Digital Shop Talk Radio

This week on Digital Shop Talk Radio, we talked with Devin Kelley of All-Star Automotive in Columbia, MO. Devin took over ownership of a well established business in his area and all he has done in the year or so he has been in charge is nearly DOUBLE revenue all while shrinking his car count. Host Tom Dorsey and Devin have a good chat about the commitment that Devin and his shop made incorporating Digital Inspections and other best practices to reach incredible heights in a relatively short amount of time. Learn how to get your techs to buy in, how to implement strategies to benefit your long-term revenue and most importantly how to use the digital inspection as a tool to ​​educate your customers so they can be confident in their buying decisions.

Just like your vehicle, when your shop is running at peak efficiency you are going to get far more bang for your buck. On this week's episode of the Digital Shop Talk Radio, we focus on using your techs to their fullest potential by optimizing their workflow. Our guest is no stranger to the program, or to AutoVitals for that matter. We have Fred Gestwicki Jr. from Fix it With Fred in Canton, OH as our guest this week. He has used the Digital Shop by Autovitals religiously and has reaped the benefits of optimizing the workflow of his shop. Tune in to hear all of the best practices that Fred and his team have to share.

Getting two platforms to play nicely together isn't always a walk in the park. On this week's episode, Jodi Knepper from Lee Myles Automotive in Reading, PA and our own Sara Savio join host Tom Dorsey to discuss what a tremendous partnership Protractor and AutoVitals can make when paired correctly.

Episode 25: the evolution of the independent auto repair industry in the last 25 years and where our industry is headed in the next 5-10 years, our guests are: ATI Director of National Accounts: Jim Silverman Westlake Independent Automotive Shop Owner: Bruce Nation Rizzoli's Automotive Shop Owner: Kyle Rizzoli

How do you know you are ready to expand your existing shop and/or grow your business to become a Multi Shop Owner (MSO)? When you’re a Digital Shop, this is a question that you’ve probably asked yourself. This week, the panel includes multi shop owners John Herring (4 location Stamps Automotive - Lindsay Road, Higley Road, Queen Creek, San Tan Valley) and Greg Hulse (4 location Meineke Car Care Center #2240, #2382, #4174, #4374) who have demonstrated their abilities to grow and deliver the best performance of quality, speed and cost to their customers while being able to stay profitable as well as manage all of their locations with ease using the Digital Shop platform. In this week’s episode, you’ll learn: - How to know when you’re ready to expand your shop and/or grow into a multi location business - The strategies and tactics used to setup and manage multi-locations - How to implement The Digital Shop platform at multiple shop locations - How to easily manage your shop(s) using the Business Control Pane

From time to time, every shop will have hurdles to overcome, but it's up to you to decide how you'll proceed. Will you stop and give up? Or will you overcome those hurdles? 10 weeks ago, Jamey Whitlock (Whitlock Automotive) came on the show to share the hurdles his shop faced implementing the Digital Shop process and received great recommendations on how to overcome those hurdles from Matt Fowler and Bill Connor to reach the goals he had set out to achieve. (Watch the previous episode here) This week on Digital ShopTalk Radio, we're getting an inside look at how Jamey has grown as an owner and the outcomes of their new Digital Shop process implementation.

The world of finding an automotive repair shop and getting vehicles serviced is going through major changes. With the introduction of digital technologies, motorists today evaluate their vehicle’s repair needs by actively seeking information and educational content online before even looking for your shop. Shops that have a motorist-centric educational experience, that focus on providing insights into their services or the market itself, see increased interest in the services they provide. These shops are trusted as the top reputable shop in the area. This week, Wayne Trimble (Auburn Auto Doctors) joins the Digital ShopTalk Radio to talk about how motorists are making decisions about their vehicles repair needs. We explain how shops can position themselves in the motorists’ path as they navigate the decision journey: from consideration to coming to your shop. In this short but intensive 30-minute episode, you’ll learn: - How technology has changed the motorist decision making process - Why it’s important t

Reviews play a major role in online visibility, customer traffic, and overall revenue. With reviews readily available on sites like Facebook or Google, and your star ratings visible in the search results, customers are making decisions about your shop before they ever visit your website - let alone your physical shop. Your business can’t afford to not get reviews, not listen to customers feedback in reviews, and not manage & respond to those reviews. Fred Gestwicki Jr (Fix-it Fred) and Joaquin Cordero (27th St Automotive) join Digital ShopTalk Radio to explain the importance of online reviews and teach you how to take initiative to manage your review profiles, leveraging feedback and improving on the customer experience. In this short but intensive 30-minute episode, you’ll learn: - How impactful online reviews are for a business - Why it’s important to implement a successful review collection & management strategy - Which online strategies help improve your business’ bottom line

If you talk to customers every day then this might sound familiar: "I know someone/somewhere who can do that for free/cheap" "How much would it be if I give you the part myself?" "I don't think it's necessary at this time." "I don't have the money right now" Can you imagine customers getting their car fixed without any hesitations or questions? There’s probably a thousand things swirling in a person’s mind when considering a repair decision. It’s the source of many objections you hear. And no doubt, it’s challenging to deal with their resistance on a daily basis. However, objections are gifts! Customers are telling you exactly what you need to address in order to keep the repair moving forward. Objections guide your conversations and handling them effectively will often be the deciding factor in winning or losing the repair. To get your customers committed to the repair, shop owner Doug Brackett (Downtown Automotive) and AutoVitals Trainer Sara Savio join us this week to go over a few steps in navigating

