Alex recently sat down with Ratchet + Wrench Radio to discuss a whitepaper she authored on how shop owners can identify inefficiencies in their shops. During the conversation, she discussed how shop owners can recognize these inefficiencies and fix them with shop management software.
Here are some of the highlights from the podcast.
Alex Bunkers: "The saying time is money is no truer than in the automotive industry.
You're literally charging people time. I don't know of a single shop owner that would say they love having to dig through a file cabinet to find an old RO or a purchase order, and it's hard to keep track of tech hours on a journal or spreadsheet (which, we have some shops that come to us doing that).
So having a shop management system allows you to stop spending time in your business and more time on your business—or just more time at home or on vacation with your family."
As any shop owner knows, running a business is an art and a science. Yes, shop owners need to listen to their intuition, but they also need to follow the data.
Tekmetric generates several real-time reports that help shop owners track their key metrics for specific date ranges.
As service advisors punch key repair details into Tekmetric, the system tracks it all, and then generates real-time reports.
Tekmetric saves shop owners time spent calculating their metrics, so they can instantly access insights and spend more time thinking through what those numbers tell them.
By taking their time back, shop owners can grow their shops faster and more methodically."
Alex Bunkers: “You probably do have some idea if you work in a shop what your bottlenecks are. But before you start, evaluate where your bottlenecks are formally. I would start, actually, with breaking out all the processes in your shop into two tracks.
The first one being all of your customer-facing things and kind of a step-by-step of what your customer goes through.
And that's something we like to call the customer journey. For most shops, this is probably going to look something like vehicle drop off, DVI and diagnosis, send the estimate approval, order parts, right, all the way through to payment and pickup. T
he second track would be all the back office things you do, your inventory audits, parts reconciliations, right, things that aren't part of the customer journey."
With streamlined workflows, auto repair shop teams are more unified. They can collaborate from one central hub, all while playing to their unique strengths.
Shop management software with workflow features, like Tekmetric, simplifies the process of streamlining workflows. Shop owners can set up manageable, trackable, adjustable workflows that minimize communication gaps and inefficiencies.
Tekmetric offers three main workflow tools for shops: the Job Board, the Tech Board, and DVIs.
The first is the Job Board, which gives service advisors a whiteboard-esque view of every repair order moving along at the shop, so they can track the progress of each repair and everything is humming along smoothly.
Next, there’s the Tech Board, which shows service advisors what’s on each technician’s repair to-do list and how far along they are with their assigned tasks, so they can know which technician is free to take on the next repair.
Finally, with digital vehicle inspections (DVIs), technicians can pinpoint issues and suggest necessary repairs, send the information to service advisors to create estimates, and then send the estimates directly to customers’ devices.
These three workflow features help service advisors and technicians reduce miscommunication and stay organized.
Alex Bunkers: “When you don't track metrics or take a serious role in orchestrating your customer journey, you're leaving money on the table.
We've worked with thousands of shops during my time at Tekmetric and I definitely notice a correlation between the annual sales of the owners who are actively involved in the operations, building the structure, training their teams, and tracking metrics, versus those who are having a hard time just staying on top of everything.
So, sometimes you have to make yourself slow down to speed up."
Let’s look back one more time at the importance of analyzing the data. It only takes an hour each week, or two hours every other week, to dive deep into real-time reports and monitor how things are going.
For example, spending a few minutes each day just to thoroughly analyze the End-of-Day Report can yield a wealth of insights into how to make more money for your shop and take back time in other parts of the day.
Examining the data makes it easier to know how your shop is doing on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly basis, and course-correct more intentionally as needed.
Whereas traditional methods of payment require dipping a card in the same terminal as other customers or the hand to hand exchange of cash or check, the ability to pay by text message through SMS mobile payments takes the complexity and headaches out of the payment process for owners, service writers, and guests alike.
For auto repair shops in particular, giving guests the ability to pay by text not only streamlines the guest experience but also frees up service advisors from having to do a bunch of data entry, giving them more time to help other guests.
