Three Benefits of Integrated Payments in Your Auto Repair Shop

It might sound simple, but it's true: smartphones and digital experiences have revolutionized the way people interact with businesses. We've all come to expect near-instant responses, simplified checkout processes, and visibility into what we're paying for.  

And independent auto repair shops aren't any different. There's a unique opportunity where your business can meet customer's expectations with modern service and modern operations.

‍

‍

How Can You Make Your Auto Repair Shop More Modern? 

We keep saying that word "modern," but what does that really mean for auto repair shops? When we step back and think about the modern independent repair shop, we could sum it up with three core concepts:

1. The freedom to run your business in a more contemporary way with data, industry knowledge, flexibility and independence to work as in whatever way is best for you and your shop.
2. The power to simplify your shop's operations can gain complete visibility, control and opportunity to determine the best path forward for every decision.
3. The best experience for your customers, every time, for every job, whether that's a coolant flush and pad replacement, or a turbo rebuild.

With the right tools in place, your team members won’t have to stress about extra oversight and can feel empowered to take the reins at work. And your customers can have a more active say in the repair process.

One of the best tools for modernizing your business is a modern, cloud-based shop management system.

The checkered flag is in sight, moving to the last stretch of the race at a good pace! As Tekmetric kicked off Q3, we focused on two main priorities: streamlining the customer experience and enhancing our relationships within the auto repair industry. With a customer-obsessed approach, Tekmetric is committed to driving product innovation through these two avenues, as we continue to evolve and better serve you – our partner shops.

Streamlining the Customer Experience from Beginning to End

This quarter, we made it our goal to continue helping shops improve the customer experience from start to finish. The customer experience involves streamlining operations at every level, so the vehicle can be safely repaired and back on the road as soon as possible. From estimate to the final payment, our end goal is to help you be as efficient as possible.

As part of our efforts this quarter, we sought to identify and eliminate bottlenecks to enhance shop efficiency while meeting customers where they want to be. We also implemented updates that many of you, our partner shops, have recommended to keep Tekmetric relevant to the entire shop experience. Together, these updates combine to create a stronger shop management system that helps your shop run smoothly and ultimately supports growth over time: 

• Simpler Day-to-Day With Enhanced Data Integrations: With ALLDATA and TireFitment,  service advisors can now get labor and tire data directly from these integrations within the Tekmetric platform.
• Tire Purchasing Made Easy: With Tire Suite you can manage all tire operations directly from the platform including compliance, regulatory standard adherence, inventory management, and even purchasing via our integration with PartsTech. 
• Increased Transparency in Inspections: Through our integrations with Advance’s MotoVisuals, you can now more easily educate your customers with repair animations.    iCustomer Comms Simplified: We added template messages and the ability to adjust text verbiage for estimate, inspection and invoice links, which limits redundancy and streamlines communication.
• Increased Payment Flexibility With BNPL: Our partnership with Affirm allows shops to meet vehicle owners where they are with flexible payment plans for nearly any budget or repair need, including Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL). Customers who introduce BNPL see a 3x increase in ARO. 

Growing Relationships Within the Industry

As Tekmetric continues to streamline and enhance the customer experience, we are also focused on strengthening our relationships within the auto repair industry. As a customer-obsessed shop management system, we aim to support shops in providing the highest quality service to vehicle owners they can – and this wouldn’t be possible without valuable feedback and insights from you, our partner shops. This approach allows us to better understand the real challenges you face, so we can provide innovative solutions that help you accomplish your goals and succeed in a market where the consumer expects more from their repair shops.

You may have seen us at the Shop Hackers Conference in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where Adam McInturff, VP of Sales and Phil Acree, Head of Payment Sales presented on our latest features and upcoming innovations. We also spoke to many of you about the trends you are seeing in the industry and how Tekmetric can support your needs – from hiring service writers to succession planning. We continued these conversations at ATE Spokane in Washington and ASCCA in California and gathered key insights as we look ahead to the end of 2024 and the beginning of a new year. 

Thanks to you and your key feedback shared through these conversations, Tekmetric has been able to provide excellent service and innovative solutions throughout this quarter, resulting in recognition from the G2 Summer Awards in these categories: Overall Leader, Best Usability, Most Implementable and Momentum Leader. In addition, Tekmetric was named the best auto shop management software by G2. This recognition is a significant testament to the support of each of you, your teams and the valuable insights you provide.  

Aspiring To Inspire with Thought Leadership

For Tekmetric, customer relationships aren’t confined to the walls of a conference room. We also aimed to share the knowledge through webinars and conversations with industry outlets that sparked important conversations about what’s changing in our industry. 

With our webinars, our aim is to help you uncover actionable insights that you can apply to grow your shop. Some of these conversations included our webinar, “Innovate to Elevate,” led by John Phelps, Director of Channel and Partnerships, where he talked about transforming the customer journey with the end goal of streamlining operations and boosting customer satisfaction. Similarly in our payments webinar, Phil Acree, Head of Payments covered the current state of consumer financing and how shops can enhance the customer experience regarding the payment process.

We also shared this knowledge through key industry outlets, so you can share and discuss with your team, including:

• Future proof your shop exit strategy. P.J. Leslie, Director of Business Development, along with Matthew Schwab, owner of Clutch Automotive, shared tips to prepare your shop for the future and retirement by building a well-crafted exit plan so exiting shop owners can confidently step into the next phase of their lives, knowing they have set up a legacy for their shop.
• Strategic use of evergreen and real-time data. We also published an article with Vehicle Service Pros titled, “Using numbers to supercharge your shop’s performance, where we discussed how to use real-time and evergreen data to expand your shop.

As we leave an upbeat Q3, Tekmetric continues to keep its eye on the finish line for this year: helping shops enhance the customer experience through product innovation. We are very proud that our commitment to a two-way relationship with our customers has been the driving force behind every improvement and our collaborative approach with other leaders in the industry enables us to build a steady foundation for continuous innovation. We aim to continue measuring up as we enter the final quarter of 2024.

Adjusting your pricing on parts to make a profit is pretty straightforward. But when it comes to labor times for auto repair shops…that’s where things can get a bit tricky. Yes, you need competitive labor rates, but you also need to keep those rates reasonable so you don’t scare off your customers with sky-high prices.

3 ways your shop can make more money on labor:

1. By using a labor matrix
2. By creating custom labor rates
3. By applying a labor guide markup

Before we dive into the differences between these three methods for setting the best labor times at your shop, here’s a quick refresher on the one thing these methods have in common: the labor guide.

What is a Labor Guide?

A labor guide is like the gospel of labor times for auto repair shops. It tells you how long, on average, it takes to complete different types of repair work. Remember that the times listed in auto repair labor guides are averages, so it’s best to treat them as a starting point.

Factors That Can Affect Labor Times for Auto Repair Shops

Let’s take a look at some of the factors to consider when determining how much to mark up (or mark down) your shop’s labor rates.

How to Choose a Reliable Labor Guide

A reliable auto repair labor guide is foundational for your shop when you’re setting labor rates, so you’ll want to use a labor guide that stays up-to-date with the latest labor times in the industry. Just like many people use online directories instead of the Yellow Pages, many auto repair shops use digital labor guides that are constantly updated with the latest labor times.

When seeking out a digital labor guide, look for one that:

• Offers consistent, comprehensive data on labor times from industry leaders, so you can set accurate labor rates that will keep your shop profitable
• Adds labor times for new vehicles and jobs periodically, so your shop’s pricing can stay competitive
• Integrates with your auto repair shop management software, so you don’t have to dig through multiple systems