New technology is often packaged in promises: perfectly robust—a solution that can do everything and deliver next-level customer experiences, no problem. Sounds too good to be true? Often, when you’re evaluating new technologies and tools for your service department, they just might be…
That’s because no matter how proficiently trained your service technicians are, or how adept everyone is with the highly complicated systems you’re using to run your business, your service pros will eventually move on. The next generation of employees that come on board will need to get up-to-speed (and fast) on your technology to deliver the customer care you’re known for. So, it begs the question: are you evaluating technology for its ability to adapt to your business? Is it easy to use?
When your shop management solution is both robust and easy to use, you can maximize your team’s productivity, facilitate more consistent processes, and easily manage your workload. In the end, all those efficiency gains get passed along to your customers by way of a better service experience. Consider the following benefits of an easy-to-use shop management solution.
Technology that Facilitates Service Capacity
Peak-time bottlenecks lead to poor service practices. When service customers are lined up at your dealership, your team doesn’t have the time to diagnose and identify every additional repair order. They’re too busy trying to get one customer out the door, so they can welcome another in.
Your service scheduling technology should help you visualize capacity, so you can easily make daily adjustments and space out your service visits to avoid bottlenecks to your business. An easy-to-use shop management solution can help your team manage shop capacity and put a daily cap on certain types of repairs, creating a steady flow of appointments that balances the day.
Technology that Facilitates Helpful Support
Even when your solution is easy to use, it’s nice to know that you have an experienced support team backing you up to answer questions, provide solutions, and even strategize with your dealership about how to get the most out of your technology and your team.
The right shop management solution will be easy for your team and your customers to use because it looks like the technology they interact with every day. It doesn’t have a foreign, unfamiliar interface. It’s intuitive in its design. And, when you do need support or ideas to boost the efficiency of your team, your provider is there to help you maximize your shop management solution.
Technology that Facilitates Communication
Whether between your team or with your customers, communication isn’t always the most effective way to spend a day. When your techs have to ask for an opinion on a repair or check for parts availably, it takes them away from the job at hand and slows down the entire service process. On top of that, your customers want constant updates about their vehicles, and taking phone calls and reaching out to them takes time that could be spent maximizing the repair process.
When your shop management tool facilitates instant communication between team members, you can increase efficiency and maximize repair orders. Prioritize a shop management solution with a chat functionality that allows your team to easily share pictures and videos of repairs and get on-hand parts and inventory information.
Your shop management solution should also facilitate communication with customers. By giving customers the ability to make decisions about repairs during the scheduling process and real-time status updates on their phones throughout the service process, you make it easy for your customers to do business with you.
There’s hidden potential in your service department. It’s just a matter of finding the right shop management technology to help you tap into that potential to address excess service capacity, improve communication, and get the most out of every repair order.
Book an Xtime Inspect demo today to see how an easy-to-use shop management solution can help your dealership.
