How does Tekmetric's Shop Management system improve workflow for auto repair shops?

A service advisor can create a repair order and dispatch it to a technician to run a digital vehicles inspection (DVI). The technician conducts the inspection. The service advisor sends the customer a DVI report... Once repairs are complete, there’s a digital record of exactly what the customer approved.

The Best Software to Grow Auto Repair Shop Business

The article titled "The Best Software to Grow Auto Repair Shop Business" on Tekmetric's website highlights how their software helped Metro Motor standardize operations across 19 shops and increase their average repair order to $800, emphasizing the benefits of using specialized auto repair management software to grow and streamline auto repair businesses.

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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

The Best Software for Auto Repair Shop Owners Who Want Grow Their Business

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January 20, 2023

Read time: 1 min

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Cloud-Based

There’s a reason more and more people are switching to cloud-based software: it’s hassle-free. To transform your shop, you won’t have to go through an extensive, complicated installation process that involves purchasing and setting up servers. You also won’t have to worry about losing your data if those servers malfunction.

Instead, with cloud-based software, you can just move over your data, log in to your system on your browser, and in no time, you and your team can get to work. Once you and your team have gotten the hang of it, you’re free to pretty much work from anywhere you have an internet connection.

With Tekmetric, your shop’s data lives on the cloud. After all, there are days when you won’t be able to make it to the shop. Maybe your child is sick and you need to take them to the doctor, or maybe you need to head out of town for a conference. But, in either case, you still want to know what’s going on at your shop. Here’s how Tekmetric user Matthew Carlson of Fix It Forward Auto Care puts it:

”The thing that really impressed us right away with Tekmetric was the ease-of-use—the ability for anybody in the shop to see what's going on and be able to use it. Because it's cloud-based, everyone in my shop has a computer, and they know what’s going on.”

Customer Support

Change is challenging, especially when it comes to switching to a new shop management system. A cloud-based solution simplifies the transformation process from the get-go, but a reliable customer support team will help you get your data transferred over within the first few weeks. They’ll also help you and your employees quickly learn everything you need to know to overcome initial challenges and maximize the software.

The reality is that no software is hiccup-free, especially when you’re learning to navigate it as a new user—you’ll want to learn all the tips and tricks that will make your life a breeze.

Tekmetric’s reliable customer support team will be on hand to answer any questions that pop up along the way. Down the line, even as an established, experienced user, you might have a question or two about, say, a newly released feature. When you have these types of questions, you’ll want to reach customer support as soon as possible. At Tekmetric, we resolve our users’ issues rapidly, so they can keep moving their daily operations forward.

No matter which solution you’re considering, here are some questions to ask to determine how reliable their customer support is:

What is your process for getting my data moved over?
What are the best ways to reach your customer support team?
What are your customer support hours?
How many people are on your customer support team?
How long does it take on average to resolve support tickets?

Integrations

When you’re onboarding to a new shop management system, integrations can help you make that transformation even more seamless.

After all, chances are that you use other solutions (parts ordering, marketing platforms, etc.) to grow your business. Ideally, you want a shop management system that has a substantial number of integrations, so you can easily keep using the tools you love alongside each other.

And with integrations, you won’t have to spend valuable time hopping back and forth between a million open tabs, and you can even explore new tools!

Tekmetric integrates with over 35 industry-leading solutions in parts ordering, marketing, management and communication, including:

BG Products
PartsTech
WORLDPAC
MyShopManager
Kukui
The Back Office
Slack

Workflows

Think about the various workflows you already have at your shop. Perhaps service advisors are required to update guests once their repairs are 50% of the way through. To get that information, they regularly check in with the technicians. The right shop management system will transform existing workflows at your shop, making it easier for your team to work in harmony.

With Tekmetric, you can boost your team’s efficiency. Tekmetric helps your team achieve a work more efficiently by decreasing their distractions, offering them a sense of control, and helping them set clear goals.

For example, Tekmetric’s Job Board gives service advisors a bird’s eye view of which stage every repair is in at your shop, including how much time is remaining. Service advisors can instantly get that information without leaving their workstations.

When you streamline workflows with Tekmetric, your team members will be able to manage themselves better. In turn, you’ll be able to focus less on managing the day-to-day operations of your shop, and more on the high-level decisions that will help you bring in more revenue, hire more team members, and perhaps even open more locations.

Reporting

One of the keys to growing your auto repair business is keeping track of various metrics, including average repair orders, car count, profit margins, labor hours, and mechanic labor efficiency.

Ideally, you want a shop management system that can generate in-depth reports and help you analyze your shop’s data, so you can make business adjustments as necessary.

