Digital vehicle inspection form

[brian lorenzo]

I had a client drop a vehicle off with an estimate from a local dealer, along with the estimate was a inspection for that looked like it was entered into a computer program and printed out with a generic estimate. This looked very professional and was looking for something like it. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[Alex]

E-Inspect: http://einspectpro.net/

 

Autovitals: http://www.autovitals.com/

 

AutoVitals Tech-Net member version: http://www.autovitals.com/the-tech-net-eis-edition/

 

AutoVitals Napa Car Care member version: http://www.autovitals.com/product/dvi/

[mmotley]

Thanks Alex. Does anyone have any feedback/experience with these electronic inspection forms? ROI? Ease of use? Ease of set up? Cost of set up (did you have to purchase tablets, cases, etc)?

[Jeff]

Premium Member Content 

This content is hidden to guests, one of the benefits of a paid membership. Please login or register to view this content.

[Tires Too]

We took a look at several of the platforms out there; Clear Mechanic, E-instect and Auto Vitals. In addition to the monthly subscription you are looking at about $300-$400 per tablet for each tech. We purchased some Asus Tablets with Gumdrop cases(definitely need good cases).

 

The Auto Vital forms are very easy to customize. You can use one of the many forms they have in their library or create your own. Changing the forms is very easy. Working with the people at Auto Vitals has been great, they "get it" in that they will work with you to get the most out of their product.

 

We've been using the Auto Vitals inspection platform for several months and our ARO is up $20. If anyone is a NAPA Auto Care Center, you can sign up for the non-integrated digital inspection form for only $150, no monthly charges. For the integrated version there is a monthly charge of about $200. Auto Vitals has been very proactive in making this a usable tool. In July they will be releasing the updated workflow software, here is a link to it

 

http://www.autovitals.com/shopflow-action/

 

The customer feedback from the inspection form, the pictures and the educational information has been all positive. The techs love it also, the drop down condition buttons reduce the amount of writing for them. The ability to email all of the information to a customer who is not at the shop makes selling the repair much easier.

 

This is a real great way to show how professional a shop you are and differentiate your shop from the competition. I recommend that you guys take a look at some of these platforms.

 

It sure sounds like I'm getting a commission from Auto Vitals, but I haven't been this excited by a product that can improve my business in a long time.

 

Russ

Edited May 14, 2014 by Tires Too

[Tires Too]

I did not even touch on the management reports that the software generates. With Auto Vitals you will see which techs are finding and recommending what conditions and repairs. It lets you see if techs are "pencil whipping" inspections or possibly over recommending a particular service. It will track the techs time on all his jobs so you can see if a particular tech may need additional training on a type of job. With the integrated version the techs can see the cars repair history on their tablet.

 

The list goes on and I know that Auto Vitals is committed to add more features to the product.

[Framingham Auto Service]

We also use Auto Vitals and we are very pleased!

[mikerisich]

Before I start, I want to be clear that I own a company that offers this technology. In an effort to remain neutral, I’ll merely add to this topic with my thoughts on mobile/tablet digital-multi point technology.

 

For starters, you need a software solution that integrates automatically with your shop's management system, which eliminates the need to double enter information.

 

Furthermore, you should not settle for any company that doesn’t offer VIN scanning or license plate decoding as a standard feature. These features should then auto populate your inspection forms, estimates, or repair orders with the vehicle's make, model, year and more. This saves time by eliminating the need to write down and input information like you would with paper.

 

In addition to helping your shop save several minutes per customer and creating better overall efficiency, you need a solution that comes equipped with customizable invoices. These forms should be what you offer customers when printing out their vehicle summary. To elaborate, these forms should offer you the ability to offer vehicle-specific coupons, special discounts, a list of pending service recommendations, customer messages and more that shops can modify as needed.

 

In today's automotive repair industry, seeing is believing. Be sure your solution comes equipped with the ability to not only take customer vehicle photos, but to send them, along with inspections and ROs to your customers via text or email. Illustrating to the customers why specific repairs are necessary via photos has proven to increase ROs by as much as 30-60%, or in some instances, more. The ability to “see” recommended maintenance while scrolling images and work orders can be done from the convenience of the vehicle owner's home, office, meeting, etc. This increases the customer’s experience and allows your shop to avoid disrupting customers with over-the-phone explanations that rely strictly on the strength of verbal suggestions. This technology drastically changes this by sending your findings to vehicle owners then stepping away and letting them see for themselves why their brakes are failing, or battery should be replaced and so on.

 

As for ROI, we have customers who’ve seen a $20,000 increase in revenue after 2 months of using digital multi-point inspection tools.

Finally, as you shop around for this technology, be sure to ask if it has the ability to automate and automatically calculate future service appointments and send automatic appointment reminders with no effort on your part. This feature grants you increased upselling power.

 

We ourselves have seen average customer service approval times change from the national average of 1 hour and 17minutes to just 37 mins. Faster approval times mean shops can service more customers. In addition, shorter approval times make it less likely for vehicles to be removed from lifts only to be re-added hours later once customers are reached.

 

In an effort to not seem salesy, I’ll end this here. But, if you’d like more info on this type of technology or even details on our solution (Mobile Manager Pro), please call me at 610-400-1019.

 

Hope this helped.