Retain Customers With Auto Repair Estimating Software

The article discusses how auto repair estimating software, such as Tekmetric, helps automotive shops increase customer retention and grow average repair orders by streamlining estimates and improving customer experience.

By default, we use third-party cookies in order to personalize your experience. Read our Cookie Policy.

Preferences

Manage Consent Preferences

Essentials

Always active

Necessary for the site to function. Always On.

Analytics

Measures usage and improves your experience.

Marketing

Used for targeted advertising.

Personalization

Remembers your preferences and provides enhanced features.

The GPC signal has been honored.

Reject All

Accept All

Thank you! Your submission has been received!

Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

Preferences

Join 1,000+ industry leaders at Tektonic 2027. Early bird pricing is now open.

See how Metro Motor grew their average repair order to $800 across 19 shops with Tekmetric

Under the Lift: Stories from the Automotive Frontier (New Episode)

Thought Leadership

Retain More Customers With Auto Repair Estimating Software

Author

May 22, 2023

Read time: 2 min

Play / PAUSE audio blog

\ Add as a preferred source on Google

What Makes Inspections and Estimates High-Quality?

What do we mean by “high-quality”? In our experience, the building blocks of high-quality records are inspections and estimates that

Offer clarity (are easy to understand)
Offer accuracy
Are professional
Offer room for customer choice and feedback
Open the pathway to effective communication

But before we explore these characteristics further, let’s look at the different types of inspections and estimates.

Comparing Different Inspection Approaches

There are three main ways to put together inspections and estimates at auto repair shops:

1.Via pen and paper
2.Digitally, but without software
3.With auto repair estimating software

We know there are different variations of all three of these methods. For example, with pen and paper, you may use pre-printed inspection forms and have technicians check boxes and scribble notes as they work.

As for digital, you can use emails or spreadsheets. For the purposes of this piece, we’ll be sticking to the email method in examples.

And of course, there are different options for auto repair estimating software on the market.

Auto repair estimating software is the best method if you want to leverage the benefits of high-quality inspections and estimates. But not all auto repair estimating software solutions are built the same.

Auto Repair Estimating Software Features to Look For

There are several features that make auto repair estimating software truly high-quality:

The most important feature? Digital vehicle inspections. At a basic level, digital vehicle inspections enable technicians to quickly punch in inspection details into software via their tablets or smartphones. And by going with auto repair estimating software like Tekmetric that has a well-built digital vehicle inspections feature, technicians will be able to:

Clearly list out specific findings, minimizing the chance of misunderstandings about the type of repairs needed
Attach photos and videos to inspections to better show customers what the issues with their vehicles are
Categorize repairs by severity; Tekmetric has a color-coded system technicians can use to show customers which repairs need work done ASAP, which repairs can wait for a bit, and what’s A-OK with their vehicles

And thanks to Tekmetric, service advisors can email or text customers those inspections and estimates.

Customers can then approve or decline specific jobs from wherever they are, be it waiting at the coffee shop next door or lounging on their couch at home—there’s no need for them to hang around at your shop.

Of course, if they want to wait at your shop, they’re more than welcome to. But many customers will appreciate staying in the loop about their repairs if they do decide to do something else.

And because this all happens through auto repair estimating software, the service advisors will be able to see exactly which jobs customers authorized, minimizing the chances of miscommunication and customer frustration.

The Advantages of Auto Repair Estimating Software

1. Clarity

Auto repair estimating software significantly increases the clarity your customers have about repair work at your shop. With the right solution, customers will be able to read specific findings on an inspection, understand exactly what work they need done, and directly approve the repairs they want on the included estimate.

No more struggling to read the handwriting on a paper estimate, nor will they have to repeat themselves over the phone to make sure they’re understood correctly after reading the email a service advisor typed out.

‍

Additionally, if the auto repair estimating software has search functionality for inspections and estimates, customers will be able to quickly get their questions answered because service advisors can look up details in seconds.

Auto Repair Estimating Software That Provides Clarity

Tekmetric gives customers the ultimate clarity on inspections and estimates.

Once a service advisor sends a customer their inspection and estimate, the customer can see each repair their vehicle needs. As a bonus, customers can also get a transparent look at the urgency of each specific repair, thanks to Tekmetric’s color-coded approach. All repair work, and the urgency of that work, is clearly spelled out.

And, by being able to attach photos and videos to the digital vehicle inspection, customers can see for themselves what’s going on.

When customers can see with their own eyes that their car’s engine is seriously rusted, they’re more likely to place their trust in your team. Anything you and your team can do to show customers that you’re acting in good faith will help customers trust you more.

