By streamlining your auto repair shop workflow, you can help your shop create a memorable customer experience that will keep them coming back next time they have a problem.
From the moment customers walk in the door to when they pick up their vehicle, your shop’s service advisors play a crucial role in creating a smooth, enjoyable experience.
Shop management software makes it easy to establish a standardized intake process so that shops can provide the same level of care to their customers every single time.
Service advisors can build repair orders in seconds, apply the right digital vehicle inspection templates with just a few clicks, and quickly text or email the results to the customer for approval.
This frees up their time to focus on the customer directly, address their concerns, and create a stress-free experience. If things go well the first time, and customers feel like they can trust your shop's recommendations, work they'll more than likely come back for future repairs.
Focus on Customer Experience at Every Step
By keeping track of who your customers are, what they like, and what they’re all about, your shop’s service advisors can create an experience that’s memorable and feel-good for your guests, converting them into life-long customers.
Your auto repair shop workflow begins during the customer intake process, and service advisors should have a standard process in place for each first-time customer. You can collaborate with your service advisors to brainstorm and fine-tune how they welcome first-time customers. For example, you could decide to:
- Greet the new customer and welcome them to the shop
- Get their name right by taking note of its spelling and pronunciation
- Get the make, model, and year of their vehicle
- Ask them what problem(s) they are having with their vehicle
- Ask them how they found out about your shop
- Ask them whether they want to stay at the shop or leave during their repair
- Explain what the next steps will be
As for existing customers, if you’re taking good notes, you’ll be able to greet them, show them you remembered them, and give them a good reason to come back time and again.
Streamline Customer Information for a Friendly Customer Experience
Service advisors have to gather a lot of information from guests at this initial stage. It’s important that they document everything.
With shop management software, service advisors can move through this step with little effort, keeping track of customer information with just a few keystrokes and clicks.
Make It Easy for Customers to Approve Repairs
Working with customers to approve work is where the real back-and-forth can happen if your team isn’t careful. It’s ideal to have customers approve all repairs, but your team can’t be pushy, either. That’s why it’s important to make the repair approval process as transparent, intuitive, and easy as possible for guests.
At this stage in your auto repair shop workflow, the customer should be able to clearly see every job on the repair estimate and its urgency—and then approve or decline individual jobs without having an extensive conversation with a service advisor.
Putting the guest in the driver’s seat of the approval process ensures that nothing will be misheard or misconstrued over the phone or at the counter.
Create a Frictionless Estimate Approval Process for a Seamless Customer Experience
Repair tracking software removes the need for service advisors to play “telephone tag” with each repair estimate. Guests will be able to approve or decline individual jobs on their own time.
As guests review the estimate and approve work, the service advisors and technicians can continue working instead of waiting around for guests to make a decision. Because service advisors can now stay focused, they will be able to navigate the parts ordering process more efficiently.
Keep Customers Updated, Offer a Smooth Payment Process
Guests can be doing any number of things while the technicians repair their vehicles. Regardless, they still want to know the status of their repair in the easiest way possible.
As the technician works on the repair, they should be providing the service advisor with updates that can be relayed to the customer. Service advisors shouldn’t be leaving their workstations, running back and forth. Rather, they should get these updates from technicians in a way that doesn’t interrupt the technicians’ workflows.
When it’s time to pay, the guest should have easy options to process their payment, whether that’s a text-to-pay service, a smart payment terminal, or both.
Keep Customers Informed with Easy Communication for a Transparent Customer Experience
Repair tracking software can keep service advisors in-the-know of each repair without them having to go bother technicians.
Technicians can run a built-in timer on line items in each repair order, and easily mark off completed jobs. From there, they can periodically add status updates into the digital repair order, marking off completed jobs.
Since the service advisor has access to the same system, they can jump into a repair order at any time to see the progress bar. From there, they can use repair tracking software texting features to text the guest about how far along the repair is.
And with text-to-pay features, customers can pay on their own time, which minimizes disruptions.
Going even further, if your shop has a drop box, customers can pick up their vehicle when it’s best for them, pay by text, and get back on the road quicker than ever.
Optimize Processes to Enhance Your Customers’ Experience
Streamlining your auto repair shop workflow is essential to creating a memorable customer experience that will not only bring them back but also lead to referrals and increased revenue.
By investing in Tekmetric, you and your team can standardize customer intake, make the repair approval process easy for guests, and ensure a smooth and enjoyable customer experience.
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