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As a shop owner, you have the ability to tune into your shop’s performance metrics, employees’ bandwidth, and overall profit margins with a few clicks.

Lucas Underwood and David Roman, hosts of the ASOG podcast, recently sat down with Tekmetric CEO Sunil Patel at the Vision Hi-Tech Training and Expo in Kansas City, Kansas.

Sunil shared some key insights into facing challenges, embracing change, streamlining processes, prioritizing customers, and the power of “always starting with why.”

Note: the following answers have been condensed for clarity.

On Facing Challenges and Handling Stress

ASOG: We spoke with PJ Leslie (Tekmetric’s Business Development Director) recently, and he was talking to us about your ability to take anything that comes your way and overcome it.

PJ shared with us that no matter the circumstance, you’re always able to say, “We’re going to get through this, and we’re going to make something from it.”

You created an amazing thing despite the adversity that you’ve faced. How were you able to do that?

Patel: My wife and I went through some hard times with our daughter, Brianna, about a year ago.

And what I told my wife during that time was, “You know what? I’m ready to face this challenge.

We’re going to find the best doctor we can find and the best solution for her. And Brianna will live life one day at a time.

We’re not going to think about the future, we’re going to live life today.”

Since that day it’s been almost ten months and everything has been great. She’s doing beautifully.

A key component to handling stress is delegation.

You’ve got to let go of some of your responsibilities no matter how unnerving it is. Remind yourself that you can continue to keep your momentum on your shop, business, and goals by delegating.

That’s why you have a team—so you can tackle and conquer each task that comes your way.

On Embracing Change and Switching Gears

ASOG: You’ve gone from being a physician to a police officer to an auto repair shop owner, and now you’re the co-founder and CEO of Tekmetric. What made you want to go from physician to shop owner?

Was there a rock bottom for you? Was there a point where you decided, “I don’t want to be a physician any longer?”

Patel: I was fortunate that I never hit rock bottom. I’ve always tried to live in the moment. And I’m always intrigued by learning new things. With that being said, it took me going from industry to industry to learn the skills that helped form Tekmetric.

Let’s say you set a goal for yourself to go to the gym more often.

Now, if you don’t want to go to the gym, then you will keep training your mind to make sure that gym is just not your thing. It’s not until you have a breakthrough that you are able to change your mindset.

You have to train your reticular activating system (RAS), a network of nerve pathways located in the brain stem that mediates overall behavior, so that going to the gym becomes a positive activity.

Along with reminding yourself that you want to go to the gym, write down when you want to make the change and why.

Let’s say this is your goal, 'In March 2023, I will feel great, I will look great, my clothes will fit me better, and I can hear my family and friends saying ‘You’ve done a fantastic job.'

You have to recognize and reframe each limiting belief that is preventing you from achieving your end goal. An example of a limiting belief would be something along the lines of, "Ah, I’ve had a long day, I can just go to the gym tomorrow.' You have to reframe it to, 'I’ve had a long day, time to finish strong with a trip to the gym.'

You have to be very intentional. You truly have to want to reach the finish line.

This concept goes for shop owners, too. If you’re wanting to expand your shop, you’ll need to change the way you’re running your business. You can do that with shop management software.

Tekmetric is pleased to announce that our co-founder Sunil Patel has been selected by Houston Business Journal as one of Houston’s Fifty Most Admired CEOs of 2020.

“I want to thank Houston Business Journal’s Publisher Bob Charlet, Editor-in-Chief Giselle Greenwood, and the entire HBJ staff for including me on this year’s list,” says Sunil.

Most of all, I want to thank my awesome team at Tekmetric. A CEO can’t be successful without the feedback and support of their team. Our team works hard every day to meet the needs of thousands of shop owners across North America. Our mission is to empower shop owners to make their business successful for them, their teams, and their guests. Shop owners deserve to be admired CEOs, too.

Visit Houston Business Journal to see a full list of 2020’s Most Admired CEO Finalists

At Tekmetric, we’ve been busy creating the most requested feature by users: true two-way texting. We’re excited to announce that this November, you and your guests will be able to communicate with each other in a seamless, hassle-free way.

Send and Receive Texts Directly in Tekmetric

Once your shop sets up two-way texting within Tekmetric, your team and customers will be able to have instant, harmonious digital conversations.

On your end, the Tekmessage interface will have a similar look and feel to social media messaging services (such as Facebook Messenger).