“Why won’t they do this??” “How are they still not marking up the pictures taken??” “Why are inspections still not being done or sent???” “Why does this still happen?!” Sound familiar? Changing the habits of a group of people is very hard, especially when you’re trying to get them to buy-in to change an existing habit, start a new one, or improve a process that is broken. Despite all the talking, meetings, and efforts you put in, nothing seems to be changing and old habits keep re-emerging. Why is that?? To find the answer to this question, this week (Wednesday June 5th @ 1pm ET / 10am PT) we are joined by shop owner Frank M Scandura III (Frank's European Service) and ATI coach Eric M. Twiggs to teach you the steps you must follow to overcome these objections and how to prevent them from re-emerging over and over again. In this short but intensive 30-minute episode, you’ll learn: > How to position what you’re asking for from your staff in concrete terms, > How to align your change with shop goals and b

The tools your technicians use should support all of their daily tasks, but many of us still wonder: what tools do they need, and more importantly, how can they use these tools in a way that actually helps deliver higher job approval? Join Neil Daly (Oceanside Motorsports) and Tom Dorsey, for this week’s Digital ShopTalk Radio episode, as they describe what tools are available to aid your techs in getting their inspections done more effectively, what impactful pictures & videos are, and what inspection best practices look like. In this episode, you'll learn: > Common mistakes technicians are making during their inspections, and ways to avoid these mistakes > Examples of impactful pictures & videos and what that means for your techs, service advisors, and customers. > How to capitalize on your Digital Inspections and create more sales

Setting goals for your shop and staff is critical. Goals provide direction, bring focus, prioritizes time and energy, and ensure that your team can objectively create better results. But just any goal won’t do. Goals are important, but the level of specificity and difficulty matters, and they need to be both clear and challenging to drive higher levels of performance. To set up his shop and team for success, Russ Crosby (Russ’s Wrench) sets realistic goals and uses data and training to improve shop operations and grow their weekly revenue. Join Tom and Russ as they talk about a few changes you can make in your process and mindset that can help you progress towards your shop's goals much faster and efficiently. You will learn how to: - Set measurable and attainable goals - Use data from the Business Control Panel to prioritize focus, time, and energy daily - Learn from setbacks and celebrate victories

Whether you are already marketing your shop or just starting out, there are a few big mistakes that you have probably made in the past, might be making now, and will most likely make in the future. In this episode, Roy Foster (Roy Foster’s Automotive) and Sara AV Savio (AutoVitals Trainer) will give examples of common pitfalls that shops face and provide actionable steps to make any shop’s marketing campaigns more successful! In this episode, you’ll learn: - What are the most effective marketing channels shops need to utilize to retain and get new customers - Tips and strategies for different marketing channels with high conversion rates - Why social media can’t be ignored - What metrics are true indicators of success

The practice of digital inspections and visual aids (pictures/videos, notes) has helped motorists better understand their vehicle’s problems and approve more work. But digital inspections can only be effective if the resulting inspection is properly managed and executed by your team (owner/manager, technician, and service advisor). Join Matt Fowler, from Airport Automotive, for How Great Inspections are Like Great Stories, as he shares what each team member needs to do with every inspection to get better results. You will learn: > What details technicians need to provide the service advisor in order to create a great inspection > How the service advisor properly scrubs and prepares the inspection to send to the customer > How the owner can help improve the inspection process through time management and volume control

Once upon a time, people had limited options for exchanging information with one another. With new digital tools to communicate and access content it’s probably hard for people today to imagine a world where you could only communicate by actually talking directly to another person, face to face or via telephone. In this weeks episode, Marty Mace, a master technician with over 20 years of automotive expertise in vehicle diagnostics and shop management, joins us to take a look at what does effective communication inside a digital shop look like, ways that your workforce can communicate faster and become more cost-effective, and the best practices to increasing shop productivity.

Matt Fowler (Airport Automotive) and Jamey Whitlock (Whitlock Automotive) share valuable insights into the inspection process and how your motorists BUY. Topics covered are: - What a well-edited inspection looks like - Key components that make up a “good inspection” - Why editing pictures & videos and adding notes are important - How to get team and staff buy-in

When changes in motorist behaviors are opportunities for a better future of automotive repair we want to seize them. Frank M Scandura III, Fred Gestwicki Jr Jr and Uwe Kleinschmidt discuss the opportunities and threats of that approach and how AutoVitals will release new features in the future.

Learn the strategies Adam Bendzick (Pro Service Automotive Repair), Christopher Petersen (Northwest Automotive) and John Long (Schertz Auto Service) use to manage the back of their shops from their front desks. How do they use The Digital Shop platform features, such as automatic status updates, paperless work dispatch, and real-time technician progress updates in order to increase Technician and Service Advisor productivity while creating a better customer service experience.

Find and Attract The Customers You Want: Multi-Shop Owner John Herring from Stamps Auto shares the steps they took to attract the best customers