Every element of your team is critical, from the technicians who complete the repairs to the service writers who assist customers and keep repair orders flowing through your shop management system.
They’re the people who are responsible for directly communicating with guests or working on vehicles. They're the core of your everyday operations, ensuring cars are brought in, estimates move along, and repairs are completed on time.
It is absolutely critical for great shops to start with great talent!
With the power of cloud-based shop management systems, auto repair shops can build the best team possible with the right mindset, culture, and approach to hiring and retaining the best talent.
But Isn't There a Technician Shortage?
We know that there has been some discussion across the industry regarding a technician shortage -- whatever it is, shops feel like it's harder than it's been in the past to find the best talent possible to help them make their great shop even better.
What's interesting though, is that when we look at the numbers, there seems to be a bit of a different story.
For example, according to the 2024 Auto Care Association Fact Sheet, automotive technician employment increased by 3.5% in 2022 alone. Meaning, that there are now 915,000 men and women working at general repair shops, vehicle dealerships, and gasoline service stations.
The reality is, there are even more technicians! And the beauty is, there's no sign of slowing down within the aftermarket auto repair industry, just as we saw in our latest Auto Repair Industry Index.
1. Maximize Employee Compensation
Shops should structure their team and payroll operations to, of course, maximize labor profit margins. But it's also critical that shop owners ensure employees are paid adequately for their work.
Now, shops have the ability to pay different roles in different ways. When we dug into Tekmetric-specific data, we saw shops around the country utilizing different pay structures:
But more importantly, what we really noticed was how Tekmetric makes it possible for shops to find and retain the best talent. In fact, we found that on average, Tekmetric shops can pay their technicians almost $5 higher than the national average from 2022.
The best way to show your team how much you value their hard work is to compensate them well for the work they do. And of course, owners need to ensure the lights can stay on while running a business. That's why a cloud-based shop management system is so critical in maximizing the value of the work you already do.
1. Create an Open-Door Policy
You don’t want to create a situation where your team members feel like it’s required for them to keep you in the loop and ask for your permission before doing anything on their own; they still need to maintain a level of independence, so that they can complete their work, and you can tackle high-level business operations.
But an open-door policy is a great way to balance your team’s need for independence with your need for input.
When your auto repair team members know they can ask you or other members of the management team for help when they need it, they are more likely to speak up when they run into challenges.
By doing so, problems will be less likely to spiral out of control because you and your employees can work together to find solutions.
2. Hold Regular Team Meetings
By holding regular meetings, you can bring your technicians, service advisors, and the rest of your auto shop team together to share ideas and make improvements.
When your auto shop team members start discussing various processes and happenings at your shop, they’ll be able to brainstorm creative, effective solutions—solutions that they might not have come up with on their own.
“In the morning, when I used to go through residency, we would have breakfast in a room of 25 students, and we would discuss cases… It was like a puzzle. One person would discuss a patient, and everybody has to figure out the problem that patient had.
I did the same thing at Motorwërks. I would have breakfast provided, and we would sit in a room and discuss a car that would have a noise or leak and figure out what was wrong.”
What Sunil found was that the practice of daily meetings instilled confidence and camaraderie in his team.
By holding daily or weekly meetings with your entire auto shop team, you can quickly identify and solve problems while strengthening your team.
Use Tekmetric to Hire and Retain the Best Talent
With Tekmetric, your service advisors and technicians can work alongside each other as one unit.
Scaling your business and bringing in even more revenue for your shop doesn't have to rely on finding new customers.
Rather, shops can utilize the features of cloud-based shop management systems to help them maximize profit margins on the work they already do.
With a modern platform like Tekmetic, shops can not only get the most value out of the work they do, but hire the best talent to provide the best service possible.
When it comes to auto repair, a great customer experience can make the difference between a customer returning for future repairs or not. At Tekmetric, we recognize the importance of creating an excellent experience for your shop’s customers that meets their expectations and keeps them returning again and again. To accomplish this, we strive to offer a solution that helps you meet four key pillars of the customer experience: convenience, comfort, trust and loyalty.
