What are the benefits of using Digital Vehicle Inspections for an auto repair shop?

Here’s how auto repair shops benefit when they use digital vehicle inspections: #### 1. Build Trust with Customers #### 2. Provide a Modern Customer Experience #### 3. Keep Declined Jobs Top of Mind #### 4. Run a More Efficient Shop #### 5. Increase Your Shop's Average Repair Order

5 Benefits of Digital Vehicle Inspections

The article "5 Benefits of Digital Vehicle Inspections" from Tekmetric highlights how digital vehicle inspections improve automotive shops by enhancing customer communication, increasing repair order value, streamlining workflow, boosting technician accountability, and providing detailed, transparent vehicle condition reports.

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Thought Leadership

5 Benefits of Digital Vehicle Inspections For Your Shop

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March 15, 2024

Read time: 1 min

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The 5 Biggest Benefits of Digital Vehicle Inspections

Digital vehicle inspections are becoming an industry standard, replacing carbon-copy and printable vehicle inspection forms.

The recipe is simple: technicians can complete inspections faster, estimates can be sent to customers instantly through text or email, and pictures or videos prove to customer why large repair orders need to be completed.

Here’s how auto repair shops benefit when they use digital vehicle inspections:

1. Build Trust with Customers

By implementing a modern vehicle inspection system in your shop, you can reduce and diffuse the skepticism that many customers have when they go through inspections and estimates.

When a technician attaches an image of a dirty air filter or a video of a frayed serpentine belt, the customer has no reason to doubt whether or not it’s a necessary repair.

Customers will trust your shop is only charging for important work, will be more likely to approve repair orders and will think of your shop as their first resource next time they need something fixed.

2. Provide a Modern Customer Experience

Customers expect digital experiences. We have our receipts emailed to us instead of printed, we can order groceries online, and we get pictures when our deliver are dropped off. Almost everything we purchase has a digital component, and your shop should be no different.

Auto repair shops can easily provide a modern customer experience with digital vehicle inspections by emailing or texting the results directly to the customer.

Any pictures or videos your technicians attach will be sent with the repair estimate, and customers can approve or deny work in a matter of seconds, no matter where they are.

3. Keep Declined Jobs Top of Mind

With digital vehicle inspection systems, your technicians can uncover additional work that needs to be done on the car, not just what the customer brought the vehicle in for, and document it clearly. From there, they can easily show customers what repair work takes precedence over the others.

If customers decide to decline work, that DVI is still attached to that customer's profile, and declined jobs are not only tracked, but included on the final invoice receipt given to customers so they can keep track of potential future repairs. Its an easy way to keep the customer informed while also keeping them coming back.

4. Run a More Efficient Shop

With a solid vehicle inspection system, technicians know exactly what to look for and how to relay any information over to the service advisors. With the tech’s findings from the DVI, service advisors have a standardized report to build estimates from. And customers have more visibility and control over what work needs to be done.

Shops can even setup default inspections. Service advisors won’t have to spend time searching for your shop’s standard inspection every time they build a new repair order. Plus, technicians will have a standardized inspection to work off of, ensuring that every vehicle is thoroughly inspected to the same standard with the same level of care.

5. Increase Your Shop's Average Repair Order

Shops can both create as many inspection checklists as you see fit, and even setup default inspections for certain jobs to build repair orders and send them to technicians in just seconds.

If you opt for a cloud-based shop management system with a built-in DVI feature, you can save each inspection created and completed to the cloud, and you can pull up the inspection created for any correlating customer concerns.

How to Boost Your ARO with Digital Vehicle Inspections (DVIs) - YouTube

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How to Boost Your ARO with Digital Vehicle Inspections (DVIs) Tekmetric

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Create a Modern Shop Experience with Digital Vehicle Inspections

Digital Vehicle Inspection systems are the perfect example of why a cloud-based shop management system is the right tool for the job.

Although most drivers dread paying for repairs, a clear, transparent inspection gives them the answers they need to move forward and approve the work so that you and your team can get them back on the road safely.

Being honest, most customers are worried they're gonna be ripped off, or up-sold on a repair they don't really need. But, when customers can trust that your shop is doing right by them, and only recommending the work that truly needs to be taken care of, they'll be more likely to keep coming back.

👉 Ready to grow your automotive business? [Book a personalized Tekmetric Demo Here]

FAQ

Tekmetric just revealed two new tools to help shops win more customers and run a more efficient front desk. Get the full story. Watch the on-demand webinar now.

Generating new business in auto repair is hard. The industry is projected to grow just 2% over inflation annually over the next five years. The average American has 15 auto repair shops within 10 miles of their home, according to Tekmetric's internal data, meaning competition for every new customer is fierce. And across multiple industry surveys, roughly two-thirds of drivers say they don't fully trust their local repair shop — making it that much harder to win them over. The result: only one in 10 shops both grows and hits profit margins of 20% or higher.