You and your team can personalize the inspection process even more by taking the time to sit down with customers and review the results so you can help them budget repairs more efficiently, like what Aaron Smith and his employees over at S&S Auto Repair do.

HTML Quote Block

Take it from Smith at S&S Auto: “If a technician brings us a digital inspection and there is a lot of stuff in red, we can go through and break them down into the three categories of safety, maintenance, and repairs. In each category, we break it down further: this needs to be done today, this can wait until your next oil change, and this one we can work on in the next six months, but you need to budget for it.”

‍

2. Accuracy

Auto repair estimating software is the most effective way your team can ensure that customers get accurate inspection and estimate details.

Because they can view the inspections technicians put together in one main system, service advisors can create estimates without having to open multiple tabs, decipher difficult-to-read handwriting, etc.

And in turn, customers will gain the benefit of inspections and estimates that are as accurate as possible.

Accuracy for Your Customers

Because Tekmetric runs on the cloud, technicians can punch in inspection details on a tablet or smartphone while they work, and color-code each inspection finding by severity.

From there, service advisors can view all the inspection details, put together the estimate portion, and send everything off to the customer.

The customer can then check off exactly which repairs they want, and decline the repairs they don’t want. No copying and pasting and deciphering tricky handwriting involved—for anyone!

3. Professionalism

Whether we like it or not, customers judge all businesses by their level of professionalism, and you might be surprised at how the little things add up.

Your shop’s inspections and estimates are one of the most effective ways you can show your customers how professional your shop is across the board—and a huge part of professionalism is standardization.

Pen and paper can easily look unprofessional, and out dated. Modern customers have modern expectations, and will happily rather have their inspection findings emailed to them.

That's where a shop management system comes in, standardized your intake process

Professionalism in a Flash

For example, default inspection templates make it easy for your team can put together inspections and estimates with the same general appearance over time, and customers will notice! Customers will also be able to directly approve the work they want done and decline the work they want to hold off on. No confusion.

Your customers will be impressed by your shop’s consistency, the look of the inspections and estimates, and they’ll also be relieved that they can easily access that documentation for future reference.

They won’t have to worry about hunting down a paper inspection or trying to remember exactly what they approved over a typed-out email estimate if they need to reference something later on.

4. Effective Communication

What goes hand-in-hand with increased customer agency? Pathways to effective communication. Part of giving your customers agency over the repair work they approve and decline, and the rest of the process, is making it easy for them to communicate with your team.

Auto Repair Estimating Software

The right auto repair estimating software opens up multiple reliable communication pathways for customers, especially given that many customers won’t be sitting around at your shop.

Instead of having to play telephone or email tag, for example, customers can message your shop, and every service advisor logged into the system will see it. From there, one of those service advisors can answer the question or give an update.

Customers won’t have to deal with disparate communication and can have peace of mind that your team will receive their messages and respond to them in a timely manner.

So let’s return to the example we used above, where the technician finds an additional issue that wasn’t included in the initial estimate.

With an auto repair estimating software solution that lets service advisors reach out via email and text, it’s more likely that the customer will see the message, even if they’re busy with errands or in a meeting, and they can promptly authorize the additional work or ask questions before there’s a major hold up.

Simplify Every Step

Service advisors don’t have to call or walk up to technicians to ask them about the severity of repairs, and technicians don’t have to call or walk up to service advisors to clarify whether or not a customer gave the go-ahead for specific jobs.

When your team members interrupt each other less, they’ll be able to better enter and maintain a state of flow, which will help them knock out tasks more efficiently.

They’ll also get along better with each other, and your customers will notice! When they see that everyone gets along, customers will trust your shop more. Think about your own experiences—when you go to the dentist, don’t you feel more at ease and trusting when you see that the dentist and dental assistants all get along? Your customers feel the same.

Learn how to Modernize Your Shop to Drive Success

As you’re researching different solutions by doing things like determining which features you need, reading software reviews, sifting through common myths, attending demos, and more, keep your eyes and ears open.

Make sure any solution you implement at your shop has all the features you need. Don’t assume that a particular solution will tick off all your desired boxes. Perhaps the solution you’re evaluating is missing a key feature that would defeat the purpose of you even rolling it out for your team.

Also, we can’t stress this enough—get your team involved in the decision-making process! They’ll be using the software daily, after all, and it’s important that you go with something they’ll feel comfortable using.