Your customers, however, will see the conversations as regular text messages on their phones.

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To use Tekmessage, simply click the messaging icon in the top right corner of your shop’s header within Tekmetric. Doing so will open the Tekmessage sidebar, where you’ll be able to see a full list of conversations with guests, send and receive texts, and search conversations.

Remember spring and summer of 2020? A lot of us are probably trying to forget and move forward, and we feel you. It was a scary time period for everyone, including the automotive repair industry.

Last April, auto shop owners were wondering, are my customers going to come into the shop? If people stay inside, are they going to drive less? If they drive less, are they still going to come into the shop as frequently? What if other industries are affected, and people have less money for repairs?

We were nervous like everyone else. But anyone who knows Tekmetric knows that we’re committed to driving the auto repair industry forward; we wanted to answer these questions and put Auto Repair Professionals’ minds at ease.

We also wanted to enable shops to not only endure the pandemic but also grow and come out stronger than ever before.

Strength in Numbers

If there’s one thing that makes us feel confident, empowered, and like we know what’s going on, it’s numbers. (Tracking shop performance and providing insights is kind of our thing).

We’ve seen the power of metrics in shops across America, and we know that customers, service advisors, technicians, and the entire auto repair industry benefit when auto shop owners can make informed decisions.

So we launched the TM-500 Index. The TM-500 tracks the Average Repair Order and Car Count of five hundred auto repair shops located across the United States. But data don’t mean squat if it ain’t easy to read. The TM-500 let’s users sort data by time and region so they can quickly explore trends.

Want to know the ARO and Car Count between the months of June and November of 2020? Simply set the time period “by month,” and the TM-500 will generate an easy-to-read graph.

Want to know if shops in midwest states had a higher or lower Car Count than southwest states last summer? Simply set the time period you want to observe, and hover over different regions on a map of the United States to learn how they performed.

Just as the Tekmetric system for auto repair shop management gives shop owners better insights into their shops, the TM-500 gives Auto Repair Professionals better insights into their industry.

But knowing is only half the battle.

A Catalyst for Digital Transformation

The auto repair industry has lagged behind almost every other service industry in how we utilize technology. Almost anyone with a smartphone can order a pizza, sushi, enchiladas, or any other food they want and track it while it’s being delivered to their door.

Meanwhile, someone paying hundreds or even thousands of dollars for a new transmission still has to go in-person and deal with a half-legible piece of paper that feels greasier than the pizza and enchiladas put together!

But we get it. People are sometimes reluctant to change. For many auto shop owners, however, the COVID-19 pandemic was the “now or never” moment to fully digitize their shops.

In 2020, Tekmetric prioritized the rollout of several features we had been working on to help shops provide their customers with the experience they’ve come to expect in almost every other part of their lives. In April of 2020, we rolled out Text-to-Pay, allowing shops to invoice and collect payment via text message.

In November of 2020, we rolled out True Two-Way Texting to make it easy for service advisors and customers to communicate throughout the entire repair process.

Combined, these two features enabled Tekmetric users to provide a completely touchless experience to their customers without sacrificing the quality of their work or customer service.

Much like in other industries, customers who bring their cars in for repairs appreciate the extra service and transparency of a more enhanced, digitally assisted customer experience.

As we watched many shops grow by using Tekmessage and Tekmerchant, we kept an eye on the overall performance of the TM-500. We were able to see when shops began to bounce back in summer after an early slump, and developed other understandings about where the industry was headed.

Over time, we have added new metrics to the TM-500 such as state-by-state Labor Margin, Parts Margin, Effective Labor Rate, and Car Count to gain a more complete picture of these high-performing shops.

What Have We Learned Since the Onset of the Pandemic?

When making conclusions about where the industry is going, we like to be informed by both quantitative and qualitative data.

The numbers give us a factual look at what’s gone up or down, and talking to people in the industry helps us make correlations between how certain behaviors, processes, and principles affect these trends.

Between the data we gathered from the TM-500 and the feedback we were able to gather from talking to auto shop owners, here’s what we have learned.

When he set off to create Tekmetric, founder and CEO Sunil Patel had an ace up his sleeve: experience running his independent auto repair shop.

Running a repair shop is the background of everything we do. It's that partnership between Tekmetric and the auto repair shops that leverage the platform daily that enable us to build the absolute best tool for the job: running an independent auto repair shop.

