In today’s competitive auto repair landscape, service advisors play a crucial role in customer satisfaction and shop success. Managing customer inquiries, collaborating with technicians for repair estimates and maintaining the shop’s schedule are all keys to successful service writing. However, there is one secret weapon that can take your work to the next level: data.
Understanding the importance of data can take your customer service from good to excellent, allowing you to serve more customers in less time – without sacrificing quality. By harnessing data, you’ll be better equipped to enhance your customer experience, optimize your workflow and ultimately elevate your expertise as a data-driven service writer.
1. Leverage Your Shop Dashboard to Enhance Customer Experience
By strategically leveraging digital tools, service writers can use data and analytics to provide a better customer experience. Service writers can shape a customer’s entire experience with the shop simply by monitoring and adjusting to accessible data on their shop dashboard through Tekmetric. Using the shop dashboard, you can control the customer’s repair experience, serving as an intermediary between the technician and the vehicle owner, as well as ensuring the work is completed efficiently and effectively.
For example, you can push repair orders (ROs) forward for your customer by ordering parts in the “parts needed” category. Or, you can build stronger customer relationships while creating opportunities for additional work by checking in with vehicle owners who previously declined jobs, but may need them now. By using the data at your fingertips, you can make decisions in real-time that support your customers and ensure their happiness with the repair. Happier customers lead to more money for the shop – and for your commission.
2. Optimize Your Workflow with Data-Driven Tools
Like waiters in a restaurant, service writers are the “face” of the shop, and often they are the first experience a customer has with the business. Because of this, it’s crucial you have a smooth workflow that keeps you open for customer interaction rather than stuck behind a computer screen. Fortunately, there are tools you can leverage to reduce your manual tasks and keep you free to focus on the more complex, relationship-driven parts of your job.
For example, Tekmetric’s Smart Jobs feature can automate job creation, allowing you to focus less on manual data entry and more on customer interactions. Within one or two clicks, Smart Jobs allows you to build the order, find parts and finalize the estimate without ever leaving Tekmetric. By automating the job creation process, you free yourself up to spend more time speaking to the customer about their needs, concerns and questions without compromising the RO’s accuracy.
3. Utilize Digital Tools to Elevate Your Expertise as a Data-Driven Service Writer
When you learn how to leverage data in your day-to-day role, not only can you better serve your customers and optimize your workflow, but you can become a stronger service writer overall. Data is not just a set of numbers on a screen – it is a tool that can elevate your expertise, setting you up for success both within the shop and throughout your career.
One tool that supports your development as a service writer in addition to the shop dashboard and Smart Jobs is the digital vehicle inspection (DVI). Because only 25% of shops use DVIs, leveraging this digital tool correctly can truly differentiate your shop from others around you. The DVI is more than just a list of repairs; it provides information that can help you provide better service. For example, your interactions with customers might prove that including several images and videos of necessary repairs can help customers better understand what’s happening with their vehicle. If you see on a DVI that images were not included, you can connect with the technician to add them before sending the DVI to the vehicle owner.
You can also go the extra mile to anticipate customer questions and clarify any confusing details with the technician before sending the DVI to the customer. This helps you prepare for customer interactions while gaining more expertise from your technicians. As you grow more in your role, you can utilize different tools like the DVI to perform at a higher level, making you better at advising and growing in your expertise as the shop’s “voice.”
Your Secret Weapon to Successful Service Writing
In a customer-facing role, one of the best ways to elevate your role as a service writer is to use data and analytics. As technology continues to improve, you can leverage your shop’s reports through Tekmetric or its integration to gain a greater pulse of shop dynamics. By using data to drive your role as a service writer, you can improve the customer experience, contribute to a more efficient workflow and grow professionally in your role as a service writer.