By modernizing and advancing beyond pen and paper and clunky emails (or other non-software-based digital methods), you’ll open the doors to increased transparency, greater customer agency, more sales, better recording keeping, and enhanced team collaboration—just to name several benefits.

You can still keep your notepad and pen around for times when you want to jot down a reminder, and email isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. But ultimately, you’ll feel more at ease when your business is turbocharged with a shop management system.

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

FAQ

He and Sunil Patel started Tekmetric in 2016, and today, it’s become the preferred auto tech software in the auto repair industry.

Prasanth’s success prompted Authority Magazine to contact him for an interview on the formula for scaling success.

Below are just a few excerpts of Prasanth’s interview with Ken Babcock (CEO of Tango), along with bonus content for any entrepreneur seeking to scale their business.

Scaling with People

Let’s look at each component.

The Right People.

First, you have to have the team that serves your company the best.

At Tekmetric, we learned this the hard way. We had a phenomenal idea — but our first team wasn’t comprised of exactly all the people we needed.

And that meant we failed in the first round. It was disappointing, but we learned a valuable lesson, and the next round, we hired people based on the talents we knew we needed. It was the right move, and it set us in the right direction toward success. In fact, many of the team members from this second group are still with us today.

Tekmetric’s People Today: The Best Support in the Industry

Today, Tekmetric has a growing team of people working in various departments, such as customer support, sales, product development, and human resources.

Walk into our Houston headquarters, and you’ll see people from all backgrounds catching up on their week, discussing the next product update, or talking about the future of our company over a cup of coffee.

A large portion of our team works remotely. We have employees across the United States, including: </p><ul>

Cleveland, OH
Washington, DC
Denver, CO
San Diego, CA

But no matter where our team members are, one of the big things they have in common is that they’re passionate about providing Tekmetric’s customers with the best experience and support possible.

Our support team in particular is easy to get in touch with.

Customers don’t have to spend hours listening to annoying “waiting” music on the phone or anxiously sitting in front of their computers for a response to a support ticket.

The Tekmetric support team acts to get questions answered quickly and any issues resolved fast.

After all, auto tech software needs to move at the pace of the auto repair industry—fast—and support is an important part of that process.

Sound like you would fit in? Join us!

Scaling with Direction

You also have to know the direction you’re going.

Having the idea is great; getting it right as you grow is vital. You may not have the details fully fleshed out, but you must know what you want to do and the tools you need to get there.

I’ve always said, if you have a goal in mind, and you don’t know how to get there, then you’re doing something right.

If you do know how to get there, you’re not thinking big enough. Think long and hard about what you want your business to look like.

Once you figure out those initial steps and orient yourself in the right direction, you can think ahead to challenges like growing and scaling.

Tekmetric’s Direction Today: Driving the Auto Repair Industry Into the Future

The Tekmetric team keeps a close eye on what’s happening in the auto repair industry so that we can stay one step ahead when it comes to driving the auto repair industry into the future.

For example, Tekmetric listened to its customers’ desires for a true two-way texting feature, which enables shops and their customers to communicate more seamlessly than ever before.

Tekmetric also frequently adds to its list of integrations with industry-leading tools so that shop owners can set up workflows that work best for them.

And Tekmetric listens to what shop owners, technicians, and service advisors are saying, taking their feedback and suggestions into account.

We know that we cannot do this on our own, and respect the contributions of people throughout the industry.

Thought Leadership

The Successful Auto Tech Software Scaling Formula

May 25, 2022

Read time: 4 min

As the auto repair industry continues to evolve, adaptability to changing customer needs is crucial to delivering a top-notch customer experience. When it comes to choosing an auto repair shop, customers are more likely to prefer a shop that is easy to do business with over the nearest shop. For the modern customer – an increasingly digital generation sometimes called Generation CX – the customer experience is paramount. One of the ways to curate an invaluable customer experience is to leverage the trends of today’s customers. Using these trends alongside the knowledge gained from your shop’s data, you can create an experience that is transparent, convenient and efficient.

Tekmetric’s Industry Index Report, pinpoints key trends around customer needs and expectations. In a recent webinar with Ratchet and Wrench, we discussed how you can use these trends to propel your business. By leveraging the trends within the report in conjunction with your shop’s performance metrics, you can tailor your approach to enhance your customer experience, drive revenue and ultimately boost your bottom line.

Efficient operations drive revenue

Efficient shops create more revenue opportunities by completing repairs quickly and effectively. When you streamline your processes, you enable your team to accomplish more in less time, without sacrificing quality. Efficiency creates smoother customer interactions and reduced wait times. This translates to a seamless customer experience – a key driver of satisfaction and repeat business that drives profits and increases your bottom line.

