No matter what your auto repair shop specializes in, chances are you're facing similar challenges.
New customers are hard to come by
It can be difficult to keep even the most loyal customers coming back
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.
The 5 Biggest Benefits of Digital Vehicle Inspections
Digital vehicle inspections are becoming an industry standard, replacing carbon-copy and printable vehicle inspection forms.
The recipe is simple: technicians can complete inspections faster, estimates can be sent to customers instantly through text or email, and pictures or videos prove to customer why large repair orders need to be completed.
Here’s how auto repair shops benefit when they use digital vehicle inspections:
1. Build Trust with Customers
By implementing a modern vehicle inspection system in your shop, you can reduce and diffuse the skepticism that many customers have when they go through inspections and estimates.
When a technician attaches an image of a dirty air filter or a video of a frayed serpentine belt, the customer has no reason to doubt whether or not it’s a necessary repair.
Customers will trust your shop is only charging for important work, will be more likely to approve repair orders and will think of your shop as their first resource next time they need something fixed.
2. Provide a Modern Customer Experience
Customers expect digital experiences. We have our receipts emailed to us instead of printed, we can order groceries online, and we get pictures when our deliver are dropped off. Almost everything we purchase has a digital component, and your shop should be no different.
Auto repair shops can easily provide a modern customer experience with digital vehicle inspections by emailing or texting the results directly to the customer.
Any pictures or videos your technicians attach will be sent with the repair estimate, and customers can approve or deny work in a matter of seconds, no matter where they are.
3. Keep Declined Jobs Top of Mind
With digital vehicle inspection systems, your technicians can uncover additional work that needs to be done on the car, not just what the customer brought the vehicle in for, and document it clearly. From there, they can easily show customers what repair work takes precedence over the others.
If customers decide to decline work, that DVI is still attached to that customer's profile, and declined jobs are not only tracked, but included on the final invoice receipt given to customers so they can keep track of potential future repairs. Its an easy way to keep the customer informed while also keeping them coming back.
4. Run a More Efficient Shop
With a solid vehicle inspection system, technicians know exactly what to look for and how to relay any information over to the service advisors. With the tech’s findings from the DVI, service advisors have a standardized report to build estimates from. And customers have more visibility and control over what work needs to be done.
Shops can even setup default inspections. Service advisors won’t have to spend time searching for your shop’s standard inspection every time they build a new repair order. Plus, technicians will have a standardized inspection to work off of, ensuring that every vehicle is thoroughly inspected to the same standard with the same level of care.
5. Increase Your Shop's Average Repair Order
Shops can both create as many inspection checklists as you see fit, and even setup default inspections for certain jobs to build repair orders and send them to technicians in just seconds.
If you opt for a cloud-based shop management system with a built-in DVI feature, you can save each inspection created and completed to the cloud, and you can pull up the inspection created for any correlating customer concerns.
Create a Modern Shop Experience with Digital Vehicle Inspections
Digital Vehicle Inspection systems are the perfect example of why a cloud-based shop management system is the right tool for the job.
Although most drivers dread paying for repairs, a clear, transparent inspection gives them the answers they need to move forward and approve the work so that you and your team can get them back on the road safely.
Being honest, most customers are worried they're gonna be ripped off, or up-sold on a repair they don't really need. But, when customers can trust that your shop is doing right by them, and only recommending the work that truly needs to be taken care of, they'll be more likely to keep coming back.
Order too many parts and your money and space are tied up in inventory. Order too few and when you run out of what you need, projects come to a standstill while you wait for a delivery. That’s why you need a solid auto parts inventory management system.
Auto parts inventory management is a process that helps you decide when to buy, store, use, or sell auto parts, so you can be sure that items you need are in stock when you need them. This requires tracking parts you have on hand and streamlining the process of reordering or replacing them at the right time.
An inventory system will help your shop run more efficiently and free up a ton of time. Implement an effective system to tighten up your workflow and take your business to a higher level.
The truth is that estimates tie into professionalism. When the first oral surgeon gave you an estimate for your wisdom tooth removal surgery, they helped you:
Manage your expectations: You knew what kind of procedure to expect, and how much you could expect to pay for it.
See that the office cared about your wellbeing: The oral surgeon and their staff wanted you to make the best choice possible and gave you a resource to accomplish that.
Have a reference point for the future if any issues come up: For example, if you got charged a couple of hundred dollars more after your procedure, you’d have documentation to show that the extra cost wasn’t part of the plan.
Wisdom tooth removal surgery isn’t cheap. Neither is auto repair work.
Just like a professional oral surgeon’s office explains to patients what their options are and how much they should expect to pay for procedures, a professional auto repair shop shows drivers what their repair work options are and how much they should expect to pay for repairs.
That professionalism is what helps you win over and retain more customers. If your customers are deciding between different auto repair shops, they’ll likely stick with the business that shows the most professionalism.
Some of the minds behind Tekmetric have been exactly where you are: running a shop and trying to maintain that fine balance between success for your team, success for your customers, and success for your business.
And we know there's always that extra .001 millimeter room for improvement, which is why we set out to help shops find and make those improvements. Everything about Tekmetric is about making your shop better!
But we also know that you spend a lot of time running your shop, and that’s why we’re happy to do that heavy lifting. Part of the natural byproduct of helping great shops get better is we have a lot of data and a lot of insight into how shops can, and maybe even should, operate.
That's the beauty of modern cloud-based shop management systems, they provide businesses like yours with a strong foundation of organization, simplicity, and functionality to run your shop, with the flexibility and freedom to run it in whatever way works best for you.
Looking specifically at the first half of 2023, we set out to gather a high-level view of the entire independent auto repair industry alongside unique Tekmetric shop data to understand how shops like yours can save time, improve operations, and bolster your profit margins.
The goal behind our latest industry index report was simple: we wanted to make it as easy as possible for shops like yours to take advantage of all that amazing data and industry expertise we've gathered along the way.
Keep cars on the road, customers happy, and your team supported for a successful business.
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