There are tons of daily and long-term decisions you have to make to continue growing your business. That means there's a lot of information to keep track of to stay organized.
With the right tools, like real-time reports in your shop management system, it's easier to organize and track everything happening in your shop and to use all of that data at your disposal. In this case, that tool is a modern shop management system.
With every aspect of your shop managed and tracked with a cloud-based SMS, shop owners can use real-time reports to forecast the health of their business and gain a sense of how much money their garage is expected to make before the end of a week, month, or year.
Here are the most important auto repair shop metrics to track in a cloud-based shop management system.
1. Realtime Productivity
It’s good practice for business owners to have a strong understanding of not only their team's performance overall but also the clarity they need to drill down to look at individual performance as well.
While the exact metrics might differ, both technicians' and service advisor productivity output can be measured. Then armed with the right information, owners can identify and celebrate the wins, while also identifying and working towards areas of improvement.
How Realtime Productivity Reports Power Decisions
With your finger on the pulse of your team's productivity, you can better invest in their growth.
For example, you'll understand which technicians or advisors might be in need of more training. You can then work together to create a plan to help them reach their maximum potential, and measure their progress over time.
Another idea could be leveraging your team's performance data to gamify your shop management.
2. Profit Details
The Profit Details Report gets into the nitty-gritty of the profits you’ve made across all repair orders during a given time period, as well as within individual repair orders.
How Profit Detail Data Powers Decisions
Understanding where your profits are coming from, and the ratio of your profits, over time, enables you to adjust your pricing for parts, labor, sublets, and fees so you can strike better profit margins and investigate anything that looks off.
For example, you might see that your total parts profit was only a couple hundred dollars during a particular month. If this number is lower than what you’re used to seeing, you can start reviewing individual repair order details to try pinpointing the reason behind the lower number.
3. Declined Jobs
It’s an understatement to say that customers don’t always approve every line item on their estimates.
There are some repairs that they want to save for later. The Declined Jobs Report helps service advisors keep track of each “no” so they can reach out to that customer later and get a “yes.”
How Declined Jobs Data Powers Decisions
It’s easier to sell work to existing customers than to sell work to new customers. When a customer declines a job that’s not pressing, service advisors gain a natural conversation opener.
So, when the time for that repair rolls around, a service advisor can contact that customer, say the time has come around for that repair, and ask them if they’d like to come into the shop. Bam, that’s a sale!
4. Sales Details
Understanding your shop's data not only enables you to maximize your profit margins, but also see exactly what brings in the largest profit, and even helps you identify where your biggest losses might be coming from.
How much have you sold in parts and labor over a given time range?
How much money have you collected from sublets, fees, and taxes?
What’s the dollar amount of the discounts you’ve given customers?
How Sales Details Data Powers Decisions
Of course, profit will always give you a more accurate understanding of how your business is doing financially since it reflects your business’s bottom line.
But your sales (revenue) numbers will give you a picture of your top line: exactly how much money is coming in.
You might see, for example, that you have high revenue, but in comparison, your profits are low. That gives you a clue that your business expenses might be too high.
You might end up ordering more parts than you end up using, you might lose a part in a deep dark corner of your shop, a part might get stolen, or a part might just accidentally get left out of a repair estimate.
When used together, Tekmetric’s Parts Purchased Report and Parts Usage Report can help you and your team keep track of the parts in your shop. You can see if you’ve actually been using what you’ve been buying and make adjustments as needed.
How Parts Purchased and Usage Data Power Business Decisions
Used together, the data in each parts report will help you identify any discrepancies with your parts that show up during the accounting and repair process.
For example, if the Parts Purchased Report indicates that your shop purchased 50 units of a particular part last quarter, but only five of those units were used, you have a starting point to figure out if your shop can scale back.
6. End of Day Metrics
Think of the End of Day Report as a holistic overview of how effectively your shop has been selling repair work during a given time range (you’re not limited to just viewing your shop’s stats on a day-to-day basis!).
In other words, the End of Day Report breaks down your shop’s overall shop metrics for the time range of your choosing.
How Real-Time Data Powers Decisions
The data found in your End of Day report can power various short-term and long-term business decisions that help you maintain a profitable shop over time.
For example, if you see that your gross profit dipped over the previous month, you can check a few other data sources to find the root of the problem, like how many new customers your marketing efforts have yielded and your current parts and labor rates.
Make Decisions Backed by Data
Sometimes we start with the “blank page” problem. Or put another way, you don’t know what you don’t know. Without clarity into exactly what’s happening in your shop, it can be difficult to identify the best opportunities to simplify, maximize, or even grow your business.
But when you make business decisions based on real-time data, you have peace of mind that the numbers are backing you up—that yes, it’s time to hire three new technicians or install another bay.
We get that looking for a new shop management system can be overwhelming. There are a lot of options to wade through, and a lot of features you need to learn about. But most are probably of you are probably thinking “can this tool do what I need it to?”
To help you wade through all the options out there, the best way to find the right tool for the job is to look for information from the people using those tools every day. That means shop owners, general managers, service advisors, and technicians.
Of course, word of mouth is great, and it's always awesome to get the chance to talk to shop owners and workers in person at industry events, but you don't have to wait. With so many resources at their disposal, we wanted to help shop owners looking for a new shop management system leverage the wealth of information out here like online reviews, user groups, and case studies to help them make the best decision for their team.
With this latest update, we want to deep dive into one of the most beneficial features, buy now, pay later, so shop owners can see for themselves.
Tekmerchant was designed to help shop owners, like you, to build trust with customers, close out the day faster, and turbo charge shop’s payment processing by offering them a fully integrated payments solution, all managed by a trusted team. Building off your existing Tekmetric experience, Tekmerchant is another way to supercharge both your shop’s processes and your customer’s experience at the same time.
More specifically, we're really excited to tell you about our new buy now, pay later feature , making it easier for your guests to do business with your shop -- especially on those more expensive repair orders.
With just the inclusion of Tekmerchant alone, Silver Lake Auto’s shop performance continues to grow. At the organization’s flagship store, average repair order (ARO) has increased by more than $200a month!
And we’re excited to see how much those AROs grow with buy now, pay later.
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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