Oova At Autovitals

The Digital Shop® takes shape in Schools Lindsay, our trainer extraordinaire went back to school. Not as a student but being a professor for two days at the Career and Technology Center Fort Osage. Based on the initiative of SmartFlow users in and around Kansas City, MO, Bill Lieb, and Bryan Compton – teachers of the Automotive Classes at CTC – AutoVitals provided equipment and training for the next generation automotive technicians. It has been an honor to support this initiative. The technician shortage and hesitance for new technology by older generation techs make it a necessity to have young technicians equipped with the knowledge about the tools available and how to use them. SmartFlow can not only guide these students to the digital frontier, but also learn about productivity and efficiency that is typically missing in everyday curriculum. As you can see in the pictures below, the students and Lindsay had a lot of fun with the lab portion of the training. Each group performed digital inspections on their vehicles, and expanded on the importance of documentation and pictures. Four classes in two days showed high school students the opportunity in this industry, both present and future. Professor Lindsay had a blast! Are you a School interested in taking your Automotive Program to the next level, or know of one? Please use our contact-us form to reach out!

Lmcca, I'd like us to look at value of a service for a moment before assessing it by cost only. Assume your ARO gets increased by $50 in addition to the $200 ARO you might experience today and before using AutoVitals you have 200 appointments a month. I am using numbers, which are low. Real numbers are higher. Then the CRM system with built-in call, email and postcard campaigns and Loyalty Point system increases the number of appointments by 10% we are now at 20*$250 = $5,000. Then the customer acquisition gets you 10 more new customers a month than today. That is an immediate value of $2,500 and an increased retention value depending on your retention rate. In a nutshell you get 200 appointment with $50 higher ARO and 30 additional appointments with $250 ARO, not counting the future visits of new customers. Is this convincing?

Mark, thanks for the feedback. Based on the feedback from dozens of shops owners we conducted the onsite training with, it is a smashing success. It is actually a 5 week program, where best practices and a Standard Operating Procedure is defined, introduced and monitored: from internet equipment over proper inspection practices and how to sell them. Just one visit doesn't change the world, but developing muscle memory does. Or as the ATI coach for the group reported: "I have to share a quick story from a conversation with a shop owner this morning: he has a top-flight advisor that has always carried strong sales.. his only weakness has been selling fluid services. On an average 40 car count they usually averaged 1-3 services converted a week. In the 2 weeks since [the AutoVitals trainer] was at the shop optimizing the setup and training the staff, the shop has converted 19 fluid services and 23 fluid services respectively! Now that is a change in performance!!!"

SmartFlow starts at $189 a month, and comes in different flavors and features, depending on exactly what you need, you can get the tablets from us and other additions. We offer discounts for affiliations with NAPA - AC, TECH-NET, ACDelco-PSC, ATI, etc. Just call at 866 9494 2848 and ask for Tom in sales and we tailor SmartFlow to your shop.

A Candid Analysis of Today's Workflow Management Tools Lets summarize the tools and processes available to the independent shop owner, service advisor and technician to manage workflow. the service advisor's ability to memorize what is going on the technician's ability to recall what the service advisor said 10 minutes ago or earlier the service advisor'a ability to decipher the tech's scribble The tech's ability to put clear explanations on a piece of paper (work order) the WIP screen in your point of sale software (POS) the printer printing work orders the paper rack holding printed paper sheets the bags keeping the key to the vehicle and the paperwork together the scheduler in your POS a white board or spreadsheet managing the vehicles going through the shop a time punching system or flag sheet The sad part: Not one of these 11 pieces can be skipped. Service advisors are super heros juggling 11 disjointed "management tools" at any time during the day. How do they do this? Super hero ability, you knew it already. Now the even sadder part: In order for the service advisor to juggle all this successfully, they often skip or at least minimize the engagement with the motorist. Lets repeat that with different words:"Service advisors skip advising service because they are too busy doing busy work because the tools available are inadequate." Do you agree, or am I smoking something here? Last but not least, the saddest part: You as owner can't measure behavior today, only results from the POS reports. What does that mean? you don't know what tech is pencil whipping or over recommending you don't know how many recs from the tech uncovered during the inspection make it to estimate (our research revealed 56% of all recommended actions from the tech are not sold. Fifty-six. Do you smell opportunity here as well?) you don't know why the vehicles are in the shop for way too long. Is it the waiting for parts or the service advisor or the dog ate the home work? you don't know why the tech efficiency of tech A is at 95% but of tech B at 53% you can't change behavior if you can't measure it How to we turn 11 disjointed tools into 3 integrated ones? You add a tablet(1) to the techs toolbox, replace the paper rack with a second screen(2) and download SmartFlow(3) to the tablet from the App Store or Google Play and add it to the browser bookmarks on the second screen. Then get rid of paper time punching system laptops in the back shop paper rack running back and forth (you might have to buy the service advisor a gym membership) white board spreadsheets bags flustered service advisors Done. Now your service advisor counter might look like this The photo credit goes to Matt Purselle, he turned a typical two screen setup into a four screen setup. One screen for the POS, one for SmartFlow, one for email, one for everything else. Two are enough for the beginning, some of our clients use only one and it works too, thanks to built-in alerts. Matt's counter looks like this seen with the eyes of the service advisor(s). How do the techs know what is going on? they clock in on the tablet, EVERYTHING is on the tablet now, Identifix, Alldata or Mitchell, work order, inspection sheet, any info they need. They stay at the vehicle and smart-chat with the service advisor and get alerted about new info and new assignments for them. Have you introduced a daily huddle with the techs? Great, do it like Matt and use a 55 inch screen with touch overlay to manage the day. How does that sound to you? Service Advisors are freed up, and can focus on the customer. All recommended actions by the tech are on the estimate now. You can measure and correct tech and service advisor behavior. Pencil whipping, over recommedning, time on the vehicle, tech efficiency and productivity, shop proficiency, anything you want really, since you are digital now. One of our franchise clients just send this over to me Sound to good to be true? Nah. Ask SmartFlow users in your area or us.

