In the United States, there are close to 60,000 auto body repair shops. If you want to make sure that your auto body repair shop can compete with all of these options, you must find different ways to make your business more productive. One way to do that is to focus on efficiency. Keep reading to discover how you can improve your auto repair body shop profits.
1. Schedule Appointments
To start with, you should schedule appointments to reduce lost time in your garage. When you have time assigned to your customers, there’s less downtime and more time for profits.
You’re paying for the business to be running, so if you don’t have cars to work on, you’ll be losing money.
You should also schedule these appointments to help control the cost of labor as well. This way, you’ll know who needs to be in the shop and when they need to be there. You can also order parts in advance and control your mix of work.
You can schedule appointments by sending out postcards to customers when their oil change is due. You could also add a link to your website where clients can schedule their own appointments.
Plus, you’ll draw in more customers when they realize how easy it is to make an appointment and save time. They can even find a time that will work for their schedule, which makes them more likely to make an appointment.
2. Use Technology
There are many different types of technology, like Tekmetric, that can help your business run profitably as well.
You might want to implement tech to the multi-point inspection. This will save a technician time where they don’t have to write out services or results. The system will implement them into a report and store them in a way that makes sense.
You’ll also be able to use text messaging to communicate with customers. It can take up a lot of time to confirm and call people for appointments, but you can use automated text messaging.
There is also software that will help you price repairs and order parts in a way that’s fair to your customers and helps you save money.
3. Change the Layout of Your Shop
The layout of your shop can foster productivity by having a good workflow. Jobs shouldn’t be done in random places or wherever there’s space because you’ll soon find that your shop will get messy and crowded.
Tools will be all over the place, and you may even have to spend a lot of time trying to find the right tool or part.
You should have a designated place for each tool and part so that everyone can remember where everything is. You may even want to have mechanics have their own station so that they can feel comfortable in their own area.
4. Improve Productivity
You’ll need great mechanics who can be efficient and productive. To make sure that your mechanics can be efficient, you’ll need to make sure that you have a productive environment.
For example, make sure you have an ambient temperature in the room. Working in a garage can be very hot and sweaty, especially during the summer. These conditions might make it unpleasant to work in, and they might not be able to focus on doing their best work.
You should also make sure that you provide nutrition and breaks for all of the workers. Working on cars can be physically and mentally exhausting, and employees will appreciate food and water to help them recharge.
Make sure that you pay your employees well too. If you don’t, they might not feel motivated to do their best work for you. They might also even go to a different auto repair shop.
5. Find a New Way to Order Parts
Ordering parts is important to improving your efficiency. You should always have an inventory report that is up to date with all of the parts that you have on hand.
This will help you figure out which repairs you can do and which parts you still need to order. When you have a report, you’ll be more alert for when you need to order even more parts.
You may even need to do estimations and projects when you’ll need more parts. This will help you organize your services and sales so that you can supply your customers with a quick repair.
When you don’t have to spend time on being organized, you can avoid issues with low inventory.
6. Communicate
Communicating is great customer service, but it will also make your business run more smoothly. You need to be sure to communicate with employees and with your clients.
Having open communication will reduce any misunderstanding, and people won’t have to do any efforts multiple times. This can save you valuable time that you can use to help more customers.
You should also communicate with customers to make sure that they know exactly what’s going on with their car. There are actually chat features that will let you communicate with customers and tell them the status of their vehicles.
This means that technicians won’t have to walk up to the front of the shop and tell the customers what the status of their vehicle is.
Make Your Auto Body Repair Shop More Efficient
These are only a few ways to make your auto body repair shop more efficient, but there are many more strategies you can try.
We know that business management can be a very stressful task, but we’re here to help you out.
If you found this article helpful, explore our website to find even more business-related topics and check out this Tate Boys for the best Auto Repair and Car Maintenance.
