Narrow Down Your Options When Reading Automotive Repair Shop Software Reviews

“Receipts.” We all know the literal meaning of this term—those pieces of paper or emails/texts a retailer sends you as proof of purchase, in case you want to exchange or return an item down the road.

In a casual sense, “receipts” also mean “proof” in the event of a dispute. For example, if your dog could talk and claimed he definitely did not steal the pizza from the picnic table, you could show him “receipts,” which could be a photo your astonished friend snapped of him while he was dragging the pizza away. Busted!

Ok, but in all seriousness, as a business owner, you interact with receipts in two ways:

1. You give receipts to your customers once their repair work is finished
2. You get receipts when you purchase items for your shop (like parts)
   

Even though receipts exist in practically every industry, there’s a huge difference between the receipts customers get from an auto repair shop versus the receipts they’d get from a restaurant or clothing store.

Look at it this way: you don’t go to a restaurant and get an estimate for how much your food will cost. You see the prices on the menu, order, and then pay at the end. But in the auto repair world, we have to scope out the work with an inspection and estimate. That’s where the shop and the customer come to an understanding of the repair work that will occur, and get a preview of the cost, before any work gets done.

Without a solid inspection and estimate process, there can be a higher risk of misunderstandings and miscommunications, which can diminish customer loyalty and lead to credit card chargebacks. For example, a customer could misunderstand the severity of the need for a repair and decline it when they get their estimate, and leave a negative online review that their car still has issues. Or, a customer could say they don’t want a particular repair, but a service advisor misunderstands them. The repair happens, and the customer is upset when they get the final bill because they’d communicated that they didn’t want the repair.

That’s why estimates and receipts are extra important in our industry—they protect shops and customers. They give your customers peace of mind; they have a record of what repair work they got done on which day, and how much they paid. And in the event of a customer claiming a certain repair didn’t happen on a particular day, you could pull up your copy of the estimate and the receipt and set the record straight. You won’t have to deal with a frustrating back-and-forth process that can stretch out for days.

But beyond literal receipts, there are other elements of safeguarding your business. After all, protecting your business isn’t just about protecting it from financial and legal standpoints, although those are two important areas. You also have to think about things like your team’s productivity, employee management, healthy margins, and more. Auto shop management software is a great core tool that can help you safeguard your shop from multiple angles.

No matter what your auto repair shop specializes in, chances are you're facing similar challenges.

1. New customers are hard to come by
2. It can be difficult to keep even the most loyal customers coming back
3. Repair work is frequently declined or pushed off

The reality is, people don't want to have to pay for an expensive fix when they don't directly see or understand the value or necessity behind the repair. We've become very used to simple solutions to complex problems, and more often than not customers wish their cars were like that too.

Auto repair shops can also be intimidating: they're loud, usually covered in oil, and they can feel like a trap.

That's why transparency is so critical in the auto repair industry, and why digital vehicle inspections have become such an important tool for shops. Customers want to know that they're only being charged for necessary work, and digital vehicle inspections help your shop show them that.

Digital vehicle inspections are just one aspect of your entire shop's workflow, but are an incredibly powerful foundation that go a long way in making your shop more money.

Tekmetric just revealed two new tools to help shops win more customers and run a more efficient front desk. Get the full story. Watch the on-demand webinar now.

Generating new business in auto repair is hard. The industry is projected to grow just 2% over inflation annually over the next five years. The average American has 15 auto repair shops within 10 miles of their home, according to Tekmetric's internal data, meaning competition for every new customer is fierce. And across multiple industry surveys, roughly two-thirds of drivers say they don't fully trust their local repair shop — making it that much harder to win them over. The result: only one in 10 shops both grows and hits profit margins of 20% or higher. 

"We know the competition to win new customers is fierce,” said Lauren Langston, president and COO, Tekmetric. “That means we need the right strategies and the right tools in order to do it."

Tekmetric's data shows that winning shops consistently focus on four outcomes: car count, average repair order (ARO), driver experience, and cycle time. Two new Tekmetric products — Tekmetric Digital Ads and Tekmetric Phones — are built to move the needle on all four.

Tekmetric Digital Ads

Winning new customers starts with being found. Tekmetric Digital Ads is an AI-powered add on that helps your shop show up where high-intent drivers are already searching for auto repair on Google Maps and Apple Maps. Because it connects directly to Tekmetric, you can see exactly how your ad spend translates into real revenue, not just clicks.

"It's really hard to see what's working. One of the superpowers of this product is that it's connected directly with Tekmetric," said Jared Haleck, chief product officer, Tekmetric.

Tekmetric Digital Ads is in early access now and rolling out to selected customers.

Tekmetric Phones

Every missed moment at the front desk has a cost. Tekmetric Phones gives your service advisors the customer context they need — instantly, the moment the phone rings — so they can spend less time looking things up and more time taking care of customers.

"Service advisors especially are loving it,” Haleck said. “It just saves them so much time. It creates so much convenience for them.”

Tekmetric Phones is in beta, available for customers on RingCentral.

Watch the On-Demand Webinar

Langston and Haleck walked through all of it — the industry data, live product demos, and what's coming next — in their webinar, "Building for the Results-Driven Repair Shop."

The recording is available now. If you want to see exactly how these tools work and what they can do for your shop, this is the place to start.

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