How many searches are looking for your shop and how many are not? This is a weird question, isn't it? Why would a shop owner care about searches not looking for the shop? The answer is simple: Motorists make decisions based on education. That has been the case since the car become the main tool for transportation. What changed in the last 3 years is the fact that using a smartphone is sooooooo much simpler when educating oneself than calling somebody, the self declared auto expert brother or husband or your shop. Don't believe me? check out the image This is a screenshot from Google Trends showing that in the last ten years the searches for "timing belt" have tripled, whereas the searches for "auto repair" stayed essentially flat. The number of DIYs have not increased, the opposite is true. So who are those searching people? The answer is simple: Your existing and prospective customers, searching for education, a second opinion, etc. In fact, according to Google's info at the SEMA show three years ago the number of searches for parts and educational info (e.g., "Check Engine Light") exceeds the number of searches for your shop (e.g. "auto repair", "brake repair" etc,) by thirty times. 30 times. Did you just say "wow"? Is your web presence optimized for these searches and do you catch those searches? Probably not. Since we have introduced this new SEO strategy and launched a new product called TopFuel 12 months ago, we have received testimonials from clients, who have a good problem to solve: Too many new prospects. They refuse service since the shop's capacity to serve them at high quality is not big enough. 400% more impressions on Google, 300% more website hits, twice as many new customers compared with one year prior. Check out this article with examples, how it impacted them and what they did about it. Education is key, but you knew that already. make it available so that motorists find your website, instead of 10w40.com or similar websites.

Thank you flacvabeach. I'd like to mention that our SmartFlow service is not limited to digital inspections. It offers a workflow management system, which exceeds any POS' work in progress screen capabilities. www.autovitals.com/smartflow running back and forth between counter and back shop is thing of the past, dispatching technicians directly from the counter, smart alerts send messages to service advisors, bidirectional texting to motorists and emailing inspection results, diagnosis results, OEM recs and TSB's/Recalls with just two clicks. Freeing up the service advisor from busy work so they can advise service.

2015 has started with a bang.Check out lots of new features for Digital Inspection and Workflow Management as well as web presence and CRM. Go tohttp://www.autovitals.com/pmnews/ find out and don't forget to subscribe to our RSS feed. Our Service Advisor T-Shirt is well liked and we received lots of order. Get yours at http://www.autovitals.com/product/service-advisor-t-shirt/ !

AutoVitals' monthly Service Advisor Huddle in October focused on feedback from shop owners about their best practices using SmartFlow. Watch the Highlight Video or take in the full recording of the Service Advisor Huddle.

Mark, thanks again for reporting here. I'd like to invite everybody for our webcast next week on Thursday, when the four shop owners featured below will share their recipe for success. Everyone of them have increased their ARO by at least 20%. They all use SmartFlow to various degrees. Brian Bates, Dan Garlock, Russ Hilliard and Bill Connor. Register Here for the webinar!

We were excited to welcome Jason Malo with Advanced Automotive for his presentation at our AutoVitals University yesterday. Jason's insights in running a successful Auto Repair and Service facility helped us further understand what new benefits SmartFlow and TopFuel can offer and how we can tailor our customer service. Thank YOU.

Check out the latest update from Murphy’s Autocare. Where they transform their front counter The monitors with the SMS are embedded in the counter. And two touch screens will not only host SmartFlow for the service advisors, they also can be swiveled around so customers get educated.

At SEMA 2014, AutoVitals will be showcasing SmartFlow, the first and best paperless systems for the independent auto repair industry. There will be live demonstrations of how you can improve the process and automate the workflow at your shop. You will see how your shop can become a AutoVitals Certified Digital Inspection Location and how that can save your customers both time and money. We will be giving away an iPad mini with every copy of SmartFlow purchased at the show. Visit us at Booth 38204 to find out more. We look forward to seeing you there! http://www.autovitals.com/meetup-sema-2014/

A case study following D&H Enterprises, a 9 bay shop in Concord California, while they move from yesterday’s technology into the future. Recently, owners Dave and Mary Kemnitz made the decision after 20 years in business that it was time to take a look at workflow automation to help improve their business process. D&H chose AutoVitals SmartFlow, which combines digital inspections, tablet based worksheets and visual workflow displays unified with world class workflow automation to get the job done. In this case study you can follow along as D&H progresses through the implementation process. You’ll see the video taken at their shop and be able to read their blog updates. You can also subscribe to email updates so you wont miss a step as they move from 60′s technology into the future of in shop workflow automation. In the Beginning In this video we hear about how D&H technicians and service writers work today what they expect to see change as they go paperless and what the shop owners had in mind when they decided to implement SmartFlow For more information and the video about starting with SmartFlow, please go here

SmartFlow Enables up to 40% Increase in ARO Using Digital Inspections and Workflow Management are the centerpiece of SmartFlow. Their real effectiveness comes to light when introduced together with policies and procedures specific for your shop. Allow me to introduce four shop owners and general managers, who implemented those policies and procedures and increased their ARO by 20%-40% in app. 7 months. I am honored to have Brian Bates, Dan Garlock, Russ Hilliard and Bill Connor on our panel at the next Service Advisor Huddle on October 23. Have you registered already for the Webcast on October 23?