“I’m an ALI Certified automotive lift inspector and I’m just not sure about automation at this time.”
There is no doubt the world has changed in 2020. Businesses are struggling, unemployment is high and people are uncertain about the future. But with every economic downturn there are lessons to be learned and opportunities to be harnessed. In this blog, I want to discuss three situations where investing in automation for your automotive lift inspection business can be beneficial to maintain or even grow your customer base during these uncertain times.
1. You had to downsize.
Like many other companies, you made the tough decision to downsize your team. We hope it’s just a matter of time before the economy picks up, but right now business is slow, and you can’t afford to take on more staff. But here is the problem, customers are requesting their automotive lift inspections now. You are working hard to get it all done, but you’re behind on the paperwork and it’s getting out of control. The pile of incomplete reports is growing by the day. Your customers continue to wait, and you may even be limiting additional service and maintenance revenue. If you relate to this, then now is the time to eliminate the paperwork. With automation software, inspections are completed on site by entering results into a mobile app. Once you’re done, you submit the data and the rest is completed automatically. An email is instantly sent to your customer with a link to the final inspection report. No more manual summarizing, formatting, saving, filing, scanning, and delivery. You can also reduce repair quote turnaround time by using the summarized list of repairs included in the report. Implementing this process can make an immediate impact on your business and get your automotive lift inspection service back on track without the need to hire additional staff.
2. You’re looking for a competitive advantage.
As business slowly returns, other equipment service companies are competing for the same automotive lift inspection and service work as you are. Your existing customers may even be looking around for better prices or more value. Lowering your prices may seem like a quick solution, but this will erode profits and make it harder to provide a high level of service. A better approach is to consistently improve your value and adjust your pricing accordingly. This sets you apart from the competition, attracts a higher quality customer and makes it less likely your customer will want to leave for a cheaper deal. So, what steps can you take right now? For one, get your ALI Certified lift Inspector designation. This clearly shows current and potential customers that you care about quality and are serious about lift inspections. It will also get you exposure on search engines like google and access to more discerning customers like larger corporations, franchises, government installations, schools and more.
If you are already a certified inspector, start reducing your documentation workload. ALI Certified Inspectors produce detailed inspection reports, which are great, but adds to the inspector’s overall workload. Reducing this burden with automation can drastically improve your efficiency and reduce overhead costs. Additional benefits include quicker quote turnarounds and easier to read reports. So, if you’re looking around for what’s next in your automotive lift inspection business, start building your competitive advantage.
3. You’re getting more work.
Maybe one of your competitors have already closed shop. You’re now the top company in town and your phones are ringing. This is bittersweet news, but you did not plan for this. You have more work that you can handle with the staff you have, but not enough to justify additional hires, so what do you do? Well, this problem is much like a company that has downsized. If you want to take on the additional business, you need more people, more hours, or some way of reducing the amount of work. For your lift inspections, automation is the quickest way to carve out additional capacity without having to add more staff. You can take on the additional inspections for a faction of the cost of adding and training another person.
We all agree these are tough times, but you can take comfort in the fact that your competitors are feeling the same way. Take inventory of your budget and try to carve out room for incremental investments in efficiency improvements. This will help you maintain and even grow your business during these confusing times.
If you have any questions or want to learn more about automating your automotive lift inspection reporting, please email us at info@liftspec.com or sign up for a trial and test it out yourself.