I never set out to develop software add-on solutions that would revolutionize the auto repair industry.
All of that happened by accident.
Prior to founding BOLT ON TECHNOLOGY, I worked as a Microsoft developer and taught evening classes at a school district near my suburban Philadelphia home. It was in the classes that I met an auto repair shop owner and his wife, who asked me to help with their shop’s software programs.
When I saw how out-of-date the system was, a light went off in my
During a recent Philly New Tech meetup gathering, BOLT ON TECHNOLOGY founder and CEO Mike Risich demonstrated the digital multi-point inspection process made possible through the company's Mobile Manager Pro automotive software solution.
To see the automatic transmission of data from the tablet device to the shop management system and hear more about the best practices of advance appointment scheduling, click here to watch the video:
The Vision Hi-Tech Training and Expo begins in about a month.
But, don't worry, there's still time to register for this four-day event, which happens March 5-8 in Kansas City, Kansas.
Featuring technical training, a tool expo, service advisor summit, management and technical training, and, of course the two-day Vision Expo, this annual trade show offers something for everyone.
In addition, BOLT ON TECHNOLOGY's sales and support staff will be exhibiting March 6 and March 7 as part of
Upping the daily car count has been an ongoing goal for Tim Steigerwalt since he became owner of six Philadelphia-area independent auto repair shops in 1996.
The challenge of “not enough cars” is a problem common among fellow shop owners.
And while Steigerwalt has not yet found the magic bullet to bring more customers through his shops’ doors, he has been able to make a difference in another way.
This spring, Steigerwalt’s shops incorporated BOLT ON TECHNOLOGY’s mobile automotive
Spring and summer months are historically busier times for auto repair shops. Of course it would be great to keep that steady traffic coming into your bays day in and day out, each and every day through fall and winter too. But, how do you do it?
A stay-busy year-round solution is easier to attain than you may think.
Dentists, doctors and hair salons all use advance scheduling to ensure their respective professionals do not confront empty appointment books. The auto repair industry shoul
It’s been said that one of the most difficult things for an auto repair shop to do is to increase car count.
With that being the case for many businesses, shop owners are left with pretty much one option to boost revenue: Generate additional income from the existing pool of customers. While some shops may view this as a challenge, in reality it’s an opportunity to maximize spending from a shop’s existing customer base.
Since your customers aren’t coming in more frequently, you have to make eve
Since his 16-bay repair shop began using wireless automotive software solutions last fall, Dave Murray, VP of Operations at Florida-based Murray Motive, said his family-owned business has been able to save an hour each day “by not doing a whole lot.”
Incorporating BOLT ON TECHNOLOGY’s™ Mobile Manager Pro, Murray said processes that had previously taken 10 to 20 minutes to complete now take “five minutes or less.”
“It improves our efficiency dramatically when building ROs,” he said. “It s
Mychael Althouse had a record-breaking month of sales at his auto repair shop, United Tire & Service in Feasterville, Pa., in April 2014. [see the video here]
The Philadelphia suburban eight-bay shop serviced 12 to 15 cars per day as it has since Althouse took over the 30-year business three years ago.
“We gained probably about $20,000 in total sales that month,” Althouse said. “That month was the best month in my company’s history of owning the shop.”
Not coincidentally, April
Determine what you want from exhibitors post-expo now.
With so many booths, workshops and more at the AAPEX Show, it would be virtually impossible to leave Las Vegas with all of the information you need to effectively grow your business.
That’s why receiving follow up from exhibitors that align with your goals is imperative.
How do you do that? Follow these simple tips to gather all the post-show information you need.
1.Set guidelines
Communicate your preferred follow-up
It was common for Holt Auto Service and Machine Shop Service Manager Mike Chase to leave a message for a customer and “wait, wait, wait” for a call back.
In the hours that typically followed until Chase talked to customers, the technicians wasted time taking vehicles down from lifts only to begin the seemingly unending cycle again with another vehicle.
Since the nine-bay shop began using BOLT ON TECHNOLOGY's Mobile Manager Pro, customer communication – and repair work authorizations – have mov
BOLT ON TECHNOLOGY customer Martin Kruszelnicki has the “greenest” auto repair shop in all of Santa Monica, Calif.
Kruszelnicki, the Chief Technology Officer of Santa Monica Hybrid – The Hybrid Shop, attributes his shop’s use of BOLT ON TECHNOLOGY’s shop management software as one of the reasons the city of Santa Monica selected his repair shop from a pool of 19 contenders to win the 20th annual Sustainable Quality Awards.
Santa Monica Hybrid – The Hybrid Shop won the Excellence in Stewa
With the latest Report Pro requested feature addition, shops can more easily identify the status of vehicles being serviced.
BOLT ON TECHNOLOGY’s latest auto repair software release – which is available for Mitchell 1 customers – uses color-coded easy-to-read blocks showing vehicles that are unassigned, complete, in progress, waiting for parts and orders involving customers who are waiting.
Dubbed the WorkFlow Manager, the Report Pro upgrade takes Mitchell 1’s Work In Progress screen
We’ve addressed several maintenance issues in the latest Report Pro release, which is now available.
With the latest update, users can see a fuller model/sub-model vehicle description on Mitchell SE tech worksheets. Also in Mitchell SE, we fixed the problem users had experienced while printing a revision when a sub-estimate for the vehicle had previously been sold.
