Running a successful shop
It’s the dream for auto enthusiasts all over the world, owning a successful automotive repair shop. Working on cars is a passion for many and as a result, most shops are born through said passion.
What many new shop owners quickly realize, owning and running a shop is no cakewalk. Owners are often greeted with a host of problems they never even thought about. When these problems pile up it can quickly take its toll on the shop.
Most new businesses actually go under within a year of operation. That’s why you must identify these problems quickly and work to resolve them. To help you out this short blog will show you these common problems and offer innovative solutions to resolve them.
Customer Distrust
This is by far the most common problem for shops big, small, new and old. Auto service customers simply don’t believe what a shop recommends them. It could be something important, something that will only get worse and leave them stranded, yet they still refuse to believe you.
To remedy this problem more and more service centers are ditching pen and paper inspections for digital. There are multiple reasons shops are doing this but the clear increased customer communication is #1. Digital inspections through AutoServe1 allow for techs to take photos and videos of problem areas and include them right in the report for customers.
When customers see with their own eyes what’s wrong with their car, average repair orders can increase up to 25% or more! Now you’ll be able to show them exactly why they need to approve your recommendations-or risk having their vehicle breakdown (or worse, get into an accident.)
Shop Communication
This is a problem businesses in general have, and auto service is no exception. With digital inspections, you’ll be able to ensure your whole team is aligned. With the click of a button, you can easily update a vehicle’s status and the whole team gets alerted. Waiting for parts? When they’re ready you can send out a notification and the techs can get to work right away. This is a key feature of AutoServe1 called Workflow1.
One of the biggest problems shops have with communication is the illegibility of handwriting. We all know that one tech who’s writing looks like a doctor’s. No matter how hard you squint you struggle to make out the recommendations or inspection findings. This leads to wasting time trying to track down the tech that wrote the report.
Digital inspections are all done through tablets or smartphones so the illegibility problem is no more.
Waiting around for approval
Ok, you’ve finished inspecting a customer’s vehicle, no it’s the infamous waiting game… How long will it be until you can actually begin working on their vehicles? Will work even get approved? It can drive you crazy.
Well, thanks to digital inspections you can get approvals a LOT faster. With our 2-way texting feature, you can send these detailed inspection reports right to your customers’ smartphones!
They’ll see everything your tech saw while they worked on their vehicle. Not only that but they’ll be able to approve work with the tap of a button! No more waiting around for annoying or unclear voicemails.
Productivity (or lack thereof)
Again a common problem for businesses is worker productivity. Thankfully with AutoServe1, you can actually measure the productivity of your techs. Metrics like tickets created each day, total vehicle inspections and customer reports can all be measured through AutoServe1’s Analytics Dashboard. This keeps shop owners on top of team member performance and your shop’s overall productivity, benefiting the shop’s efficiency and customer relations.
Want to learn more about measuring tech performance? Read up on our Workflow1 feature here.
Want to learn more? Get a free demo from our experts today.