So we set out on a mission to deepen our connection with our customers and understand each shop's unique challenges and wins by visiting as many customers as possible.

We wanted to understand the unique challenges and victories each shop faces, to truly deepen our connection with you. The results? It blew us away. Your stories, your shops and your teams are the heart of what we do. You inspire us every day to provide the best solutions for the independent auto repair industry.

Tekmetric's Customer Obsession

Whether your shop is general repair, like brakes, fluids and check engine lights, or a specialized business focused on older European cars, there’s one thing that’s always the same: the amazing, critical work your shop does to get people back on the road!

And it’s your amazing shops that use Tekmetric that make all this possible. Our customers' valuable feedback is what helps us develop a better platform, and the proof is in the pudding.

Just look at all the awards we’ve been winning because of our users, like you!

What We Hear from Independent Auto Repair Shops

No one knows what it takes to run an independent auto repair shop better than the teams that rely on Tekmetric to power their operations.

Here's what we heard from shops and why they love Tekmetric:

Tekmetric's ease of use and simplicity in running your shop

‍Everything you need to run your shop is organized, tracked, and maintained in one tool.

Whether you're a shop owner peaking into real-time performance reports or analyzing shop trends, a general manager ensuring cars flow quickly and efficiently through your shops, a service advisor supporting customers, or even a technician fixing cars, Tekmetric can help your shop operate like a well-oiled inline 6.

Tekmetric empowers shop to grow and reach their next level

‍We constantly hear how shop owners have leveraged Tekmetric to grow their business in ways they never expected.

Whether that means opening and managing multiple locations, simply adding a few new bays moving into a larger location, or even expanding your operations to service more customers, Tekmetric's simplicity and complete control over your shop makes it easy to track, plan, and grow.

Tekmetric's commitment to transparency and communication

Because we're so customer-obsessed, we're always here to help! As a cloud-based solution, Tekmetric helps run your shop by doing a lot of the operational "heavy lifting," so to speak.

Not only do we provide the right tools for the job, but we're here to partner with your shop. Our support doesn't end, and we're always a quick message or phone call away, anytime you need support!

Our Commitment to Shops Like Yours

Because we're here to help your great shop get even better, we're always open to hearing how we can make Tekmetric even better! 

Want to see Tekmetric in action? Book a demo today to see how you can revolutionize your shop operations.

Tekmetric is really excited to join the show, connect with the amazing professionals who rely on Tekmetric, and maybe even meet a few of you who haven't made the switch yet!

There's something special brewing too for the 31st, and it's not just Halloween

Not convinced? Here are six reasons you absolutely need to see us at SEMA and AAPEX, whether you're a long-time fan (we'd love to say hi!) or maybe a little curious about what we're up to.

1. Our Revolutionary Feature Announcement

Something big is brewing. On October 31st, at 10am in Booth #11789 at SEMA. Be among the first to experience the groundbreaking feature from Tekmetric.

We're gonna be releasing something "wicked smart."‍

2. Win a Driving Experience

Who doesn't love a good game of Mario Kart? It's not just for the kids! And if you're fast enough on a Switch, you can bring your skills to a real racetrack.

Come by, rev up your controllers, and race to win a Lamborghini Huracan driving experience from Speed Vegas, on us! We'll even cover your flight and hotel to get you to the track!

3. Q&A With the Tekmetric Team

Have any questions for us? Here’s your chance to get some one-on-one face time with our team. We’re here to guide you through any concerns you may have, and if you’re curious how Tekmetric works we can walk you through it with a live demo!

And for you dedicated Tekmetric users, we’re all ears for you to share any valuable recommendations you’ve got cooking. Now’s your chance to be heard!

4. Check Out the MoFO Truck In Person!

Pardon our French, but you're gonna wanna see this MoFO in person.

Witness how Max-Bilt, a current customer, has used Tekmetric to transform a FedEx truck into an insane mobile office for one of their valued customers. Check 'em out on instagram!

5. Visit Joe's Garage

And if you're bored of hearing us talk about Tekmetric, come check us out in action in Joe's Garage.

Watch as Andy Bizub and team use Tekmetric to manage their entire repair process in-action! They'll be working on repairing a used car to donate to veterans after the show.

6. Collect Exclusive Swag

Honestly, though, we know what you want. Don't miss the chance to pick up some awesome SEMA exclusive swag we got in the works! We think you'll love it.