Why Service Advisors Will Love a Cloud-Based Shop Management System

Service advisors serve as the major touchpoint between customers and your shop. While they ultimately need to build repair orders for technicians, they need to get that information from the customer. 

And vice versa, when technicians provide inspection findings, service advisors explain those findings to the customer to figure out the best path forward.

That's why service advisors need to make customer service a focal point of their role, to build that trusting relationship between the customer and your shop.

Because when customers feel like they can trust that your shop is giving them the right recommendations, they'll feel more comfortable approving repair orders for the work their vehicles need to keep running safely and reliably.

1. Support Your Customers and Your Team From Anywhere

Remote work is here to stay, the ability and flexibility to access your shop from anywhere in the world, at any time, as long as you have an internet connection, is unparalleled. You've never had this type of control and access before.

Let the Cloud Do the Heavy Lifting

Think of the "cloud" like the lifts in your bays. Obviously you can't jack a car up on your own, so you bring in a tool to do that for you. That's pretty much what a cloud-based platform does for your business. Because modern shop management systems are cloud-based, nothing lives on your shop's computers, or stuffed in your binders.

Why is that a good thing?

Because you never have to worry about losing it, and you can access everything required to run your shop anywhere you have an internet connection. All that information is stored on servers operated, maintained and secured by your platform.

Access Your Shop From Anywhere

All of your shop's operations, data, customer history, vehicle inspection findings, declined estimates, and everything, is collected and saved remotely. This opens up a whole new dimension for not just shop owners, but general managers and service advisors too, with the ability to check on and manage every aspect of their shop remotely.

2. Help Your Shop as Run Efficiently as Possible

A lot is going on behind the scenes at an auto repair shop. Tekmetric helps you streamline those in-shop tasks so you can get back to leading your team as repairs come and go. 

Inventory Table & Parts Reports 

Tekmetric’s inventory table you'll gain full visibility into see exactly what parts sell well, which brands of parts your customers prefer, and which parts manufacturers your shop may want to avoid in the future due to repeated recalls or low inventory. 

Labor Guide 

Establishing accurate repair times shouldn’t be a guessing game nor should it take you away from your other service advisor responsibilities.

Built-in labor guide smakes it easy to find accurate labor times for repairs without having to leave Tekmetric. With VIN decoding, additional labor, and a wealth of labor times at your fingertips, you can build estimates faster than ever.

Labor and Parts Matrices

Tekmetric makes it easy to create and save markup matrices directly in your shop’s settings. When you’re building estimates, your labor and parts markups will be auto-applied based on your settings. No more guessing or extensive calculations!

3. Lead Your Team With Clarity and Communication

A good leader knows how to inspire their team while also trusting them to make the right calls. We’ve developed the following features to make it easier for service advisors to see the status of all repairs without having to leave the service desk. 

Streamline your shop's workflow

By streamlining your auto repair shop workflow, service advisor's can establish a standardized intake process to ensure the same level of service, care and professionalism is provided to customers every time.

Build repair orders in seconds and apply the right digital vehicle inspection templates with just a few clicks. Service advisors can get some time away from the computer screen, letting them focus on the customer directly, address their concerns, and create a stress-free experience.

Visibility into upcoming work

With a clear view of scheduled repairs, technicians can manage their workloads more efficiently by providing a clear view of the tasks they need to complete each day. 

And because Tekmetric provides technicians with easy access to customer data, including vehicle history, service records, and customer preferences, they can provide more personalized service to their shop's clientele.

4. Create a Personalized Experience

Building and fostering that trusting relationship between your customers and your shop starts with creating a personalized experience. Customers want to feel like they're being heard, and that their concerns or hesitations are being taken seriously.

When service advisors can take a step back from building a repair order to focus on having a direct and responsive conversation with clients, they can help customers feel like they're receiving the best guidance and care your shop has to offer.

Customer History

With detailed customer history available at your fingertips, even across multiple locations with shared customer history, Service Advisors can always stay on top of the latest repairs completed on their customers’ vehicles.

By linking customer data so that service writers have access to all past information -- digital vehicle inspections, estimates generated, approved or declined work, and completed repairs -- you can save your shop time while creating a more personalized experience for the customer.

Default Inspections

With default inspections, you can set up a default inspection template that will be automatically applied to every vehicle in your shop. 

Service advisors won’t have to spend time searching for your shop’s standard inspection every time they build a new repair order, but instead can tailor their service and approach to the customer’s need with a standard foundation.