When customers walk into your auto repair shop, they’re trusting you and your team with the health of their vehicle, one of their most expensive assets.
They’re coming in with a problem or set of problems and expect your team to effectively fix those problems in a reasonable time frame.
And modern expectations for customer service have shifted as our technology has evolved. Customers don't want to have to find time for a phone call when they can just get texted updates about their repairs, and digital tools make it easier for shops to build transparency in their process.
Modern auto repair shop software not only makes it easy but lays the foundation for a modern customer experience at every step.
Offering a Modern Auto Repair Shop Customer Experience Starts with a Modern Shop Management System
We're big advocates of modernizing your auto repair shop, and we don't necessarily mean replacing all your racks, updating all your compressors, and swapping out your alignment rack. Sure those might help, but we get those can be really big investments.
That's why we're focused on the behind-the-scenes operations of your shop, the overall management and flow of repair orders. Modern shop management software enables owners, managers, service advisors, and technicians to gain visibility into, and control over, their individual part of the process with specific functions:
Cloud-based shop management
Real-time control
Digital Vehicle Inspections
Built-In Payment Processing
Digital Shop Communications
Efficient Parts and Inventory Management
While all of these directly work to modernize your shop operations, they also work to modernize your shop experience for customers.
When your shop is using Digital Vehicle Inspections instead of paper printouts, you're not only making it easier for your technicians and service advisors to communicate and collaborate, but you're also modernizing how your shop interacts with customers, by emailing or texting results and approval requests.
How Automotive Shop Programs Give Customers More Agency
The common way shops get repair authorizations from customers is verbally, either in person or over the phone. But this approach is rife with the risk of misunderstandings.
By contrast, digital vehicle inspections give you a way to transparently show your customers what’s going on with their vehicles, as well as a way for them to clearly indicate how they want to proceed.
Technicians can concisely break down findings, send photos and videos of issues, and indicate the severity of each issue using a color-coded system. Service advisors can then quickly put together estimates that clearly display those findings, and email or text them to customers.
Customers will then receive their estimates and clearly see which issues are the most pressing, as well as the expected costs. With digital authorization, customers can check off the repair work they want, and your team can start tackling repairs.
How Automotive Shop Programs Help Your Team Move Jobs Along Faster
With automotive shop programs, service advisors can get a high-level overview of every repair order at your shop. They can see which repair orders are pending authorization, in progress, or completed. Your team can even see more specific details at a glance, like which repair orders still need parts ordered, so they can swiftly move repairs along.
Service advisors can also see exactly what each technician has on their plate, so they can then assign the outstanding repair orders to the technicians that have the most availability, evening out workloads at your shop. Service advisors can dispatch specific jobs in one repair order to different technicians to avoid lopsided workloads.
As for technicians, they can use the system as their digital to-do list; they can glance at it and know exactly what they’re responsible for each day—and in which order they should tackle repairs.
How Automotive Shop Programs Help You Keep Customers in the Loop
Using automotive shop programs, service advisors get a snapshot of how far along every repair order is so they can communicate updates to customers without ever having to leave their workstations and interrupt technicians’ workflow.
As each technician works and marks labor lines as complete within their own work area in the system, service advisors will see the corresponding updates and be able to tell customers exactly where their repairs stand.
How Automotive Shop Programs Simplify How Your Customers Get In Touch With Your Shop
An automotive shop program with true two-way texting simplifies communication for you and your team. And adding your shop’s phone number to the system opens a new channel of streamlined communication.
Service advisors can message any customer directly from the system, the message will show up as a regular text message on the customer’s phone, and they can text right back. Back at the shop, every service advisor with access to the system will see their response within the system.
With true two-way texting, your team and your customers will be able to avoid the pitfalls of verbal communication and exchange information with more clarity.
Plus, with true two-way texting, there will be a record of the information exchanged between your shop and the customer, enabling you to safeguard your shop.
How Automotive Shop Programs Make It Easier for You to Get Paid
An automotive shop program with a text-to-pay feature benefits all customers, especially those on the go. Service advisors can send customers a payment link right to their smartphones when it's time to pay, and customers can then quickly punch in their credit numbers and authorize payments on a secure platform.
In turn, service advisors will have an easier time collecting payment and will be able to keep track of which customers have paid, and which customers haven’t.
How Automotive Shop Programs Make It Easier to Give Back
You can benefit from a referral program where you give back to your customers. Of course, if you do decide to give out discounts, you want to make sure that they don’t negatively cut into your bottom line.
An automotive shop program with real-time reports will enable your team to use discounts strategically. Giving back can also be as simple as handing a customer their favorite soda to sip on while they wait out their repair.
Facilitate Delivering the Best Auto Repair Customer Service Possible With Tekmetric
Tekmetric’s various features, including DVIs, the Job Board, and the Tech Board, help you streamline your team’s ability to provide exceptional customer service that gets people back behind the wheel quickly, and has them telling their friends and family about your shop.
While it’s important to focus on customer service and providing reliable repair work, your shop’s entire repair process, from beginning to end, should be consistent. If your shop has stellar processes for greeting customers, writing estimates, selling work, and completing work, you can stick the landing with a solid check out process.
If done the right way, your shop’s invoicing process will enhance the efficiency in your shop while leaving a positive, lasting impression on customers.
The invoices your shop hands out are a representation of how transparent your shop is. Your customers will gain visibility into exactly what they’re paying for. And the more they can understand an invoice, the more they can answer the question we’ve all asked ourselves when we’re customers, “Okay, what am I paying for?”
