AutoVitals » AutoVitals – Auto Repair Made Easy

The Web-University has been launched!

2012-10-29T05:24:15Z

AutoVitals and the Shop Owner Magazine have partnered to provide a forum to shop owners and professionals to collaborate on web marketing topics. Stay on top in the ever changing internet world!

Go to the first part of the Web University here!

Going Mobile – Are You In?

2012-10-21T04:57:21Z

Mobile phones, Mobile websites, Mobile applications.
Everybody is going mobile.

How many mobile devices do the members of your household use daily? More importantly: How many of your customers use their mobile device during their busy day?

One aspect is making an appointment at your shop. We observe that the number of appointment requests from a mobile device on your mobile or desktop website is steadily increasing. So you might ask yourself: “Why do I need a mobile application, if my mobile website takes care of it?”. Good question.

You might need both, the mobile website and a mobile app.

1. Mobile websites target mostly new customers, who find your website on mobile search

2. Mobile applications target existing customers, who’d like to have a convenient way of taking advantage of a promotion and want to see vehicle specific information to prepare the next visit.

Compared with mobile websites, mobile applications offer great benefits for effective communication. Once the app is downloaded and installed, it offers a much better usability and more importantly allows to send messages to your customer, even if they don’t have the app in use. This method is called push notification. It comes in several flavors, depending whether an iPhone or Android phone is used and what type of push notification has been configured when downloading the app from the App Store (iPhone) or Google Play (Android).

Lets look at our app on the iPhone. After initial logon with the customers email address or welcome code, the app turns into a shop specific screen, featuring your logo, shop name and phone number. Next time the app is launched, it goes directly to the shop specific page.

Check out how your customer engages with you:

1. Tapping the phone number calls you

2. Tapping “Save Money” shows the promotion, configured on your AV Dashboard

3. The vehicle image can be uploaded by you or the customer. Annual mileage and personalized service interval are displayed.

4. The next service due date is shown, together with …

5. … your detailed recommendations from the last visit.

6. Tapping opens the “Schedule Appointment”

7. Once the appointment date is selected and other details have been added, you customer can select whether the promotion should be added to the appointment.

As usual the appointment shows up on your AV dashboard and in your email inbox for quick response.

Lets take a quick glance at the push notification:

Once you configured and sent a promotion or any other message to your customers on the AV dashboard, the app icon on the iPhone shows how many messages are there to check and (if configured) the promotion pops up on the iPhone screen.

Can you see how this new user experience will engage your customers?

How will your customer know about the mobile application?

We will send out email promotions to all existing customers
We will apply a QR Code to counter brovhures and coupons. One QR code works for both Android and iPhones, so it is easy to get the app downloaded.

We are really excited to launch it and depending how long Apple takes to approve the app, it will be released between mid and end of October.

Please reply below if you interested in signing up or have any question or suggestion.

Add Modern Customer Interaction to your Shop Management System

2012-08-13T03:25:02Z

Our latest release offers something really exciting for shops, which use Mitchell 1, RO-Writer, or Winworks.

AutoVitals has been the only Marketing service, which was able to offer email and text messaging based on activities done in the shop management system, while the vehicle is in the shop, such as

email an estimate to customers, based on the printed version of the estimate
close a repair order (and text the customer that the vehicle is ready for pick up) and more.

We have taken this to a new level: Our real-time database extraction adds more exciting features and is pre-released for the three shop management systems mentioned above.

Do you want to schedule your appointment in your shop management system and have automatically your Google calendar updated with all appointments, so you can monitor your appointments on your iPad, smart phone or good old web browser, no matter where you are?
Share the Google calendar with your technicians, spouse or who else should see your shop’s schedule!
Do you want your customers receive appointment confirmations (which adds a reminder to their personal calendar), and receive email and text based appointment reminders? And all from your shop managements scheduler, no double entries, no hassle?

Then this pre-release is for you.

Please use the form below and be one of the first who activates this amazing feature set.
Hurry, this pre-release is limited to a few, who benefit from a reduced activation fee.

Please indicate what shop management software you use.

Uwe

ALLDATA invited for a webinar about Social Search and hundreds signed up

2012-07-21T02:58:36Z

Our partner ALLDATA invited me to speak about Social Search and how to leverage Google and social media for getting new customers and brand development and I was stoked to do it.

Especially because the questions would not end and we had to stop after one hour.

This is a good reason to do it again!

Uwe

Educating the Motorist at Vehicle Pick-Up

2012-06-24T03:50:10Z

I am excited to announce that we have integrated the ALLDATA service recommendations, so service advisors can now educate customers at the counter when the vehicle is being picked-up.

The service advisor can quickly browse through the jobs recommended for the next visit, select any or all for the service reminder to include and reinforce them and schedule the next appointment based on the educational information given to the customer.

We show the services for both, the severe and ideal maintenance schedule, so the service advisor can adjust the set of services based on the motorist’s driving profile.

We hope you like it, and are eager to get your feedback on this next step making the service advisor’s work more effective. Watch a short video about this features set here.

Getting social on Google or What happened to my Google Places Listing?

2012-06-04T02:03:44Z

And another change on Google…

The Google Places Listings seem to have vanished.

What now? Am I keeping my ranking?
Where are the 5 star ratings? What happened to my reviews?

These kinds of questions might have been going through your head since Wednesday when Google deployed another major change to your places listings.

What has changed?

Lets look at a search result:

The new score system uses the following scale

The biggest change is that the places listing is now located on Google Plus, called Google Plus Local. It looks like the image below (click to enlarge) and features the images from the places account, and the reviews.

The following changes have been introduced:

The Google Plus Local pages replaces the former Places Listing and became part of the Google Plus account,
Individual reviews have a score of 0-3 and the names of the reviewers are only shown if they have a Google Plus account, otherwise it will say “A Google User”
Reviews are sorted by a ‘secret’ algorithm, Google calls “Most helpful”. How Google determines the order is unknown so far, but one can assume social interaction with the Google Plus Local page is playing a big role.

Why is Google doing this?

Google wants local business owners to interact with customers on Google Plus.
These interactions will have an impact on search results.
Speaking of search results: there will be two search pages in the future

The standard Google Search page, when going to Google.com as you know it.
The new social local search page on google plus local (see below, click to enlarge). when you go to your Google Plus account and click on the new Local icon the term “local search” has a new meaning. Google wants visitors to get enticed to find a lot more information about local businesses.

Let’s use a search result in Local Search in Mountain View (click to enlarge), where three different filters allow to select the order your customers prefer:

Top reviewers are using Google Plus at its full extent and leave lots of reviews (see also marker 4 on the image to the left)
Just for you is impacted by your history of reviews to places and recommends similar places to you based on your previous reviews.
Your circles contains reviews from friends in your circles (see here for a quick demo)

So Google Plus (if Google has its way) becomes the social network for local business owners to connect with their customers.
The first step absolutely needed for every local business is to have a Google Plus Business Page because Google will merge/reference this place with the Google Plus Local page. See here for an example where Google has done it already.

What happened to my ranking?

Currently there are no significant changes to the ranking on Google.com. Over time the social component will change that. