AutoLeap’s inaugural auto repair conference Amplify 2023 – Essentials of Growth took place virtually on March 24, 2023. The day was packed with insightful shop management sessions and powerful knowledge sharing as 22 speakers took the stage and over 250 people attended.
» Want to grow your auto repair business? Click here to schedule a demo.
The speakers include Rameez Ansari & Steve Lau (Co-CEOs of AutoLeap), Aaron Stokes (CEO of ShopFix Academy), Chris Cotton (Owner of AutoFix-AutoShop Coaching), Cecil Bullard (CEO & President of The Institute of Automotive Business Excellence), and many more!
In case you missed it, we put together a quick event recap. The thought-provoking sessions are also available for on-demand viewing for a limited period of time. Register and access here: amplify.autoleap.com.
Let’s get started!
The sessions
Amplify 2023 was a one-day virtual event that featured 13 live sessions.
In an industry like ours, you can’t grow if you aren’t leaning on the experience and insights of veterans. Amplify could only be successful if we brought in top industry experts from the US and Canada.
This is why we had 22 shop experts and seasoned shop owners take the stage to educate our audience on everything they need to know to accelerate shop growth.
Here’s a list of all the sessions from the event:
- Welcome & Keynote
- Key Tips for Getting into the Growth Mindset
- Profit & Cash Flows
- Driving an A+ Customer Experience
- AutoLeap Roadmap
- Becoming an Elite Service Advisor
- The Female Shop Owner
- Employee Management & Motivation
- AutoLeap ROI
- You Can & Will Survive an Economic Downturn
- Auto Repair KPIs
- Preparing Yourself and the Future of Your Shop for the Electric Vehicle
- Going Multi Store
Welcome and keynote
We had the pleasure of Carm Capriotto joining us as MC for Amplify. Carm’s the host of Remarkable Results Radio Podcast and an aftermarket influencer. His energy set the mood for a truly exciting event.
Carm introduced our co-CEOs, Rameez Ansari and Steve Lau, who then took the stage. They dove into the story of AutoLeap – how the software came to be, where we started from and where we are now.
A few noteworthy mentions included:
- AutoLeap’s largest benchmark survey for the auto repair industry
- AutoLeap’s second round of investment worth $30 million
- 50% reduction in the time customers spent doing administrative tasks
- 300% increase in the AutoLeap employee base in just one year
Now, let’s explore some of the information-packed sessions from the event.
You can and will survive an economic downturn
Recent years have been tough on all industries around the world, and 2023 is up for even more economic uncertainty. Joe Marconi, Business Development Coach at Elite Entertainment, joined us to talk about braving this storm and coming out strong as an automotive business.
The need of the hour is sustainable business operations.
But how do you build sustainability? Joe spoke about covering all your bases in the current economic climate.
Shop owners need to focus on improving customer and employee satisfaction, building trust, and preparing for the future. You need to continue to train and educate yourselves and your staff. Once you’ve got a good system going, start optimizing your cash flow.
Review your expenses, profit margins, breakeven strategy, and cash reserves. How must you improve these to reach your desired net profit? Joe also suggested keeping three months worth of expenses in a separate bank account as a contingency plan.
Auto repair KPIs
Cecil Bullard and Kent Bullard from the Institute of Automotive Excellence explained how to make auto repair businesses more data-driven.
Cecil spoke at length about KPIs that shop owners should closely track to maximize business efficiency. He also discussed the importance of setting profit goals and using them to optimize your KPIs.
So, what were these numbers that were the secret to shop success? Cecil broke down core metrics into daily, weekly, and monthly metrics.
For daily tracking, there are five base metrics to look at. These are:
- Sold work
- Completed work
- Productivity percentage
- Average repair order
- GP $ per hour
In addition to these, you should track parts margin, labor margin, car count, and total GP $ on a weekly basis. Then on a monthly basis, you add net profit tracking to the mix.
Female shop owner
We also wanted to celebrate Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day by bringing our attendees a panel discussion on The Female Shop Owner.
The session was moderated by Tracy Capriotto, Director of Content/Producer at Remarkable Results Radio Podcast. She spoke to our guests on how women can overcome challenges in the auto repair industry in this day and age.
