Last week on Digital Shop Talk Radio, Bill and Uwe welcomed guests Sunil Patel, president and CEO of Tekmetric, Brian DeRoss, a senior technical expert with AutoVitals, and Craig Hammond from Meineke AutoCare Center, to discuss AutoVitals’ new partnership with Tekmetric.
The announcement of the partnership back in July 2021 details a common mission of AutoVitals and Tekmetic to increase efficiency and productivity using seamless two-way communication.
The partnership combines a best-in-class point-of-sale (POS) system with a best-in-class shop success solution that includes digital vehicle inspections (DVI), workflow management, digital marketing, and CRM tools. Together, the systems increase efficiency, communication, and, ultimately, profitability for their mutual clients.
The two programs are now integrated, eliminating any need for duplication, such as re-entering VIN numbers, license plate numbers, or odometer information. Job notes from the tech will also appear in Tekmetric as well without any copying or pasting needed.
Cloud-based systems = the ability to work remotely from anywhere
Sunil outlined that two of the advantages of having both programs in the cloud is:
A) a lot faster to interact with both systems and to transmit data back and forth between both systems and
B) the assurance that the data has been transmitted is much greater,” as opposed to the days of using on-premises (on-prem) systems and wondering if the programs synced or not
Via the tech view, dispatchers and service advisors can also see what the techs are working on and who is available for assigned work. The tech can enter information about the inspection and the service advisor can simply go in and review it before sending the information to the customer.
Because the product is simple to use, training employees is also easier, which speeds up employee productivity. Training also includes live support, an in-app chat, and a representative can even fly out to your shop to assist with training.
Craig Hammond, a multi-shop representative, outlined his experience as he recently implemented the integrated programs at his first shop. He explained that his service advisor is happy with the collaboration, noting that it is quicker to build tickets in Tekmetrics than EndKey.
Craig believes that the new integration has saved his staff a minimum of three of five hours of time per week waiting on technology, as compared to the old system. He calculated the figure by multiplying the 5-10 minutes it takes to check customers in, assign jobs, import canned jobs, and submit information to the customer by the approximately 60 vehicles that come through the shop each week.
Service managers have become used to working at a “hair on fire” pace since they do not know the status of a vehicle at any given time without walking out to the bay and speaking with a technician. With AutoVitals, all of the running around is eliminated as service managers can look right on their devices to obtain an instant update.
"Once we assign the job to a technician, it’s on the tablet. It’s on the TVP immediately. So, no more waiting, hitting refresh hoping that the vehicle is going to show up. It’s immediate and we’re happy so far.