Traditionally, there are four pillars to an auto repair shop that all support one another: the shop owner, technicians, customers, and service advisors.
The integrity of the shop depends on each of these pillars in different ways. The shop owner needs to make the right calls and put the right systems in place for technicians and service advisors to do their jobs. Technicians must stay focused on repairs. And loyal customers keep the lights on.
By effectively leading your team, service advisors can support the other three pillars of the shop—and in turn, achieve balance and improve the quality of your job. Getting started in your Service Advisor career, or looking for some tips? Here’s how to lead your team with intention.
Strategize With the Shop Owner
During day-to-day operations, your service advisor duties and the decisions you make will directly influence the shop’s workflow. Because shop owners call the shots, and you see the day-to-day impact of their decisions, the relationship that you have with your shop owner is ripe for collaboration.
Tracking patterns can help you identify even more opportunities for shop growth:
As you delegate tasks based on priority and monitor your team’s performance, you might notice where there’s room for improvement.
If you see that a technician’s productivity has significantly decreased one month after a steady flow, you can work with them on an improvement plan to get back on track.
Service advisors might also notice where systems and processes can be improved. In many cases, productivity gaps aren’t the result of individual employees but rather the result of inefficient ways of doing things.
If you have a difficult time seeing the status of repairs or if you have to constantly leave your station to chase down a technician or a customer, a better shop management system can help add some transparency into the process.
Set Technicians Up for Success
One of your main service advisor duties is to maintain harmony in the shop. Finding the balance between helping customers and helping technicians keeps the wrenches turning.
It’s typically up to technicians to run inspections, but service advisors play a key role in handing off the inspection tasks.
If a customer comes into the shop concerned about a leak, you might prompt the technician to conduct a fluid inspection. One of your service advisor duties might even include creating vehicle inspection checklists that you can assign to technicians, helping them know exactly what parts of the vehicle to inspect.
After a technician completes the inspection, it’s now your turn to show the customer all the issues they found, write up an estimate, and sell the work. The more work you sell, the more work technicians have on their plates. And depending on how the shop pays service advisors and technicians, the more work you sell, the more money both of you make.
Once the work is sold, you can begin ordering parts and dispatching the jobs to one or multiple technicians. In many shops, ordering parts falls under service advisor duties, but some shops hire a parts manager to help find and purchase parts as well as manage the shop’s inventory. If your shop has a parts manager, you will still be responsible for communicating with them, especially when you write the parts side of the estimate.
When you dispatch work, you want to be careful to distribute the work evenly among technicians so that no one technician feels overloaded or that they’re not getting enough work. You might even want to know which technicians specialize in certain repairs so that you can foster better collaboration among technicians.
Support Your Team From the Ground-Up
It's also worth zooming out and thinking about setting your technicians up for success from a fundamental perspective. Everyone's working together as one piece of the puzzle at a your shop.
With service advisors keeping things organized, shop owners setting direction and goals and directing operations, technicians are the workers of your shop, the ones turning wrenches and fixing cars.
Something really interesting we uncovered in our recent Industry Index Report was that, on average, Tekmetric shops could pay their technicians almost $5 higher than the national average from 2022.
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 the work they do.
At the end of the day, one of the best ways to show your team how much you value their hard work is to compensate them well for the work they do, which will keep them motivated and driven to deliver great results!
Build Trust With Your Customers Through Transparency
Even though you work closely with the shop owner and technicians, the most important part of your service advisor duties is customer service.
A major element of leading your team is setting a good example for them on how to deliver great customer service.
Every day at the shop, you’ll need to take customers through the inspection and estimate process. Many customers will have questions about their car and the services you’re suggesting.
Probably the most challenging but rewarding of all the service advisor duties is building customer loyalty.
Standardized processes like including images with every Digital Vehicle Inspection sent to a customer, and features that help free up Service Advisors with fewer clicks or even detailed customer history, enable Service Advisors to create transparency, consistency, and amazing customer service at every step of the interaction.
When customers feel they can trust your shop, they'll be more likely to approve repairs. Especially those expensive, unexpected repairs.
By showing them exactly what's wrong, what needs to be fixed, and how much it'll cost, customers will be more likely to understand the why behind the repair, and not just focus on the cost.
