With a complete view of how all your shops are performing and access to the tools needed to make changes quickly, shop management systems help run your shop with smooth and agile business operations, provide a consistent experience for customers, and ultimately maximize revenue and support your shop's growth.
Features such as unified reporting across all your shops and shared customer history work to create seamless processes for managing your business as a centralized organization.
Shop management systems with built-in Multi-Shop functionality remove information silos, making it easy for owners to manage all of their locations as a unified business organization.
Tekmetric Multi-Shop makes it easy to monitor, view, and update all of your shop locations from anywhere at any time. By removing the information silos that exist in other solutions, owners can make the best decisions with a complete view of their business' performance.
With a Multi-Shop capable platform, owners and managers can easily access and review important metrics across all locations, including revenue, car count, average repair order, rejected work, approved work, and so much more.
The power is truly in the flexibility and centralization of all your shops’ data. Owners can even drill down on specific shop locations or compare different aspects of their business with a complete bird’s-eye view.
With so many customers, individual repairs, estimates, digital vehicle inspections, and not to mention all of the data collecting and reporting options available in a shop management system, it's critical to ensure your information is organized properly.
Even just having multiple customer histories between different locations can throw off your financial reports or parts inventory management by adding in redundancies. Shops that are still writing things down manually on pen and paper, or trying to force other software solutions to work for their business, are leaving a lot of potential on the table. A better handle on all your data makes it easier to manage your business, and even shows you the opportunities to increase your average repair order value.
That's why shop owners with multiple locations should really consider using a multi-shop management platform that creates consistent, unified data processes. With the same collection and reporting processes, the same values being measured and all of the results in the same place, you can easily figure out what's happening where, and why.
The digital experience has become standard, and customers have developed new expectations for continuity of care. Like being able to return an item they bought online in a store, at any location. We expect that the store will have a view into what we bought, where and when we bought it, and how much we paid for it.
With Shared Customer History in Tekmetric, shops can provide that exact same level of continuity between locations. For example, one shop using Tekmetric Multi-Shop has two specific locations: one focused on repair work, and the other specializing more in vintage and performance upgrades.
With shared customer history, the performance shop can see exactly what repairs and maintenance the customer had done, or even declined, to provide better service and recommendations for their planned upgrades or repair work.
One of the best aspects of a shop management system is the ability to create quick, seamless and efficient workflows for your entire team. Service Writers will love the ability to build estimates and apply canned jobs with just a few clicks. Technicians will love the ability to view their schedules and upcoming work to plan out their day. Owners will love the ability to organize all their data into unified reports.
And, of course, with the right Multi-Shop management system, owners, managers and service writers can gain access to all these powerful workflow tools across multiple locations. And that can be tailored down to locations they specifically focus on, or a more birds-eye view for a complete picture.
For example, Service Writers can configure or apply different canned jobs across multiple locations, or create a consistent digital vehicle inspection process at every location to ensure the same level of detailed analysis and care is provided to every repair order.
When managing multiple shops, it's not uncommon to have different locations serving different clients, different cars, or have a different focus all together.
Depending on these market differences across your shops, owners can configure and tailor offers or discounts in some shops but not others. Owners and managers also have the ability to tailor and configure different payment methods, like text-to-pay, and build different experiences around them.
For example, one shop owner allows for customers to drop off and pick up their vehicles, even when the shop is closed. Meanwhile their other locations are more walk-in based and don't provide this flexibility. Owners can configure one shop to allow text-to-pay functionality, while the other shop offers pay-as-you-go options for walk-ins that didn't expect such a high repair bill.
With a personalized experience, customers feel like your shop is there to truly support them. Better experiences lead to happier customers, happier customers lead to repeat business, and repeat business of course leads to increased revenue.
And when managing multiple shop locations, it's critical to have the right tools and processes in place to create a unified experience. Gain back time, make better decisions, and maximize your margins at every shop with powerful tools and reports from an auto repair shop management system.
In an era where digital solutions are rapidly transforming industries, the auto repair space is no exception. Fortunately, in addition to increasing efficiency and streamlining customer service, this growing reliance on digital systems also offers an opportunity to enhance transparency. Transparency is essential to building trust and empowering vehicle owners with the knowledge they need to make informed decisions regarding repairs. When leveraged correctly, digital solutions can bridge the gap between auto repair shops and customers, creating opportunities for transparency from the moment the customer brings the vehicle to your shop to the final payment and pick-up.
In an industry where trust is paramount, educating your customers is one of the best value-adds you can offer. When done conveniently and thoroughly, education can help the customer better understand their vehicle’s problems, the necessity of the proposed repairs and what additional repairs need immediate attention. This in turn allows them to make the best decision for the health of their vehicle and their safety as the driver.
Digital solutions can play a significant role in educating customers. In conjunction with the technicians who complete the repair, service advisors are in a unique position to educate the customer about their vehicle and repairs. When the service advisor takes the time to clearly share the technician’s diagnosis and proposed repairs, the customer can better understand where their money is going. Digital solutions can help streamline this process, which makes customers more likely to approve repairs – ultimately driving your average repair order. Some digital solutions include:
A big part of establishing transparency in your shop is creating convenience for your customers. Through convenient digital tools, you can share information with customers easily and clearly in a format they can access anytime, anywhere. For example, by facilitating a convenient, two-way digital conversation, you can share repair updates and answer questions all through a simple text. You can even share photos and videos to further illustrate your recommendations. When customers can text you and get immediate responses, they can rest assured that your shop will meet their needs in an efficient manner.
At Tekmetric, two-way texting and text-to-pay both build on convenience through transparent communication, from repair questions to financial needs and payment options:
Transparency is critical from start to finish in the auto repair process. You work hard to establish and build trust with the vehicle owner throughout the repair – so it’s crucial to maintain the same level of transparency at the final touchpoint: the payment. After the repair, you should offer a secure form of payment your customer will be able to review, clearly understand and complete in a format that is easiest for them.
Transparency fosters greater trust and loyalty between auto repair shops and vehicle owners. By providing clear and open communication throughout the auto repair process, shops can build stronger relationships, gain new business and increase customer satisfaction. The more transparent you are, the greater the vehicle owner’s trust in your shop. This enhances your reputation and your business performance, leading to more customers, an excellent customer experience and ultimately greater profitability.
Shop Management
Customer Experience
September 30, 2024
As 2023 winds down, it's a great time to reflect on the strides made across the independent auto repair industry.
Throughout the year, we’ve been collecting data, talking to shops that rely on Tekmetric every day, and gaining valuable insight into how your shop can prepare for the best year possible in 2024.
That’s why we released our latest Industry Index Report earlier this year, to give shops and industry resources to not only compare their performance against other shops but also some concrete tips and tricks they can implement at their shop.
This comprehensive analysis not only assesses the industry's vitality but also seamlessly integrates unique Tekmetric’s partner shop data, presenting a goldmine of opportunities for optimizing shop management.
The result is a compelling narrative that provides a bird's-eye view of auto repair in 2023 and delves into Tekmetric-specific data, to offer shops like yours the actionable insights you need for success in 2024.
Here’s how shops can take advantage of these trends in 2024.
Service advisors serve as the major touchpoint between customers and your shop. While they ultimately need to build repair orders for technicians, they need to get that information from the customer.
And vice versa, when technicians provide inspection findings, service advisors explain those findings to the customer to figure out the best path forward.
That's why service advisors need to make customer service a focal point of their role, to build that trusting relationship between the customer and your shop.
Because when customers feel like they can trust that your shop is giving them the right recommendations, they'll feel more comfortable approving repair orders for the work their vehicles need to keep running safely and reliably.
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