What is Online Scheduling for Auto Repair Shops?
Online Scheduling features make it easy for customers to set up an appointment with your shop, usually directly through your website.
Customers can easily head over to your website and submit an appointment time based on your shop's availability. Real-time scheduling makes it easy for customers to see what slots your shop has open, and find the right time works best for their schedule. When an appointment is booked, that block will no longer be available to other customers.
Moving away from an old-school pen-and-paper approach, answering calls, and jotting down appointments on your calendar, modern shop management and marketing tools make scheduling really easy.
Why Auto Repair Shops Need Online Scheduling
Older methods of scheduling make it harder to provide real-time availability to customers, slows down the overall process, and can lead to mistakes like overbooking and double booking if calendars aren’t synced or something just wasn’t written down.
Not to mention, if you’re always in the back working in the bays, you may end up missing phone calls, leading to customers trying a completely different shop! That’s a lot of missed opportunities for something that can be handled automatically with automotive repair scheduling software and the combination of a shop management system working alongside an auto repair shop CRM.
Online scheduling for auto repair shops will:
- Provide real-time visibility into your shop's availability and openings
- Reduce the chance of overbooking by automatically closing off booked time slots
- Offer a modern, digital customer experience that customers have grown to expect
Auto repair shops can also better manage customer expectations using technology, like true two-way texting, to improve communication with customers.
As we know, not only is clear communication crucial in having customers approve repair work -- showing them issues goes a long way in selling repairs beyond just a simple verbal description -- but it has become the standard expectation with growing consumer demands for seamless online experiences.
How Auto Repair Shops Can Start Using Online Scheduling
Integrating your shop management system with other tools introduces new functionalities, making it possible to set up features beyond the core aspects you're already relying on in your shop management system.
With ShopGenie and Tekmetric specifically, you gain a host of features including Online Scheduling. And because everything is flowing through your shop management system, time slots are automatically updated for shop owners, general managers, service managers, and even technicians who can better plan their workflows based on upcoming appointments.
The flexibility of these tools is absolutely key and repair shops can tailor the scheduling process to their specific needs:
- Set up automatic appointment reminders
- Update shop openings based on holidays, time off, or increased availability
With the right combination of an auto shop management system and online scheduling features, your shop can establish an automatic process of marketing and scheduling at the same time, ultimately helping you sell even more repair work.
Online Scheduling Can Help Sell More Repairs
Leveraging a robust digital scheduling system for your shop benefits not only first-time customers through ease of process but also returning customers with a more personalized experience.
Taking it one step further, beyond just handling basic scheduling functions, integrations with tools like ShopGenie make it easy for shops to set up scheduled reminders for deferred work to remind customers it might be time to take care of that brake job they've been putting off before the winter starts.
A quick email reminds them of a repair they might've forgotten about, highlights the urgency and need for the work to be done, and provides a super simple way for them to click over to schedule an appointment -- all from a single email or text message.
Modernize Your Shop's Customer Experience
Online scheduling stands out as a practical way not only to enhance customer experience but also to increase revenue and General Profitability.
These are the frictionless experiences customers have come to expect, and making it easier for customers to work with your shop makes it more likely they'll approve repairs and keep coming back.
And with the right technology, customization, and communication, we have the power to transform the auto repair sector, one appointment at a time. Let's embrace the digital era with open arms!