For example, after reading through an End-of-Day Report, you might realize that your shop’s profit margins aren’t as wide as you’d like them to be. You can do several things to turn that around, such as ramping up your shop’s marketing efforts or slightly increasing the pricing on certain parts.

Tekmetric offers over 15 types of reporting so you can keep a pulse on your business in real time. Those reports include end-of-day reports, tech hours, declined jobs, parts purchased reports, and more.

Scalability

As you’re making decisions to grow your business, you might want to hire more employees or open another location. The last thing you want to worry about is the added cost of adding a new user or building an entirely new management system each time you open a new location.

When you’re ready to scale, it should be easy and affordable to add users or implement your shop management system at a new shop.

Tekmetric enables you to add unlimited users and devices within a single shop. And opening a new shop on Tekmetric is as simple as adding it to the system!

The Best Software For Auto Repair Shop Owners Eases Transformation, Boosts Efficiency, and Grows Your Business

Ultimately, the best software for auto repair shop owners is one that will help them transform and grow their shops with ease. To summarize, here’s how the core features we discussed help you accomplish shop transformation and growth:

Of course, you’ll want to consider other features too, such as true two-way-texting that enhance your guest experience, and touchless payment features that will enable your guests to pay whenever and wherever it’s most convenient for them.

When you start with these core features, you’ll be able to transform your shop, scale, and look at your numbers regularly and go, “Wow, this change was worth it!”

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

FAQ

Transparency within the auto repair invoice process goes a long way. Most customer will feel uncertain about approving expensive repairs if they don't truly understand the need for them. That's why it's up to your shop to foster a trusting relationship by clearly showing customers the issue, and the need for a repair.

The right invoicing system will improve your shop’s workflow, save your team time, enhance your customers’ experience, and provide you with peace of mind.

Here’s how Tekmetric’s Cloud-Based Shop Management System provides seamless shop management that leads to frictionless payment processing:

A service advisor can create a repair order and dispatch it to a technician to run a digital vehicles inspection (DVI).
The technician conducts the inspection.
The service advisor sends the customer a DVI report, which will outline all the findings.
The customer can approve or decline individual line items on the repair order directly from their smartphone.
Once the customer finishes scrolling through the estimate, designating the jobs they approve and decline, your shop has the go-ahead to begin the repair(s).
Once repairs are complete, there’s a digital record of exactly what the customer approved. That way, when it’s time to pay, there are no surprises.
Once the customer pays with their preferred method, they can look back over the receipt—from their computer or smartphone—and feel confident that your shop did exactly what you said you’d do.

After a job is completed and payment is received, all the details from the invoice and repair order become part of your reports and customer history in Tekmetric.

Tekmetric’s cloud-based automotive invoice software has designed the entire process to reduce bottlenecks, build trust, and ensure that customers know exactly what to expect.

By moving smoothly from one step to the next, your team will be able to boost their efficiency, manage their workflow, and spend the extra time building rapport with customers and getting their cars back to good working order.

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How Cloud-Based Automotive Invoice Software Saves You and Your Team Time

July 25, 2024

Read time: 2 min

Auto repair shops might bulk order carbon copies, or you might find a template online and print as many copies as your shop needs. Or, if your shop uses digital templates, you might have to deal with time-consuming digital file management.

Filling out the forms over and over, be it by handwriting or typing, can become tedious. And both options are less than ideal for record-keeping.

Paper can get lost, and digital files can become overwritten or corrupted. Both approaches are inconvenient and ultimately slow things down at your shop. And the impression you give during the payment process can determine whether those customers return or not.

Here are four reasons why a shop management system is better than an auto repair invoice template approach for your business.

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Thought Leadership

How Switching from an Auto Repair Invoice Template to a Shop Management System Can Drastically Increase Profits

June 20, 2023

Read time: 1 min

How organized is your shop’s schedule? When you look at it, is it easy to see gaps? Is it cluttered or organized?

Appointment scheduling should be a quick, simple process that gives you and your team more time to focus on customers and their vehicles.

Automotive scheduling software gives auto repair shops the ability to bridge the gap between saying “yes” to customers, while not overwhelming their team. Although “saying yes” is a simple concept, the ability to not turn people away will have a lasting impact on your customers.

Humans are not computers. As much as we try to keep up, the impact that smart software has on our day-to-day workloads is impalpable. What may take us hours to create, log, and plan can take computers minutes, if not seconds.

Although you have the ability to plan exactly what repairs need to be done, automotive scheduling software can help you coordinate times, notes, and schedules faster than it would take with a whiteboard or pen and paper. Implementing software into your shop’s scheduling routine can significantly improve your team’s capacity.

As your repair orders (RO) start to stack up, your team will need reliable scheduling software that can keep up with your shop’s growth.