Fast Quotes Create a Great Auto Shop Customer Experience

Focusing on a great auto shop customer experience

As customers, Bill and Sheri Granger had seen shops try to do unnecessary work or charge too much over the years. For example, a shop in Indiana had tried to sell Sheri a battery for 18 months before she needed one. Thankfully, she had Bill check the paperwork they provided before she said, “No.”

“Going into a shop as a woman, it’s like they speak a different language,” she says.

In 2019, Bill was working as a subcontractor who was on call around the clock. He found himself at work more than at home so he set out to create his own job.

As a master technician since 1997, he had worked at Honda, Kia, Hyundai, Dodge and Mitsubishi dealerships. Meanwhile, Sheri spent 25 years doing billing, coding and working reception in the medical field.

“We looked at our skills and decided to open our own shop,” Bill says. “We wanted to run a shop that people could trust. This type of business is bulletproof if you know what you’re doing.”

However, they opted to buy into the Milex Complete Auto Care – Mr. Transmission chain rather than start on their own. “I have a lot of experience fixing cars but not running a business,” Bill says. “I’ve seen people try it and fail. Knowing what I didn’t know, I thought it was safer.”

He likes having the extra security of the expertise of the Moran team behind him. “The help they give us is more than worth the money we pay them,” he states.

Switching to Shop-Ware to better serve customers

Mr. Transmission (Milex 598) opened in May 2019 with auto shop software that didn’t work for the staff or customers. First, it made it difficult to get parts, but it also slowed down estimates and frustrated customers.

One of the Grangers’ employees told him about automotive shop software that worked much better. Sick of shuffling paper, Bill found out the Mr. Transmission head office was also looking at Shop-Ware.

“We decided to take the chance and go for it,” Bill says. “It’s the best thing we ever did.”

As a result, Bill and Sheri have seen these dramatic changes between June 8 and July 25, 2022:

• They produce estimates 65% faster.
• Their ARO rose from $400 to $600.
• Their car count went up to 140 to 150 cars per month in the two-tech shop

Above all, these features make the biggest difference in their days:

• Using their cell phones to log into Shop-Ware from anywhere – “a BIG plus,” says Sheri
• Getting approvals after customers see photos and read techs’ notes
• Easy bill payments from customers’ phones
• Adding canned jobs through a simple process of adding parts and labor
• More accurate estimates based on better parts ordering
• Complete parts details when placing an order

“It’s huge,” Bill says. “I’ve heard my customers say, ‘This is really cool.’”

Customers have also rewarded them with .

Every day, Bill delivers a welcoming auto shop customer experience by showing drivers how their cars work. Even better, he displays old and new parts, such as brake pads and rotors, in the waiting room.

He also has glass jars filled with old and new brake fluid, transmission fluid and engine oil. This shows what worn-out parts or fluids look like and why they need to be replaced.

Making auto care better every day

The Grangers have found using Shop-Ware has changed their lives in many ways. Sheri notes she no longer has to run from the front counter, past the waiting room and lunch room to get to the shop.

“I was consistently running back and forth,” she says. “It was taking a lot of time. Now, I don’t have to do that.”

“Every Saturday, I used to take all the numbers and work out our profit margins. Now, I just click a couple of buttons and I have it,” Sheri says. “We now get out of the shop hours earlier.”

In fact, she found it so easy to set up her financial reports that she called Shop-Ware’s support line. When she asked what she had done wrong, she learned that’s how simply it works.

Best of all, Bill notes that Shop-Ware’s staff listens and fixes problems right away. “If you have support like that, then you have the perfect system,” he adds.