The Best Auto Repair Shop Software Features Increasing Shop Profitability

Customer Notes

Let’s start by rehashing one of the most fundamental facts about sales: part of selling more work involves making customers happy each visit so they’ll want to return. So, how can you build relationships with customers and make them feel like you’re their go-to shop?

Think back to your own experiences. Have you ever walked into a local business and the employees greeted you by name? Perhaps you paid your doctor a visit for your annual checkup, and the nurse remembered that you don’t like sitting in the waiting room; you like to step out and get a text when it’s your time to see the doctor. Or, maybe you went to a family-owned restaurant, and the owner remembered your go-to order. The fact that these businesses remembered your name and preferences likely left an impression on you, and your shop’s guests are no different.

With Tekmetric, you can enhance each guest’s experience by adding tailored customer notes. Guests will be impressed with your attention to detail and care, and

you’ll always be able to provide that personalized experience that will make your shop stand out.

Maybe Marylynn prefers waiting at the shop until her vehicle’s repairs are done, while Julio prefers dropping off his car and coming back later. By noting that in Tekmetric, you won’t have to ask Marylynn and Julio to remind you what they prefer each time they come in for a repair. You’ll be able to act on the information you have on hand.

Consider personalizing your service by including unique notes about your customers:

• Guests’ favorite drinks, so they can sip on their favorite refreshments in the waiting area.
• Guests’ preferred nicknames.
• The correct pronunciation of guests’ names.
• Their favorite sports teams.
• Any notes related to their needs. For example, maybe you know that a particular guest always brings his young child who loves SpongeBob, so you can put SpongeBob on the  TV so the child doesn’t get bored.
• The guest’s profession. For example, if they’re an active member of the armed forces (or a veteran), a healthcare professional, a teacher, a firefighter, or a police officer, your shop can give them a discount.
• Important dates such as birthdays and anniversaries, so your shop can help guests celebrate these special days.

Above all, keep customer notes positive! Instead of writing that a customer “typically asks too many questions,” you can instead write that the customer “is detail-oriented and really likes to understand the nuances of their repair.” At the end of the day, you don’t want to spread negativity about guests with the rest of your team.

Job Histories and Integrated CARFAX Reports

When a customer has been coming to your shop for years, it can be tough to remember all the work that’s been done on their vehicle. It’s even tougher to get an overview of all the previous work from new customers. However, that knowledge is vital, because it can provide additional context that will help you make repair recommendations.

Tekmetric’s job histories and integrated CARFAX reports make it easier for you and the technicians at the shop to get an accurate picture of previous work that’s been done. With that information, you can make additional recommendations that you might have missed otherwise, and you can upsell that work to the customer—giving them the most holistic repair service possible.

Digital Vehicle Inspections (DVIs)

One of the most impactful ways to sell more work is by leveraging digital vehicle inspections (DVIs). Instead of handing guests a paper inspection, you can send a digital one straight to their device, where they’ll be able to read all the necessary details about the proposed repair work.

You already know how difficult it can be to get some drivers to approve additional work that goes beyond what they thought they needed when they first stepped in. Tekmetric’s digital vehicle inspection feature helps you navigate that issue by bringing another layer of transparency to the game—technicians can attach photos and videos to each DVI, so guests can see for themselves exactly what’s wrong with their cars. As a result, they’ll have peace of mind and trust your recommendations.

Additionally, Tekmetric’s digital vehicle inspections use a “green, yellow, red” color system to show guests the urgency of each proposed repair. Any line item marked “red” needs immediate attention; any line item marked “yellow” can get taken care of on the next visit; any line item marked “green” is all good. With this system, customers get a clear picture of exactly what needs to get done, and when.

Tracking Declined Jobs

After the guest reviews their digital vehicle inspection, they can approve and decline individual jobs. Of course, it’s a win for your shop for every approved job. But as for the declined jobs? Not all is lost.

The guest might want to hold off on a certain repair, especially if they see that it’s in the “yellow” category on their digital vehicle inspection. When they decline that job, you’ll have a record of it in Tekmetric. You can remind the guest about that declined job the next time they visit your shop, or you can reach out to them when the time for that job gets closer.

Tracking declined jobs is one of the most effective ways to sell more work, especially when times are slow. It’s easier to sell to an existing guest who already knows that a certain repair will be necessary in the future rather than marketing to a new customer altogether. Guests will also appreciate the attentiveness of your team; they’ll feel like your shop has their back—they won’t have to risk driving around with a repair that was marked “yellow” a month ago but is now in the “red” category.

Additionally, tracking declined jobs gives you a natural reason to give them a call to check in on them, and sell work without sounding pushy: “Hi there! How’re your brakes treating you? When you came in a few months ago, I saw they were starting to wear. Just wanted to make sure they were still working. Oh, they’re making some noise? Come on in, and we’ll get them replaced.”

Workflow Features: Tech Board & Job Board

Here’s an interesting find from J.D. Power: satisfaction scores drastically decline when customers wait three minutes or more to speak to someone at a service facility.

Tekmetric makes it easier for you to manage tasks from the front desk, so you can remain aware of every repair and be available to greet customers as they walk in.

Specifically, with Tekmetric, you can use the Tech Board to appropriately designate tasks to technicians so that they won’t get overloaded. You can use the Job Board to keep guests updated about the status of their repairs. They’ll be happy that you’re able to get to them quickly and that you’re keeping them informed.

Tekmessage True Two-Way Texting

One of the best ways to get customers to return and recommend your shop to their friends and family is to show them how communicative you are, and how considerate you are of their day-to-day lives.

Think about it. Your guests might be bouncing from meeting to meeting or rushing to make it to lunch with a friend. They want to minimize interruptions and maximize convenience. To help them get through their daily lives with as few hiccups as possible, you can text them updates about their repair status, rather than calling them. Texts are easier for customers to manage if they’re busy, and they are less likely to be misinterpreted from background noise or a fuzzy signal.

True Two-Way Texting enables you to quickly text guests updates about their repairs straight from your workstation. Once you access the Job Board and see that a repair has hit a timeline milestone, you can send a text message to a guest without ever having to leave Tekmetric. On your shop’s side, guest communications will be in one place rather than in disparate locations. There will be a record of who updated which customer and when.

Marketing Integrations

One of the main ways your shop can grow as a business is to reach more customers. Marketing software gives shops access to important features that will make it easier to raise brand awareness, widen your net, and bring in more new customers. Those features include:

• Call tracking
• Digital ad creation
• Customer data analysis

With the use of these features, everyone in your area can know about your shop and the excellent service you and your colleagues provide!

Tekmetric integrates with over 20 of the auto repair industry’s leading marketing tools, including Kukui, MyShopManager, and MechanicNet. By using one of these integrated marketing tools, you can log into Tekmetric and manage everything from one place—no need to deal with multiple tabs and information in disparate locations.

Auto Repair Shop Features Are Just One Part of Customer Service

Auto repair shop features are integral for helping you upsell, cross-sell, and reach more customers in a trustworthy way.

They help you provide stellar end-to-end customer service for every customer from the moment they enter your shop. And it’s not just the “big” things, like an easy-to-understand DVI process and giving customers status updates about their repairs, that matter.

By using the best auto repair shop software features to keep the big picture and the small details in mind, you’ll create lifelong customers who will do word-of-mouth marketing for the shop, which is pivotal to business growth!

Ultimately, you don’t have to be pushy to sell more work. You can do so by genuinely being there for your customers—listening to them and understanding their needs. The more authentic you are when you recommend work, the more it will show customers that you’re actually trying to help them out, not just selling more work for the sake of selling more work. And these are the positive feelings you want all guests to leave with.