Digital vehicle inspections software is one of the best way to show your customer exactly what's wrong with their vehicle. Instead of an old-school paper approach, Digital Vehicle Inspections (DVIS) are a core component of your shop's workflow, and let technicians quickly highlight existing and potential future issues, with evidence!
If a technician notices that the brakes are okay now but will need to be repaired in about three months, they can note that in the DVI report, or even attach a picture for the customer to see.
Even better, because digital vehicle inspection software let you send pictures and videos, track declined repairs, and even let your shop text findings directly to customers, you can help customers feel comfortable that they're making the right decision in approving that costly repair they may have otherwise put off.
With the right DIV features creating such a modern, seamless experience, you'll be the first shop they think of next time they need something fixed!
Digital Vehicle Inspection Software Features to Look For
1. Default Inspections
One of the biggest benefits of DVIs isn't just transparency, but speed and ease of use for your service managers and technicians. With default inspections, shops can set a standardized template for every vehicle inspection.
Service advisors won't have to spend as much time building repair orders, and technicians will have a default template to work off of every time.
This not only saves both your service advisors and technicians time, but it also helps to improve the accuracy of your inspection reports, which enables your shop to provide an exceptional customer experience built on a foundation of trust.
2. Attach Pictures and Videos
One of the easiest ways to help customers feel comfortable approving work is by directly showing them the problem. We all know a picture is worth a thousand words, but what about video?
Simply telling customers their ball joint is loose might leave them wondering why it matters if they can't feel the impact when driving.
But showing them the massive play between components, torn boots, and dirty globs of grease will help them understand why the repair is worth the cost.
3. Text Inspection Findings to Customers
Customers want things fast, simple, and on their phone. When they're already texting their doctor, babysitter, or coworkers, why shouldn't they be able to text their shop when they drop off their car?
With just the click of a button, your shop can text or email inspection findings and repair estimates, with a link to approve the work right there, within seconds.
That means your shop can get to work sooner, complete the repair faster, and surprise your customers with a modern, seamless experience.
4. Track Declined Jobs
Digital Vehicle Inspections aren't just better for your customers; DVIs are also better for your shop. With Declined Job History, your shop can keep track of every single declined job, anywhere from an oil change to a transmission fix.
Because you have a history of declined work, you can quickly and easily follow up with customers next time they stop by.
Or, better yet, integrate your shop system with some marketing tools and set up automatic email reminders to customers. For example, your shop can send an automated email three months after their previous visit, reminding them of the work they declined last time.
5. Create Custom Inspections
Shops should look to create custom inspection templates for any service they offer. Whether you're a repair shop doing frequent brake jobs and want an inspection template to ensure every vehicle is inspected along the same criteria.
Or, maybe as a performance shop, you frequently service a type of turbo-charged, flat-four engine that likes to blow its head gaskets. You can set up a custom inspection to use every time that model gets towed in.
Shops can then create and attach canned jobs to inspection tasks to efficiently transition from inspections to estimates to repair works with fewer clicks and less effort on your end.
6. DVI Reporting
Because Digital Vehicle Inspections help your shop keep track of all the work you did -- from the inspection process to a completed repair -- shop owners and general managers can gain in-depth knowledge of how effective their shop's operations are.
For example, you can view high-level metrics and compare Average Repair Order values and Close Ratios both with and without inspections.
Or, you can drill down even further to look at completion rate, average inspection time, average findings, and cool details like many of your inspections sent to customers were actually viewed. That way you can fine-tune your process to not only make the most money on your shop's labor, but also make sure inspections are quicker, smoother, and more useful for customers.
Sell More Repair Work with Digital Vehicle Inspections
At the end of the day, running an independent auto repair shop is so much more than just fixing cars. As a shop owner, you're responsible for every aspect of shop operations, including shop management, customer experience, marketing, sales, and so much more.
And even with a team behind you, we know there's always room to make great shops even better.
With the right digital vehicle inspection features, your shop can not only complete inspections with ease but also keep happy customers approving repair orders time and time again.
Tekmetric Marketing now builds ready-to-send campaigns. The message is written and the audience is selected. All that's left is to review, personalize, and send.
Most shop owners know the fastest way to fill this week’s bays is by bringing back customers who already trust them — the ones whose vehicles you serviced months ago but haven’t seen since. Re-engaging existing customers is one of the most effective ways to generate new repair orders.
The problem is finding the time to do it. Figuring out what to send, who to send it to, and when to send it almost always loses out to the car on the lift or the customer standing at the front counter
That's where Tekmetric Marketing's Recommended Campaigns come in.
