The auto repair business is quite a hassle when it comes to managing everything in an organized way. As a shop owner, you have to take care of many things, from your shop employees to the tools. Using good auto management software will help you align your shop better. Read more about what good management software looks like.
Talking about managing things in your repair shop the most crucial thing to manage is your inventory, isn’t it? Keeping an up-to-date inventory is a major task. When you have all the latest parts in stock for your inventory, it is very likely that you will make a profit.
However, if you don’t have an updated inventory, customers will take their vehicle to some other shop. And making a successful sale will only be a dream. Feels bad, right?
I know how much you feel overwhelmed while keeping up with all the right parts in this fast-paced industry. But it’s important for your auto repair business.
So let’s see how you retain your customers to your auto repair shop for a longer period of time. Keep reading till the bottom and find ways to keep your inventory full.
What Should be in your Up-to-date Inventory?
The first thing that you should keep notice of in your inventory has all the important and most frequently used parts. Sometimes, what most shop owners do is keep all the parts that are not used for a long time and this causes all chaos and confusion.
Try to keep those parts that you can easily sell to your customers. You should find out which vehicles typically visit your shop. What repairs do they require? This will help you manage your inventory accordingly. Most customers want oil changes, air filters changes, tires, brakes, alignments, suspension, check-ups for batteries, coolant, brakes, exhaust, and suspension systems… so you can design canned service packages for them.
This will attract your customers more and they will find it money saving. However, with canned services you can tell them what additional repairs their vehicle need. ALSO, if they avail of these services, you can offer them more discounts.
Pro Tip: Use Torque digital vehicle inspection software to do your inspections and track your inventory.
Separate The Parts You Don’t Use Often
You need to filter out the parts that are not used by your shop technicians frequently. If those are still present in your inventory, you need to filter them out and separate them. I won’t suggest that you throw them out because you might need them for later use.
But you need to separate those parts because they occupy your space, and when you look for the parts you need urgently, you cannot find them which will make your work order delayed.
Moreover, to keep a good track of your inventory use auto body management software. It will give you accurate stock counts at the touch of a button. Managing inventory the old-fashioned way is like tightening 20 bolts with a hand wrench. You might succeed, but using the right tool makes things easier.
It will help you to have a well-organized inventory which helps you keep an idea and record of what parts are present already and what you should be restocking before time.
Customers hate to wait. So they will be leaving your shop and going to your competitors to purchase that part that is missing from your inventory.
Utilize Barcodes
If you still keep a manual record of your inventory. You are using the old and chaotic method because it’s not only time-consuming but there is a high chance of errors in it.
There is a high chance that the part is present in your warehouse, but your service advisor fails to find that in your inventory because of mismanagement. So you won’t be able to sell your customer with a profit.
Moreover, if you keep all records in your spreadsheet, there is a high probability of a mistake being made with transposed digits.
To manage your inventory using auto management software on which you can easily scan a barcode, which gives accurate and efficient results. You can easily check on your software which part is present in your inventory at the moment with what quantity is left behind.
Let me tell you another best part of this software: it allows you to have mobility. So you just need a smartphone to do your digital scanning and check your inventory. You don’t need to physically visit your inventory to check parts for customer repair orders.
Order Part From Multiple Vendors
Your shop inventory is a major part of your auto repair business. The more your inventory is up-to dated-you make a successful sale with a profit. Potential customers listen to you when you tell them what needs to be improved. So they agree to change those parts, and that’s where you find a way to make more money.
However, still, there will be days when your inventory runs low on a few parts. But auto repair management software keeps you safe here. It will automatically notify you which part needs to be ordered beforehand.
With the auto repair software, you can order parts from multiple vendors at once. So that you don’t have to face embarrassment in front of customers. It helps you to place that big Snap-on order.
Some Other Benefits of Auto Repair Software
When a customer asks you to create a quick estimate, you can make a quick estimate for them while checking the parts digitally in your inventory.
You can easily check the prices of the parts. It saves you from the hassle of having to check repair time guides and then tell the customer about what he will be charged for certain repairs. Moreover, you do two types of inspections for your customers (general inspection and detailed inspection). So, in a detailed inspection, you can tell your customer about other pressing issues that need to be resolved in their vehicles.
So when you are creating estimates and doing inspections of customers’ vehicles you easily add parts from your inventory and create a price quotation for your customers.
Let’s say you have an rv auto shop and you have a lot of customers lined up to get their RVs repaired. You can easily create quick estimates for your customers and get more jobs done in less time using rv repair shop software.