Here’s how text-to-pay works on our Integrated Payments, Tekmerchant. As you’ll see, we’ve built in opportunities to enhance efficiency while strengthening the relationship you have with your guests at each step of the process.
By connecting Tekmerchant to Tekmetric, service advisors can quickly review the invoices of completed work and simply click a button to text the invoice to the guest.
Since the invoice is automatically generated from the repair order and is easy to edit within Tekmetric, the service advisor can reduce the time they would usually spend writing invoices.
Once the invoice is sent, the guest will receive a link that takes them directly to their invoice and pay screen. From there, they can review the work that was completed and make their payment, prompting them to input their billing information.
The customer inputs their card information, including their billing address, making it a verified payment.
At this point, all the service writer has to do is make sure that the payment has been approved and that everything checks out.
Because service advisors and guests both have access to a digital invoice, it gives service advisors the opportunity to add a human touch to the payment process without the guest coming into the shop.
Consider having service advisors give guests a call or send a personal text message at this part of the process.
While this may seem like an extra step, it gives service advisors a chance to check-in with the guest to ensure all approved work was completed, which is a big step towards avoiding chargebacks.
Calling the guest is also a good chance to remind them of any maintenance that may need to be taken care of in the future and any upcoming deals or events. If the guest is too busy to take a call, Integrated Payments has a Text-to-Pay feature giving them the freedom to pay when they have time.
If everything looks good on the invoice, the guest can easily pay and move on with their day. You get paid fast and the guest is able to pay at their convenience.
Once the payment has been processed, all that’s left to do is to return the vehicle.
Some auto repair shops use a key drop-box or locker to make vehicle returns more convenient for their guests and service advisors.
Most contactless drop boxes use programmable codes, so you can put the guest’s keys in a locker, send them the code, and let them pick up their car when they’re ready.
With a key drop-box, everyone wins: service advisors don’t have to worry about staying late; shop owners don’t have to worry about paying a service writer overtime, and your guests don’t have to feel rushed to make it back to the repair shop before closing time.
The Integrated Payment text-to-pay feature makes life easy for your guests and service advisors, and can potentially save you time, money, and headaches.
Product Updates
July 12, 2024
Committing to shop management software is a real decision. The right platform runs your front counter, bays, reporting, and customer communications. The contract you sign shapes how your shop operates every day.
That’s exactly why the contract deserves scrutiny before you sign it. A confident vendor will answer hard questions plainly. A shaky one is vague. The five questions below are designed to help you tell the difference and to keep you from getting locked into a contract that doesn't serve your shop.
Here’s what to ask before you sign anything.
What to ask: Do you offer month-to-month billing, or is an annual contract the only option? What happens at renewal?
Why it matters: Your shop isn't static. Car count swings with the seasons, you might open a second location, or you might simply want to prove the software works before you commit long-term. A rigid 12-month lock-in removes all of that flexibility and puts the risk on you.
What a good answer sounds like: A vendor that believes in its product will let you choose. Tekmetric offers flexible month-to-month billing or a discounted annual plan, with no long-term contracts required. That structure means you can scale with your season instead of renegotiating, and the annual plan becomes a discount you opt into — not a cage you're stuck in.
And if a contract is the very thing keeping you stuck somewhere else? That doesn't have to be a dealbreaker. Tekmetric routinely works with shops that want to switch but are locked into other contracts and frees them up to make the move. Tekmetric customers also see an increase in their ARO after switching.
Support quality is invisible during the sales process and unavoidable afterward. Plenty of shops sign up on the strength of a great demo and then discover that help means a ticket queue and a long wait. When your shop management system goes sideways, every minute is a car you can’t check out. Where that support sits matters too — a U.S.-based team understands how your shop actually runs and speaks your language, literally and operationally.
Look for multiple live channels and people who understand shops. Tekmetric provides U.S.-based phone, chat, and email support — real people, not just a knowledge base. Shop owners consistently point to responsiveness as a reason they stay.
“There is one support number to call when there’s an issue. There hasn’t been an issue. At all. It’s amazing.”