Several tools are available that can improve your efficiency, thereby helping you repair more vehicles in less time. For instance, Tekmetric’s Smart Jobs feature allows service writers to create jobs in just one click depending on the customer’s vehicle type by automatically pulling the correct labor time, sourcing the parts and applying relevant matrices based on the job selected. By reducing the number of clicks, your service advisors save time on creating repair orders (ROs). Instead, they can focus on answering customer questions and delivering an exceptional customer experience.

Convenient communication increases customer trust

Today, there are over 250 million vehicles on the road that are more than 12 years old and will inevitably need repairs. On average, shops see customers twice a year – and the majority will seek a shop they trust. Transparency and communication build strong levels of trust, resulting in a significant impact on the shop’s overall performance. Clear and convenient communication with the customer about repairs can streamline the approval process in the short term, as well as increase your average repair order (ARO) in the long term.

Customers expect clear communication and visibility in the repair process. One tool that supports these expectations is a digital vehicle inspection (DVI). DVIs allow your shop to send visual reports of inspection findings directly to your customers, keeping them informed and engaged throughout the repair process. DVIs can be shared via email or text, so your customer can conveniently access them and approve the work even when they are not physically at your shop. Through DVIs, a shop can share data in the form of photos and videos, encouraging customers to make informed, data-driven decisions. This digital tool goes a long way in building trust as vehicle owners can gain a deeper understanding of the repairs you recommend. Vehicle owners can prioritize the immediate repairs while also having a record of additional work, like a tire rotation, that needs to be done in three months.

Another way to build trust through clear communication is through two-way texting. This feature facilitates instant communication, enabling your customers to authorize repairs, ask questions or provide feedback in real time. For example, shops using Tekmetric can communicate directly with vehicle owners through two-way texts, even creating a repair order or appointment based solely on a text – no calls necessary! Customers know they can reach your shop anytime, from anywhere, and their needs will be met.

Together, two-way convenient communication and DVIs significantly increase the likelihood of customers accepting your shop’s recommended repairs, increasing your ARO and ultimately driving revenue growth.

Personalized customer experiences promote loyalty

Personalized customer experiences are another revenue driver. By adding a personal touch to the customer’s experience, you can go beyond the standard service offerings to create tailored experiences that bring customers back time and time again.

One key aspect of personalized experiences is the integration of digital payment options, such as “ buy now, pay later” or text-to-pay. According to the Tekmetric’s Industry Index, only 16% of shops have tapped into the potential of text-to-pay options – but these options have tremendous potential in building customer relationships. Tekmetric’s solution enables your shop to offer customers the convenience of digital payment methods such as Apple Pay, Google Pay or text-to-pay. This not only streamlines the payment process but also caters to modern consumer preferences, making transactions faster and more convenient.

Additionally, “buy now, pay later” options powered by Affirm or Klarna allow your customers to get the repairs they need and pay over time, supporting their financial needs without negatively impacting your shop’s revenue. By alleviating some of the financial burden of repairs with “buy now, pay later,” you can better empower the vehicle owner to make an informed decision on repairs without breaking their bank. Tekmetric has witnessed the power of digital payment solutions: in the past year, 60% of customers at our partner shops were approved for financing, with 62% of them utilizing this option. The average transaction amount is $567 for card payments and $1,883 for "buy now, pay later" purchases on our platform.

Tying it all together to transform your customer experience

Efficiency, personalization and convenience are all traits that you can prioritize to maximize profit and create a noteworthy customer experience. Technology can do so much for businesses at its foundation, but taking it to the next level within the customer experience makes a significant difference. By leveraging technology to create a strong experience, you can set your shop up for success far into the future and measure up, by every measure.

For more information, check out our recent webinar with Ratchet + Wrench, or reach out to our team to talk to a shop advisor.

Thought Leadership

Customer Experience

Serving Generation CX: Leveraging Industry Trends to Transform Your Customer Experience

May 22, 2024

Read time: 6 min

Order too many parts and your money and space are tied up in inventory. Order too few and when you run out of what you need, projects come to a standstill while you wait for a delivery. That’s why you need a solid auto parts inventory management system.

Auto parts inventory management is a process that helps you decide when to buy, store, use, or sell auto parts, so you can be sure that items you need are in stock when you need them. This requires tracking parts you have on hand and streamlining the process of reordering or replacing them at the right time.

An inventory system will help your shop run more efficiently and free up a ton of time. Implement an effective system to tighten up your workflow and take your business to a higher level.