicians, customers, and service advisors.
The integrity of the shop depends on each of these pillars in different ways. The shop owner needs to make the right calls and put the right systems in place for technicians and service advisors to do their jobs. Technicians must stay focused on repairs. And loyal customers keep the lights on.
By effectively leading your team, service advisors can support the other three pillars of the shop—and in turn, achieve balance and improve the quality of your job. Getting started in your Service Advisor career, or looking for some tips? Here’s how to lead your team with intention.
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