How to Gamify Your Auto Repair Shop and Boost Performance

Similarly, your automotive service advisors might enjoy talking to people but feel worn down after a long day of helping customers and building repair orders.

We've talked before about how modern shop management systems make it easier for your team to communicate, collaborate, and get things done.

Going a step further, there's an opportunity for shop owners or general managers to help create a culture within your repair shop that not only boosts productivity and maximizes efficiency, but rewards success and contribution as well!

What is Gamification for Auto Repair Shops?

You've probably heard it before: competition breeds innovation. And even in your shop, friendly competition can be a positive way to encourage productivity while keeping things engaging for your team.

Gamification is the process of using game-like mechanics and goal-setting for your employees in a way that encourages and supports productivity and high performance. A really basic example could be a "level-up" system in which workers are awarded different for completing tasks, which could lead to rewards outside of standard benefits.

According to the Gamification and Work study conducted by TalentLMS, employees say gamification makes them feel more productive (89%) and happier (88%) at work.

Here are six ways to gamify your auto repair shop’s workflow to incentivize your team and provide growth opportunities!

1. Track Shop Productivity with the Right Metrics

It helps to have a clear picture of your technicians’ current productivity levels so you can pinpoint which areas of their workflows might benefit from gamification.

To save time, you can use auto repair shop management software with real-time reports that provide insights for gamification ideas.

For instance, if you notice that your technicians could be more thorough when conducting inspections, you might decide to create a game around seeing which technician can score the highest number of findings every day.

Similar to tracking your technician’s productivity, you can use real-time reports to track metrics that are unique to service advisors, such as the number of estimates written and Average Written Repair Order (AWRO).

From there, you can decide on gamification strategies for your service advisors that help them improve their performance while maintaining their independence.

Shops could set up a challenge where the service writer who builds the most number of estimates that month wins a reward, such as an extra day off or a gift card to a nice restaurant.

2. Create Shop-Wide Challenges

Shop-wide challenges are a great way to boost business for your shop, especially if you find that your shop has been going through a slower period.

Encouraging employees to collaborate on a shared goal can help drive productivity. It would make sense to think about creating shop-wide challenges that focus less on competing at an individual level, and more on working as a team to achieve a common goal.

Or if you do want that friendly competition, it's also possible to think about creating teams within teams, for example maybe pairing service advisors and technicians together and hosting a friendly leaderboard to see which team meets or excels at different metrics.

3. Implement Rewards and Badges

What good would challenges be without rewards? After all, that’s the basis of why gamification works! When we feel like we’re working towards a goal with a tangible outcome, those goals continue to motivate us to keep pushing and growing.

If you can track metrics like car counts or inspections, you can offer different rewards to technicians who complete certain thresholds of work on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.

The same goes for service advisors; you can track ARO and create badges that incentivize them to close larger repair orders. These badges could take various forms, such as the shape of literal badges or ribbons that team members can pin onto their work uniforms to showcase their achievements.

You should also consider offering bigger rewards. For instance, at the end of every month, you can do something special and reward the highest performers with gift certificates or take them to their favorite restaurant.

It's important for auto repair shops, just like any other business, to create a supportive culture to not only attract but retain the best talent possible! Growing and supporting your team is not only cheaper in the long run, but a much more effective way of ensuring they deliver the best results.

4. Help Your Team Level Up

You can help your automotive service advisors and technicians achieve their goals by encouraging them to always learn new skills.

While continuous learning and education might seem like a baseline expectation for your team, it can be easy for longtime employees to get stuck in a routine and not make the time to learn about new tools, tricks, and technology.

Fortunately, you can help your team get back in the habit of learning by making a friendly game out of it! For example, you can reward the employee who attends the highest number of free online industry webinars in a quarter by giving them an award, like a gift card.

Employees who feel like they have a path forward and the opportunity to grow their careers will be more motivated to take on those responsibilities.

5. Celebrate Success

Rewards are great, but so are team-wide celebrations. Celebrations give your team members a way to relish in their accomplishments together and have fun while doing so.

Consider what shop owner Al Oramas of Pro Auto Care does:

“I celebrate different ‘wins’ with my employees. For example, I wanted my technicians to get ASA certified. Some were sitting on the fence. So I said that getting the certification would lead to a promotion. When one of my technicians passed his two tests, we threw him a party with cupcakes and balloons. It was a good time.”

As your team reaches certain milestones, you can throw them a party, take them on a retreat out of town, or organize a nice team dinner. When your team members can bond outside of work, they’ll come back to the shop refreshed, ready to communicate and collaborate to tackle what’s next.

Simplify Team Gamification With Tekmetric

Tekmetric’s real-time reports can help you decide the best challenges and rewards to use to incentivize your team. From there, you can continue to measure results as you take your shop to new heights!

FAQ

Traditionally, there are four pillars to an auto repair shop that all support one another: the shop owner, technicians, customers, and service advisors.

The integrity of the shop depends on each of these pillars in different ways. The shop owner needs to make the right calls and put the right systems in place for technicians and service advisors to do their jobs. Technicians must stay focused on repairs. And loyal customers keep the lights on.

By effectively leading your team, service advisors can support the other three pillars of the shop—and in turn, achieve balance and improve the quality of your job. Getting started in your Service Advisor career, or looking for some tips? Here’s how to lead your team with intention.

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“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.