We have also ensured that the All Sub Estimates report remembers users’ selections.
For Report Pro customers in Canada, the
The #1 most-requested Report Pro feature is here!
Report Pro customers have been asking for the ability to view multi-point inspections on a desktop and now that functionality is here!
The Inspection Manager addition, which has been rolled out for Mitchell1 SE Mobile Manager Pro users - and will be forthcoming for other shop management systems - allows a service advisor to review/edit an inspection from the desktop, making it easier to share results in person with a customer.
The new feat
The National Pronto Association today announced its endorsement of BOLT ON TECHNOLOGY, a leader in the development of innovative software solutions powering the independent automotive repair industry.
BOLT ON TECHNOLOGY, since its founding in 2008, has created more than a dozen software modules which fully integrate with leading shop management systems, saving repair shop technicians and service advisors time through the use of automation.
Pronto has 95 independent wholesale distributors wi
BOLT ON TECHNOLOGY customers who use the Pro Pack suite of automotive software solutions, which includes Lube Sticker Pro, Report Pro and Message Manager software modules, can now take advantage of new features. The software add-on solutions have been upgraded for Mitchell1 and NAPA TRACS shop management systems.
Lube Sticker Pro, which, in addition to printing lube stickers and key tags and advance scheduling maintenance appointments based on customers’ driving habits, mileage milestones a
After using our Mobile Manager Pro automotive software solution for a year, Jon Miller of Pioneer Automotive in Denton, Texas shot a video explaining how BOLT ON TECHNOLOGY's mobile technology has helped his shop.
, Miller said the digital multi-point inspection tool has increased his shop's sales by 30 percent, upped his car count by 25 percent a month and eliminated the need to re-enter information from handwritten inspection sheets back into his shop management system.
"It's definit
Competition in the marketplace is the biggest challenge Eric Russo has faced in his 22 years of owning four greater Philadelphia area auto repair shops.
The biggest contender of all in his quest for higher profits and a larger customer base has been dealerships, Russo said.
But, Russo said he finally found a tool to not only even the playing field, but to make his shops “better than the
dealerships.”
In short, Russo and his employees are setting themselves apart from the competition
Nick Nix, the owner of PJ’s Auto Repair in Yuba City, Calif., is seeing a “dramatic impact” in his techs’ ability to “point and click” their way to completing digital multi-point inspections of customer vehicles.
So dramatic, in fact, that after using BOLT ON TECHNOLOGY’s™ Mobile Manager Pro for only a week, Nix said his shop of 17 years made $3,600 in additional profit.
He attributes the uptick in revenue to his shop’s use of digital inspections, which include technician-recommended se
BOLT ON TECHNOLOGY’s digital multi-point inspection software was selected as an innovator in the computers and software category of the Professional Tools & Equipment News (PTEN) magazine annual Innovation Awards.
Mobile Manager Pro auto repair software was chosen from a pool of 117 product nominations. In all, the magazine chose 26 products from 21 companies as innovation award winners for 2015.
Nominees were evaluated by a panel of judges comprised of technician and auto repair shop owne
Whether you're a beginner, a seasoned Mobile Manager Pro user, or somewhere in between, our 7 step-by-step training videos will help you to more easily decode license plates and VINs, capture customers' signatures electronically, perform digital multi-point inspections and more.
As always, the information entered into tablet devices automatically transmits into leading shop management systems without any additional effort, or double entry on your part.
To view our latest training video
Photos aren’t just important for capturing memories. At auto repair shops, vehicle conditions photos show – in addition to tell – customers what repairs or maintenance is needed.
The number of shops taking photos and sharing them with customers is growing exponentially. Photos taken with BOLT ON TECHNOLOGY's Mobile Manager Pro digital multi-point inspection tool have surpassed 400,000 – that’s double the number of pictures in our database in December 2014. We reached our first six-figure milest
Diagnosing and fixing vehicles has gotten even easier for auto repair shops using BOLT ON TECHNOLOGY’s Mobile Manager Pro digital multi-point inspection tool and Mitchell 1 SureTrack.
Our software developers today finished a new major feature enhancement, making Mobile Manager Pro the first and only application to fully integrate with the SureTrack vehicle diagnostic tool.
Shops using BOLT ON’s mobile technology have already been able to take advantage of time-saving VIN scanning and de
Our Mobile Manager Pro digital multi-point inspection tool will be discussed during the upcoming NACE/CARS Expo & Conference in Detroit, Michigan. The auto repair software will be referenced during our partner, Mitchell 1’s 90-minute training session, “Shop Management Unleashed.”
Tim McDonnell, Mitchell 1’s National Training Manager will lead the training on July 22 from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the COBO Center during the annual event, which runs from July 21 through July 25.
Focused o
BOLT ON TECHNOLOGY’s signature automotive software solution, Mobile Manager Pro, has ranked in the top 5 in Top and Best Alternative’s top 10 list of auto repair software.
Mobile Manager Pro, the company’s signature solution, is the only add-on automotive software solution to make the list. The other 9 modules on the list are shop management systems.
The wireless tool, which fully integrates with leading shop management systems, enables repair shop technicians to scan VINs and decode l
