Even as computer chip shortages limit the production of cars and parts, the automotive industry is becoming more reliant on technology than ever.
Technology has transformed the auto repair sector and made it leaner and more efficient. Gone are the days when auto repair only comprised manual labor. The adoption of technology in the auto repair industry is high as cars continue to become more technically advanced with each generation.
Vehicle users are also getting smarter by the day, and their time is becoming much more valuable. Customers want things fast and easy. Your shop can get in on this action, too! Let’s look at a few key ways automotive management software can save time and grow your business.
Why is automotive software such a big deal?
Companies like Tesla were the first to make car ownership a digital experience. Now, the rest of the industry has followed suit—from buying a new car to trading in an old one, everything can be managed online.
This is great for those who use these digital tools. Buying and maintaining a car is something most people can now do from a smartphone! But it also creates a tighter link between automakers and their customers, often at the expense of independent repair shops, as is evident in Predictive Maintenance (PdM technologies).
A shop management system allows independent businesses to provide an experience similar to dealerships. Plus, it greatly benefits the shop too!
1. Increase profitability
Using shop management software can make a huge impact on profitability. An auto repair shop, Volksmasters, reported a 42% increase in profitability after using AutoLeap. Here are some features that can help increase your shop’s profitability.
- Make better decisions: Software gives you granular control over what happens in your business by providing real-time insights about your shop’s health, wherever you are. This allows you to make better decisions and improve processes at your business. All insights are present in your software’s reporting feature, so you never miss anything important.
- Earn more from each job: The key to running an auto repair shop is making each customer and car count. One of the best ways to increase your average repair order size is using digital vehicle inspections (DVI). Not only do DVIs allow shops to identify more potential problems in a vehicle, but they also serve as an excellent tool to build trust with customers. Technicians can send photos, videos, and voice memos of the work required in customers’ cars, leading to fewer deferred jobs.
- Spread word about your shop: After creating your auto repair marketing plan, it’s time to see results. The software gives you the power to create customer groups and target them during campaigns. You can promote special offers or attract dormant customers using email and text message integrations in the software.
- Build your online presence: Push a survey to customers after delivering their cars. This allows you to work on areas of improvement left in negative ratings and push a Google Reviews link to customers who had a positive experience with you to establish your shop online.
- Follow up with customers: Repeat business is critical to your shop’s success. How does software help keep customers coming back? It can send periodic maintenance reminders to your customers. This allows shops to maintain a predictable flow of income and ensures that customers have a vehicle they can rely on.
- Reduce no-shows: It’s easy to forget appointments in today’s fast-paced world. That’s why sending customers appointment reminders using auto repair software can be useful. This informs them of the commitment, leading to fewer no-shows. Volksmasters saw an 80% decrease in customer no-shows after using AutoLeap. Additionally, customers can also cancel or reschedule appointments ahead of time, allowing you to cater to walk-ins. This ensures that your shop’s resources never go unutilized.
2. Offer a differentiated customer experience
Shop management systems like AutoLeap offer an intuitive, polished experience that impresses customers and builds loyalty. How can software make a difference? Here are a few ways:
- Talk to customers: With the help of software, you can talk to customers and build trust without manually inputting their data each time. Additionally, sending customers timely updates about repairs and informing them of any delays beforehand can help them align their expectations.
- Offer a personalized experience: Having access to a customer’s vehicle repair history, detailed customer notes, and other essential information in your shop management software enables you to offer a personalized experience. This allows you to build strong bonds with customers, making them likely to become repeat business.
3. Save time
Time is one of the most important things when running a mechanic shop. However, doesn’t everything seems to be a time-hog? From getting customers into your shop, creating estimates, working on the car, and then doing the paperwork, 24 hours in a day never feel enough. Here’s how software can streamline your shop’s processes and save you time:
- Create quick estimates: Mechanic shop software comes with built-in parts and labor guides, allowing service advisors to come up with an estimate quickly. Gone are the days of manually calculating estimates and making mistakes while presenting them to customers.
- Stay on top of inventory: With the supply chain constraints leading to an auto parts shortage, it can be challenging to obtain the right parts in time for jobs. With shop management software, you can check the components needed for each job and monitor whether they’re in stock. Then, it’s easy to quickly order parts that aren’t in inventory using software to reduce the waiting time for customers. This maximizes productivity at your shop and keeps customers happy since they get their cars back faster.
- Schedule appointments: Manually scheduling appointments is inefficient and can lead to human error. If your shop is working with 20 cars a day, it’s possible to accidentally schedule an appointment for the wrong time or leave it out entirely. Use auto repair scheduling software at your shop to easily add and move around appointments with drag-and-drop functionality.
- Work board: Instead of having a messy work board, won’t you prefer a clean and well-organized one? Software allows you to plan ahead by showing you what tasks are coming up, which technicians are busy, and the status of each job.
- Technician app: Communicating with your technicians is important throughout the day. This helps to track what techs are working on, their productivity, and allows them to run things by you if new challenges arise. However, this also takes a lot of time. AutoLeap shop management software comes with an app that techs can use to do all this and much more!
- Bookkeeping: Software that connects to online bookkeeping software like Quickbooks can greatly reduce the time you spend on accounting by eliminating double-entry.
Conclusion
There are numerous benefits of an auto repair shop management system. Not only does it help save time and costs, but it can also increase customer satisfaction. It will also help eliminate challenges faced by the business daily.