So, why not end on a strong note? Make your shop’s customers feel more at ease with easy-to-understand invoices.
Here are four ways to simplify your shop's invoicing process.
HOUSTON – October 31, 2023 – Tekmetric, industry leading automotive repair shop management system, has released Smart Jobs, the industry’s first smart job building feature that quickly builds jobs in just one click to help streamline the creation of repair orders. In just one click, shops can quickly build an estimate with parts and labor, check on-hand inventory levels and shop at preferred vendors right in Tekmetric. This revolutionary feature enables service advisors to focus on customer service while simultaneously reducing workload.
"When it comes to running an independent auto repair business, efficiency is paramount," said Sunil Patel, CEO of Tekmetric. "With Smart Jobs, shops have the opportunity to respond to customer needs quickly and accurately, saving time and hassle for everyone. This is a game-changer for our industry, and we are confident that it will revolutionize the way shops operate and deliver customer service."
With one click in Tekmetric, service advisors can now build a job based on the vehicle selected, and Tekmetric will automatically:
● Create a job title
● Add the relevant labor line and apply a labor matrix
● Add the necessary parts, filters and fluids and apply a parts matrix
● Check inventory for all parts, then fetch them from your favorite vendors if not in stock
● Apply a locked package price to the entire job
● Apply any necessary fees
In addition to building repair orders more efficiently, Smart Jobs also accelerates the parts ordering process. Not only can the feature automatically apply the correct quantity of parts, filters and fluids to the repair, but it also shops for out-of-stock items and prepares an order within Tekmetric. For quick jobs, like cabin air filters, Smart Jobs has been able to save approximately one minute per job, adding up quickly throughout the day. Smart Jobs can also help new employees to begin building jobs faster. This can lead to improved productivity and reduced errors, helping employees to produce high-quality work earlier in their training.
Smart Jobs will be available to Tekmetric customers in 2024. To request pricing or schedule a demo visit https://www.tekmetric.com/feature/smart-jobs.
About Tekmetric
Tekmetric, a Houston-based auto repair technology company, offers a cloud-based platform that enables auto repair shop owners to enhance productivity and increase profitability through its streamlined workflow management processes. Designed by a former shop owner, Tekmetric’s platform drives shop efficiency through real-time data, a customizable user interface and customer-centric communication tools. Since its launch in 2016, Tekmetric has disrupted the industry with its robust fully-integrated system, developed with an emphasis on customer transparency and user collaboration. For more information, visit www.tekmetric.com.
It is often said that “a picture is worth a thousand words.” When it comes to vehicle inspections, you could even say a photo is worth a thousand happy customers. Digital vehicle inspections (DVIs), complete with photos and videos, give your customers a clear picture of their vehicle’s status and empower them to make well-informed decisions regarding repairs. This not only enhances the customer experience but also fosters a culture of trust and builds long-lasting relationships. Take a look at three ways DVIs can drive growth and success in your shop:
1. Fostering trust with photos and videos of repairs for approval.
Digital vehicle inspections provide the clearest way your associates can tell a customer what you found within their vehicle and the possible solutions. Using the media the technician captures, the vehicle owner is empowered to make a knowledgeable decision based on your technical knowledge and experience.
Sending the customer six to eight photos and videos more than 50% of the time leads to a higher ARO. Not sending enough photos and videos may not give the customer enough information on the health of their vehicle. Conversely, too many images and videos can overwhelm the customer. Capturing the full state of the vehicle with just the right number of photos and videos facilitates a culture of transparency and builds trust with customers, enhancing their experience and leading to more repeat business.
2. Proactively monitoring overall vehicle health.
“I should only get my car inspected if something seems off.” Wrong! A great way to view DVIs is to think about them in terms of overall vehicle health. A thorough DVI can not only provide insight into the customer’s original complaint; it can also give you a full picture of other issues that might be impacting the vehicle or will in the future. Just as you might need blood work and X-Rays for a correct diagnosis from your doctor, a DVI done correctly can provide insight into the health of your vehicle and help technicians make strong, educated repair recommendations.
Completing a routine “check-up” with DVIs can verify if the vehicle is in top-notch shape or proactively identify issues a customer might not see. Even if a customer does not want regular check-ups, technicians can still complete a thorough DVI when the vehicle comes in for repairs and potentially prevent further issues down the road. DVIs go beyond simply making a profit. They are a tool used to build a relationship with customers and ensure their safety on the road.
3. Educating the customer with convenient, easy-to-understand explanations.
DVIs seek to leave no questions unanswered. When vehicle owners are presented with the option for a repair, they need to know two things: information about the problem and the benefits of the repair. This is where DVIs come in as an opportunity to educate the vehicle owner and give them the information they need to make the right decision.
With Tekmetric’s MotoVisuals integration, the recommended repairs in a DVI are accompanied by educational videos and animations that give more context to the issue and how the technician’s proposed repair can benefit the vehicle owner. This provides a greater understanding of the repair process for your customers – they can even share the videos with a car-minded partner or friend for a second opinion. By educating the customer on the purpose of a repair, it gives them more confidence in your shop.
Ultimately, DVIs lead to a higher close ratio and ARO because they present the information in a transparent manner that leads to greater trust. When vehicle owners can see the why behind their repairs and understand the value of the solutions you are offering them, they’re more likely to return. As a result, you are setting your shop to experience increased customer retention, stronger relationships with your customers and ultimately, greater profitability.
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