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.
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
Your automotive shop's service advisor plays an important role in the overall operation and even growth of your business. The service advisor explains maintenance and service needs to customers, and answers their questions in detail. The success of your business relies on having the right people in these roles and supporting them with necessary skills training.
To find the best candidates, look for people with potential or training in these areas:
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