-Andrew Klement, Finley River Auto & Diesel
Ask any vendor directly where their support team is located and how a live person is reached during your busiest hours.
Your shop already runs on a tech stack — parts suppliers, QuickBooks, labor guides, a payment setup. Software that can’t connect to those tools forces double data entry and manual workarounds that eat the time you were trying to save. A closed platform quietly becomes a tax on your team every day.
A platform should meet your shop where it is. Tekmetric connects to more than 70 integrations consolidated into one workflow, spanning parts ordering, accounting, and more. Shops feel the difference when it works.
“They integrate so seamlessly, it’s amazing how quickly when we turn an RO on or open it up and approve it that it jumps into AutoVitals for the technicians.”
-Kelsey Lancaster, Performance Automotive Repair
Ask the vendor to confirm your specific vendors are supported before you sign. An open platform will have a clear, published integration list.
Onboarding is where good software deals go bad. If setup drags for weeks, or if you’re left to figure it out, the time savings you were promised evaporate, and your team’s trust in the new system goes with them. This is the single most common place buyers get burned.
You want a person accountable for your launch, not a self-serve checklist. Tekmetric assigns a dedicated onboarding manager and is often praised for simple onboarding. Most shops are up and running within a week, not dragged through a monthlong setup. That speed shows up on the floor, too.
“I mastered it within a week. … I have new employees starting all the time and I know that within a day or two they can write up a customer, build estimates, cash out a customer, make appointments.”
-Leroy Ingram, Ooroo Auto Care
Your existing customer and vehicle data comes with you, so you’re not starting from a blank screen. Ask any vendor for a realistic timeline, who your point of contact is, and how your data gets moved over before you sign.
Nobody signs up planning to leave, but how a vendor handles the exit tells you how they think about the relationship. A technology company counting on lock-in rather than results is a business betting you won’t be happy enough to stay by choice. The freedom to walk away is what makes staying a real decision.
A month-to-month option is itself a form of freedom. It means a vendor has to earn your business every month rather than bank on a signature. Tekmetric’s no-long-term-contract structure reflects that mindset, and your shop’s data is yours. Don’t let a fear of switching hold your shop back.
“We were just scratching our heads like why we hadn’t been doing this for a long time.”
-Steve Flones, KC Auto Clinics
Still, it’s fair to ask any vendor to walk you through how you’d wind things down and take your records with you if the fit ever changed. A confident technology vendor answers that plainly.
Notice what all five questions have in common. A platform that’s confident in the results it delivers doesn’t need to trap you. It offers flexibility, real support, open integrations, stands behind onboarding, and lets you leave if it’s not working. Lock-in is what vendors reach for when the product can’t meet shop demands.
That’s the lens to bring into every demo. You’re not just buying features — you’re choosing a partner for how your shop runs every day. Make them earn your signature and continued business.
July 28, 2026
Running any business is an art and a science. There are tons of daily and long-term decisions you have to make to continue growing your business.
As a shop owner, you have to make sure your employees and customers are happy, that repairs are efficiently getting through the door, and that your shop is profitable.
Intuition and emotional intelligence are what make up the art of running your shop.
Your intuition will steer the split-second decisions you make when it comes to things like helping technicians work through a challenge, answering customer questions, exploring business opportunities, and networking with partners. Intuition can be a good thing—after all, it’s the culmination of the experiences you’ve had before. For example, the bad gut feeling you get about a potential business partner can save you from a world of frustration.
Your emotional intelligence is also a crucial part of running your business. As a leader, you have to be there for your team, which means knowing when someone is having an emotionally off day so you can help them work through the situation. Your emotional intelligence is a guiding compass for your team's emotional responses to each other and to customers.
Some days, you or your service advisors will run into customer challenges. Your service advisors will follow your lead, so if you use your emotional intelligence and show empathy and understanding when a customer is having a bad day, that positive example will rub off on your entire team. Your service advisors will show patience and grace in similar situations.
However, while intuition and emotional intelligence are valuable, you can’t rely on them alone. You also need to test your business decisions—your business “hypotheses,” if you will—with data so you can know whether or not you’re on the right path.
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