Streamline Your Service Advisor Duties
Using Tekmetric’s many features, including the Job Board, Tech Board, and DVIs, you can set your team up for success—and create a shop environment where everyone can thrive.
Scaling your auto repair business requires moving beyond simple spreadsheets and paper repair orders. You need a robust shop management software that has enterprise-level features, centralized real-time reporting, and helps you provide a consistent customer experience across locations.
This guide breaks down the top enterprise software solutions for auto repair shops with 2+ locations.
Top 5 Enterprise Solutions for Shops With Multiple Locations
Finding the right software partner for your expanding shop is critical to your success. Below you will find our top overall picks for multi-shop operators (MSOs).
Multi-shop owners love Tekmetric because they can run their entire business, across all locations, from one platform. Featuring an all-in-one shop management solution with centralized real-time reporting, marketing, payments, and 70+ integrations, Tekmetric makes it easier for you to manage multiple locations. Why we picked Tekmetric:
Centralized reporting: Real-time dashboards enable you to see how each location is performing. You can track financials, employee performance, shop metrics, ARO, car count, and more.
All-in-one solution: Instead of switching between platforms, Tekmetric offers shop management, POS, and CRM in one place.
Company history: Built by a former shop owner, Tekmetric is often praised for ease of use, simple onboarding, reliable support, and listening to customer feedback.
Shop-Ware is designed to help you maintain consistency across multiple locations with unified customer history, reporting, and employee management features.
Why we picked Shop-Ware:
Reporting: Find the metrics that matter the most to your business.
Customer experience: Standardize your customer experience across locations.
Employee management: Easily compare employee productivity and manage permission levels.
Protractor is a popular shop management system for shops with multiple locations or franchises. Protractor offers advanced reporting features and shop management features so you can run your shop confidently.
Why we picked Protractor:
Reporting: Performance tracking, insights, and employee productivity monitoring.
Fullbay specializes in heavy-duty truck and trailer repair shops. Most standard shop software struggles with the complexity of fleet maintenance, but Fullbay was built for it.
Why we picked Fullbay:
Centralized inventory: Track parts and inventory across all locations.
Integrations: Fullbay has plenty of industry interrogations to keep your shop running.
If you are looking for a lighter software solution, Garage360 might be a good option for your shop. Supporting quick-lube, body/collision, and fleet, Garage360 can be used in a variety of shops.
Why we picked Garage360:
Versatile: Can be used in multiple shop types.
Permission control: Manage your employee permissions across locations.
Reporting: Pull the data you need to make informed decisions.
Pricing: Starting at $79/mo (billed annually).
Which software features should I look for when I manage multiple shops?
If you are comparing software options for your chain operations, these are the modern features to look for:
Centralized real-time reporting: Tired of trying to guess how each shop location is performing? Pick a software that can pull the data you need from any location or aggregate it across shop locations within a user-friendly dashboard.
Inventory/parts management: Tracking parts can be difficult as you expand. Find a solution that can track inventory levels and transfer parts as needed across locations.
Standardized workflows: Having standard workflows streamlines your shop operations. Select a software that can standardize your operations, prices, and procedures.
Employee permissions:Managing employee permissions is critical to ensuring the safety of your company data and holding employees accountable. Pick a software that keeps your business secure.
Single vs. Multi-Location Management: What are the differences?
Why can’t you just use a single-shop system? The difference lies in automation and control.
Standardization: In a multi-location setup, you need to ensure that technicians at every shop are following the same workflow and procedures so your customer experience is consistent.
Visibility: Single shop software may have reporting, but you need to be able to compare metrics between shops to make informed business decisions.
Security: Multi-shop software provides employee permission settings and typically comes with advanced data protection.
Pricing: Most single-shop software options will charge you per user or limit repair orders. Enterprise software will grow with you and charge based on the number of locations.
Final Thoughts
Choosing an enterprise-level auto repair shop software isn't just about features; it's about finding a partner that helps you maintain a consistent customer experience as you grow. Whether you prioritize inventory management, deep metrics, or standard procedures, ensure you find a solution that can grow with you.
Thought Leadership
Shop Management
Best Auto Repair Software for Multiple Locations (Full Guide)
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