Convenience
For vehicle owners, choosing the most convenient shop is not necessarily about going to the closest shop. Rather, convenience is a matter of choosing the shop that makes their life easier.
With approximately 50% of all business shopping completed outside of regular business hours, convenience goes a long way – especially when it comes to auto repair. Customers may need to drop their vehicle off and pick it up later, rather than waiting in the lobby. They may even request to complete pick up after business hours. In all cases, convenient solutions can keep the pick-up process smooth and painless for both you and the customer.
Tekmetric’s two-way texting opens the door of convenience for vehicle owners. Two-way texting meets the customer where they are – anytime, anywhere. The vehicle owner can access updates to their repair process through a simple text, even from their office desk. Additionally, two-way texting can integrate with Tekmetric’s text-to-pay feature, so customers can pay from work or home, then come pick up the vehicle at their own convenience.
Comfort
Traditionally, we think of comfort in a physical sense. For example, we might say, “that chair is comfortable.” Customers choose who they do business with based on how comfortable of an experience they receive. Having the tools and resources that ease the tension inherent with getting a vehicle repaired is critical to making a customer feel comfortable. One example that is often overlooked is the payments experience.
With Tekmetric’s “Buy Now, Pay Later,” option, shop owners can offer vehicle owners the opportunity to complete necessary repairs and pay in installments over time. An experience like this can make vehicle repair affordable and comfortable, no matter what the customer’s budget is.
Trust
Trust between an auto repair shop and vehicle owners is paramount. Not only can it make the repair process smoother for all parties during the repair, but it also contributes to building a lasting relationship for future repairs. A customer is more likely to trust you when you have demonstrated that you can create an experience that is convenient, comfortable and transparent.
Digital vehicle inspections (DVIs) are a great opportunity to educate vehicle owners on the health of their car by providing them with recommended repairs accompanied by photos and videos. Through DVIs, technicians can offer a holistic, transparent evaluation of the customer’s vehicle by highlighting both areas in need of repair and parts that are working well. The result? Customers can gain a better understanding of the technician’s findings, making them more likely to approve work – and return for future repairs.
Loyalty
Prioritizing customer convenience, comfort and trust contributes to an enduring sense of customer loyalty. Building loyalty drives your shop’s bottom line in the long term. A good experience for one vehicle owner can lead to a domino effect within their personal network, as they return for future repairs and make referrals to others. Therein lies the hidden gem of long-standing, thriving businesses: strong customer loyalty.
One of the ways to strengthen customer loyalty is through education and clear communication. Our integration with MotoVisuals demonstrates Tekmetric’s commitment to education and clear communication by showing customers what is wrong with their vehicle instead of simply telling them. Informing vehicle owners about the health of their car accompanied with pictures and educational videos creates a dynamic that is forthcoming, honest and geared towards educating the customer while also ensuring the car gets repaired.
A customer-centric approach can drive your shop’s performance and establish an excellent customer experience. Use these four pillars – convenience, comfort, trust and loyalty – to drive your shop, and you will create a seamless experience for your customers from start to finish. Whether it’s meeting them where they are financially or educating them about a repair, you can establish a consistent, excellent experience that attracts and retains loyal customers now and far into the future.
At the end of the day, customers want to feel like they can trust your shop, they know they'll be taken care of, and you're only doing the repairs that are most necessary.
On the other hand, your shop wants to bring in as much business as possible, and generate as much revenue as you can with the time and resources available to your team. That's made possible with the right tools for the job, streamlined and efficient processes, and transparent communication with your customers.
Better operations means smooth repairs, smooth repairs means happier customers, and happier customers means more business.
When your shop is trying to run like a well-oiled machine, any breakdown in workflow can lead to delays, a frustrated team, and unsatisfied customers.
For example, if a customer's repair takes longer because the part you thought you had in stock is actually on back order, they're going to be less likely to return.
That's where shop management software comes in. Just any other tool in your shop, there will be a return in your investment.
What if we told you that you can get even more value out of the work you already do with the right processes in place?
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.
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