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Electronic communication has been wide-spread, and sending out emails from the shop management system to the car owner is a well-known capability.

It seems as though that using it for sending out initial or updated estimates meets a lot of resistance by service advisors.

Many service advisors prefer the verbal communication on the phone in order to make sure the complete value of the offering can be made clear to the car owner.  Looking at an estimate  and getting focused on the cost and not on the value behind the service is common among car owners. But does it mean that estimates or inspection findings should not be sent by email? We at AutoVitals are trying to add additional information to the email so the car owner can focus on value over cost.

We have been implementing features, which help the service advisor to answer effectively the two questions asked by the car owner the most:

  1. Why should I do the service or repair now?
  2. What happens if I don’t do it?

It is indeed sometimes challenging to get the answer to these questions across via email only containing the estimate.

AutoVitals has introduced “Educational Topics” and “Share Car Pictures” to effectively add value to the estimate emails.

As soon as an estimate is printed, using any available shop management system, AutoVitals will show the vehicle in question on the so-called Todays Vehicle Page (image  below), which offers all  actions for effective communication to car owners.

In order to add additional information complemented by images, “View/Attach Images”  is selected first.

Uploading an image taken with a smartphone or digital camera and adding the description about the image’s content is quickly done.

As many images as needed can be added as an email attachment, without being constrained by the file size limitation.

Clicking  “Email Estimate/RO” then creates a personalized email to the car owner and offers to add links to educational videos and documents, which are based on the quoted jobs. Checking the  Educational Topics matching the jobs quoted and clicking the ‘Send Email” button complete the action. The image below illustrates the service advisors’ choices (click on image to see more details).

The Educational Topics  can be fully configured by the service advisor. Creating shop-specific movies or selecting the right movies from the AutoVitals library and documents will significantly increase the car owner’s ability to get answers to the two questions mentioned above.

How do you respond to the two key questions asked by the car owner?

Do you use electronic media for it?

Please let us know your experience with sending out estimates and inspections results per email.

As always, I’d be stoked to get your input. “Be There or be Triangle“.

Uwe (Oova)