Digital inspection tools
and the power of data
Boost customer satisfaction by providing timelines of information,
starting from the moment they step foot in your shop.
By Barry Hoyland, Contributing Editor
Have you heard the old adage
“If you don’t write it down,
it never happened”? With
today’s digital society, that
is even more true. Most people, especially
millennials, want complete information
instantly. This is even more important
when it pertains to something they may
not fully understand, like their vehicle. If
they do not understand the information
you provide, many customers will take
the opportunity to go online to obtain
enough material to comprehend what
you told them.
In your shop, does the need to provide
more information to your customer
create fear, or an opportunity? There is
absolutely nothing wrong with providing
a customer information, as long as it is
consistent and correct.
CONSISTENT INFORMATION
Your customers expect and deserve consistent
information. In order to provide it,
you need to instill a culture in your shop
where inspections are performed in a
detailed and complete manner.
If your shop institutes and maintains a
job procedure for the inspection process,
each technician will inspect the vehicle
in the same way and report the results
consistently, thus making it the standard.
From the customer’s viewpoint, consistent
information is crucial to building and
maintaining trust in your shop. If on one
visit a technician recommends (I prefer
the term “suggests”) that the struts could
be replaced due to age and wear, and on
the next visit the same suggestion is not
made, the shop’s inspection and service
suggestion/recommendation process
will seem inconsistent, and the customer
may question whether the first suggestion
was necessary.
Having an accurate method of maintaining
38 PTEN AUGUST 2018 www.VehicleServicePros.com
inspection results from one visit
to another is essential for good customer
communication.
CORRECT INFORMATION
Along with consistency, correct information
builds and maintains customer
trust. Mistrust can occur, for example, if
Technician 1 performed a visual inspection
of brake pad wear during a customer’s
visit and reported 70 percent wear of
the brakes, and Technician 2 reports 50
percent wear on the next visit. What will
your customer think? Who is correct?
As a matter of fact, there are two issues
here. The first is you should never report
brake, or any other wear item, in percentages.
Unless you know exactly what the
original dimensions of the new part were,
you cannot accurately state what percent
of wear is used or remaining. The second
issue is it appears each technician is
inspecting brakes differently. Again, it is
Photo by Auto Vitals
The Auto Vitals Tablet has
the ability to capture images
to show the condition of components.
important to have an inspection procedure
in place, and train technicians to
inspect and report the results accurately.
TIMELY RESULTS
With today’s digital-focused and busy
society, timeliness of information is a
critical element of communication. A
number of recent surveys show that text
communication between shop and customer
not only expedites the approval
process, but may also free up time for the
service advisor.
A digital format, whether email or text,
will allow you to send information to the
customer quickly. It also allows you to
send images and estimates, and if desired,
links to additional information explaining
more about the repair.
Possibly the best reason to provide
digital inspections to your customer is
that doing so adds value to your services.
In today’s shop environment, it is neces-
/www.VehicleServicePros.com