Instead of starting with a blank page, Tekmetric Marketing does the heavy lifting for you. It analyzes your shop’s data and recommends campaigns that are ready to go. The audience is selected, the message is drafted, and all that’s left is for you to review it, make any changes you’d like, and send.
No blank screen. No guesswork.
Just a campaign ready to help bring customers back.
How It Works
Recommended Campaigns automatically surfaces ready-to-send campaigns tailored to your shop using the information Tekmetric already knows — your customers, previous campaigns, location, and seasonality.
You’re always in control.
Review the recommendation, personalize the message so it sounds like your shop, adjust the audience if you’d like, choose when to send it, and you’re done.
What used to take an hour staring at a blank screen can now be done in just a few clicks.
How Fox River Tire & Auto Uses Recommended Campaigns
Like most shops, Fox River Tire & Auto in St. Charles, Illinois, wants to stay connected with customers and bring them back when the time is right. But deciding what campaign to send, then building it from scratch, takes time most shops don't have.
Recommended Campaigns gives Tammi and her team a starting point instead of a blank page. They review the recommendations, edit the suggested content to fit their brand, and send with confidence.
"Recommended Campaigns provide an excellent launchpad for re-engaging with our customers. Instead of starting from scratch, we refine the suggested content to fit our brand and send it with confidence. The process is straightforward, time-saving, and always delivers."
— Tammi Vest, Business Manager, Fox River Tire & Auto
From Reports to Results
Recommended Campaigns is part of a much bigger shift in where Tekmetric Marketing is headed.
For years, marketing platforms have been good at showing you what already happened: campaign reports, open rates, clicks, and dashboards. That’s valuable, but it still leaves the work on you.
Tekmetric Marketing is evolving beyond reporting. Increasingly, it’s helping you decide what to do next, and doing more of the work for you.
You’ve already seen this with Recommended Review Responses. When a customer leaves a Google review, Tekmetric drafts a thoughtful response for you to review and approve.
Recommended Campaigns is the next step.
Instead of simply telling you that you should market to your customers more often, Tekmetric Marketing puts a campaign directly in front of you — already drafted, targeted, and ready to send.
Your marketing should keep working even while you’re heads-down under a hood.
One Year of Continuous Innovation
Since launching Tekmetric Marketing in the fall of 2025, thousands of shops have made it part of how they attract new customers and bring existing ones back.
We’ve also continued investing in the platform based on feedback from shops like yours.
Recent additions include:
Rich text and custom links in every email so you can create more engaging emails and link directly to booking pages, review sites, and promotions. Bold a headline, organize services into a list, and drop in links to your booking page, review site, or a promotion, in both campaigns and automated emails like review requests and service reminders.
Recurring blocks for your calendar for lunch breaks, holidays, staff meetings, and other recurring events. Easily add recurring lunch blocks, staff meetings or holidays to your calendar with a few clicks. No more appointments booked over your team events without you knowing.
Smarter marketing-source tracking on appointments and ROs: Automatically associate appointments and repair orders with the latest marketing campaign or automation that reached the customer. When a customer books after getting a message, the marketing source pre-fills with the most recent campaign or automation sent to them, so attribution is accurate without the guesswork.
Recommended Review Responses, helping you respond to Google reviews in just a few clicks.
Every one of these improvements started with feedback from shop owners looking for simpler, smarter ways to grow their business.
Keep it coming.
Already using Tekmetric Marketing?
Head to Marketing → Campaigns to see what's recommended for your shop and send your first campaign in just a few clicks.
New to Tekmetric Marketing?
See how Tekmetric Marketing helps shops bring customers back with online booking, automated reminders, review generation, and Recommended Campaigns.
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.
We're happy to announce that our commitment to innovation and customer satisfaction has been recognized! For Spring 2025, G2 has awarded Tekmetric with a range of badges, including Momentum Leader, Best Results, Best Usability, Most Implementable, and Grid Leader.
These awards reflect our customers' experiences and trust in Tekmetric, highlighting their role in our success.
What These Badges Mean
Momentum Leader: We're leading the pack, constantly evolving to meet the ever-changing needs of the automotive industry.
Best Results & Best Usability: Tekmetric is designed to be intuitive and user-friendly, helping you achieve the results you want.
Most Implementable: Change can be scary – That's why we've made it easy to get started and integrate with Tekmetric so you can hit the ground running.
Grid Leader: This badge showcases how our customers describe Tekmetric as the go-to solution for auto shop management.
Thank You to Our Customers
We couldn't have done it without our customers! Your feedback and support drive us to continually improve and deliver the best possible shop management experience. We're excited to continue this journey with you and can't wait to see what we accomplish together in the future. We'll continue to innovate, listen to your feedback, and provide the tools you need to run your shop.
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