The panel included:
- Mosé Barrera, owner at Mosé Auto
- Celena Moore, owner at Tech on the Way
- Helaine Kurot, owner at 360 Automotive & Consulting Services
The discussion touched upon the surprise, misogyny, and harassment women in the auto repair space often face. However, the panel admitted that times have changed. If you enjoy the work, any woman can start her own auto shop.
But what are some things to be mindful of? Here’s a summary of the insights shared by our panel:
- Constantly learn new things and keep improving your skill set.
- Always price right and stand firm on your rates. You can’t have a profitable business if you let your gender dictate the pricing when you’re working the same hours as a man.
- Invest in certifications like the ASE, but also exercise what you learned. It’s important to practice. Take leadership and business training certifications as well.
- Find the right apprentices and hire the right talent. Look for enthusiasm and the willingness to learn.
- Be good leaders to strengthen your business from the ground up. Teach the ‘whys’ to your staff and offer diversity.
The other amazing sessions
Amplify 2023’s aim was to bring shop owners across North America all the insights they’d need to drive growth. Our line up included many other expert speakers who shared their knowledge with the audience in interactive sessions.
Coaching expert and founder of Shop Fix Academy Aaron Stokes delivered a brilliant workshop on getting into the growth mindset. He explained how to look at shop problems, set ambitious goals, and achieve them.
Chris Cotton, owner of AutoFix-Auto Shop Coaching, insightfully walked the audience through how to develop a profit and cash flow strategy and understand essential profit margins and income statements.
Sara Fraser, VP at Haas Performance Consulting, shared her best tips on driving an A+ customer experience across all forms of communication (including SMS, phone calls, emails, and appointments) to boost customer retention.
We also had Jeremy O’Neal, President at AdvisorFix, offer an excellent training session on becoming an Elite Service Advisor.
Kyle Zhao, Senior VP of Finance, Product and Operations at AutoLeap, revealed the 2023 roadmap for AutoLeap so our customers knew the benefits they could reap from our software in the coming months.
Darrin Barney, President at Elite, delivered an engaging session covering employee management and motivation to tackle the talent shortage faced by the industry.
Tristan Corrin, Senior Sales Manager at AutoLeap, shared the ROI benefits shop owners using our all-in-one shop management software have gained.
We also got an excellent crash course on electric and hybrid vehicles for mechanics and shop owners by “G” Jerry Truglia, Owner of Automotive Technician Training Services.
Greg Bunch, founder at Transformers Institute, gave us his valuable time to share the key to success for going multi-store.
The audience was able to tap into the experience, knowledge and skills of our experts, and engaged with the experts via Q&As in each session.
Entertainment break and afterparty
Besides having information-packed sessions, Amplify also offered attendees a chance to relax, share in some good times and win exciting prizes!
Around lunch time, we hosted an Entertainment Break in which we played a round of trivia with the following themes:
- General knowledge
- Pop culture
- Car talk
Stephanie Soh and Amber Wright from AutoLeap also hosted an After Party with another round of Trivia focused on Amplify and AutoLeap at the end of the day. They concluded the day by revealing all the winners of the virtual conference.
In-event games
Besides trivia, we also had several other exciting in-event games to make sure Amplify wasn’t all work and no play.
Our auto repair enthusiasts brought their A-game to the event. They used secret clues to find hidden items in our virtual venue for the Amplify scavenger hunt.
Our attendees also took photos using a virtual booth to participate in a photo contest.
That’s not all!
Many attendees undertook special missions to win points on our leaderboard.
We had 13 winners walk away with exciting prizes, such as a Kamado Joe Portable Charcoal Grill, Yeti Roadie Cooler, Samsung A8 Tab, Dewalt Mechanic Tool Set and Amazon gift cards.
» Want to grow your auto repair business? Click here to schedule a demo.
The feedback
The event was incredibly well received. So many attendees wrote to us about how informative the conference was and how much they enjoyed participating in the event.
The engagement stayed active until the very end. Our speakers answered burning questions regarding business growth. Many attendees also explored the themed chatrooms to discuss shop problems and share insights.
If you didn’t get a chance to attend the live conference, or you’d like to re-watch some sessions, Amplify 2023 is now available for on-demand viewing.
Register and access here: amplify.autoleap.com.
Amplify will be coming back next year, bigger and better. And we hope we’ll see you there.
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