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There are two types of auto repair shops today: an efficient shop and an inefficient shop. What’s the difference? The efficient shop uses an auto repair shop management software, while the inefficient shop doesn’t. How do we know that? Here’s an overview.
When it comes to automotive services, most vehicle owners are skeptical, to say the least. They usually don’t know where to go, what they’ll find, if they really need assistance, or how much the services would cost. Finding a shop that they trust can be a challenge, but this shouldn’t be the case. As the shop owner, it’s your job to make it easier for vehicle owners to find you – by using an auto repair shop management software.
The Difference Between Manual Auto Repair and an Auto Repair Shop Management Software
Taking the example earlier, we have two auto repair shops: an efficient shop (using an auto repair shop software) and an inefficient shop (using manual auto repair). Let’s go through the possible events that could happen if a customer brings his car to an inefficient shop.
At 9 AM, a customer comes to an inefficient shop about a rubbing, stretching noise the car makes. If there are two other customers, it would take about 20 minutes until the shop’s service advisor gets the customer’s personal information. He briefly goes over the rubbing, stretching noise with the customer, but because of the 20-minute wait time, the customer won’t have enough time and just tells the adviser that he needs the car by 4 PM.
The adviser runs out to the car to jot down the VIN. Because he has to write it down manually, there’s a big chance that he’s going to commit a mistake and pull up the wrong vehicle information. So, he’ll have to go back out to get the correct VIN and pull up the right vehicle information.
After manually adding the diagnostic cost, he prints out a tech worksheet, and then put it in a READ JOB ticket holder, so the technician will know that this needs to be done sooner than the others. He hangs the sheet up on the diagnostic hook.
The technician gets the job around 10:30 AM, diagnosing the issues. He also conducts a multi-point inspection, finding a bad power steering pump, brakes that are metal-to-metal, and two tires that are at three thirty-seconds tread. After writing down the findings, the technician hangs the sheet on the INSPECTION COMPLETE hook.
Once the service adviser gets caught up on paperwork, he spends about 20 minutes (depending on how readable the technician’s writing is). Once the recommendations are in, revisions are made, and parts prices are gathered, the adviser calls the customer’s cellphone, but the customer might not be able to answer. He hangs the order on the WAITING FOR APPROVAL hook instead.
The customer, after missing the call, checks the phone and calls back after an hour. The adviser goes over the power-steering pump, along with the other issues, but the customer asks about how bad the power-steering pump is, and why it hasn’t happened before. He also asks why he needs to pay $305 for a $15 part they just checked on Google.
In the end, the customer isn’t happy but still pays for whatever is needed, since he doesn’t have enough time.
What happens if a customer takes his car to a shop that uses an auto repair shop management software?
At 9 AM, a customer comes to an efficient shop about the same problem. He goes to the shop’s station to enter his contact number to the tablet. He goes out in 10 minutes, after confirming his personal information and vehicle. After that, the tablet suggests services based on the current weather, along with recommended services from the last time he had his vehicle serviced. This automatically updates his contact information in the auto repair shop management software and creates a new work order with notes.
Then, the shop’s service advisor takes the customer out to the vehicle, and together they discuss the rubbing, stretching noise the car makes. This time, they find out the cause of the problem. Using a tablet, the adviser then adds pre-built symptoms to the order that’s the same ones in the system. This updates the system in real-time, and automatically adds the labor costs for the diagnostics.
The adviser then advises the customer to wait for a text message that contains the results of the courtesy inspection. The customer tells the adviser he needs the car by 4 PM while he assigns the job to a technician, which makes the order show up on the technician’s tablet.
The technician finds the same issues and takes pictures to allow him to show the customer what’s wrong, using detailed descriptions that are already built-in. He creates an inspection report to make it easy for the customer to follow. And as the inspection is updated, so are the recommendations in the auto repair shop management software.
Once this is complete, the adviser receives a notification so he can review the inspection, to make sure that it’s ready to be sent off, and then sends it as a text message to the customer, who receives it immediately. The text contains a link where the customer can click. This link contains information about the inspection – everything that’s going on with their vehicle. The pictures that were taken during the inspection help convince the customer about the findings. The adviser then calls the customer to go through the findings, line by line, to explain what caused the problem, together with the other issues the customer isn’t aware of.
With this method, the customer agrees with the findings and happily pays the invoice.
The Power of an Auto Repair Shop Management Software
Based on the two scenarios above, which shop did better? The inefficient shop 7 hours to make $140 in parts and $165 in labor, for a total of $305. Meanwhile, the efficient shop, using an auto repair shop management software spent 6 hours to make $400 on parts and $350 on labor, for a total of $750, which is more than twice the amount earned by the inefficient shop.
As an auto repair shop owner, you should use technology to your advantage. Help more customers and grow your business. Check out Bolt On Technology and find out how now.