"We know the competition to win new customers is fierce,” said Lauren Langston, president and COO, Tekmetric. “That means we need the right strategies and the right tools in order to do it."

Tekmetric's data shows that winning shops consistently focus on four outcomes: car count, average repair order (ARO), driver experience, and cycle time. Two new Tekmetric products — Tekmetric Digital Ads and Tekmetric Phones — are built to move the needle on all four.

Tekmetric Digital Ads

Winning new customers starts with being found. Tekmetric Digital Ads is an AI-powered add on that helps your shop show up where high-intent drivers are already searching for auto repair on Google Maps and Apple Maps. Because it connects directly to Tekmetric, you can see exactly how your ad spend translates into real revenue, not just clicks.

"It's really hard to see what's working. One of the superpowers of this product is that it's connected directly with Tekmetric," said Jared Haleck, chief product officer, Tekmetric.

Tekmetric Digital Ads is in early access now and rolling out to selected customers.

Tekmetric Phones

Every missed moment at the front desk has a cost. Tekmetric Phones gives your service advisors the customer context they need — instantly, the moment the phone rings — so they can spend less time looking things up and more time taking care of customers.

"Service advisors especially are loving it,” Haleck said. “It just saves them so much time. It creates so much convenience for them.”

Tekmetric Phones is in beta, available for customers on RingCentral.

Watch the On-Demand Webinar

Langston and Haleck walked through all of it — the industry data, live product demos, and what's coming next — in their webinar, "Building for the Results-Driven Repair Shop."

The recording is available now. If you want to see exactly how these tools work and what they can do for your shop, this is the place to start.

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Product Updates

Customer Experience

How Winning Auto Repair Shops Stay on Top

May 11, 2026

Read time: 3 min

“If you are interested in picking up a new hobby like boating, you’ll do everything you can to learn more and more and more. Why can’t you do that with your auto repair shop?

Is it because it’s boring?

Is it because it’s not the same?

It doesn’t excite you as much as your hobby would?

If you take a second and stop to think, you’ll realize you can have any hobby in the world if you focus on your repair shop and get it to where it needs to be.

There is no waiting for the right person to walk through the door. There is no waiting for the right technician."

"It has to happen right now, today."

Tekmetric Co-CEO and Co-Founder Sunil Patel recently joined Kelsey Outram on the LIFT Your Shop Podcast to talk tech, mentorship, and transforming your auto repair business.

From medical school to law enforcement, Sunil tried his hand at a variety of fields over the years, but eventually all roads led him to founding Tekmetric with Prasanth Chilukuri in 2016.

Tekmetric quickly became the preferred shop management system in the auto repair industry.

And if you ask Sunil why, he’ll say it’s all about mindset.

If you’re a shop owner who has been feeling stuck, here are six steps you can take to shift gears.

1. Define Your Goals

“When you really set your mind to something, it subconsciously changes how you behave as a human, as a person. And you hone in on what you’re trying to accomplish and you accomplish that task.”

Here are some examples of goals you might hear people talk about in the auto repair industry:

“I want to make one million dollars in revenue this year."
“I would like to add another bay to the shop by the end of the year."
“I want to open another location in 2023.”

What do these goals all have in common? They are specific, achievable, and easy to track.

In the same way that it’s difficult to plan a vacation without having a travel destination in mind, it’s difficult to achieve a goal if you never set one in the first place.

Knowing where you want to go is the first step toward figuring out a roadmap to get there.

2. Accept That Change is Part of the Process

“Forget about the technology and software and all that for a moment, and ask yourself this: Are you happy with where you are today running your shop? And if the answer is no, then dig deeper.”

Whether your shop is looking to switch parts suppliers or invest in a new shop management system, change can be intimidating.

Many shops experience growing pains, but keeping an open mind is essential to driving your business forward.

Thought Leadership

Tekmetric CEO Sunil Patel Talks Mindset and Growing Your Auto Repair Business

April 26, 2022

Read time: 3 min

While it’s important to focus on customer service and providing reliable repair work, your shop’s entire repair process, from beginning to end, should be consistent. If your shop has stellar processes for greeting customers, writing estimates, selling work, and completing work, you can stick the landing with a solid check out process.

If done the right way, your shop’s invoicing process will enhance the efficiency in your shop while leaving a positive, lasting impression on customers.

The invoices your shop hands out are a representation of how transparent your shop is. Your customers will gain visibility into exactly what they’re paying for. And the more they can understand an invoice, the more they can answer the question we’ve all asked ourselves when we’re customers, “Okay, what am I paying for?”

So, why not end on a strong note? Make your shop’s customers feel more at ease with easy-to-understand invoices.

Here are four ways to simplify your shop's invoicing process.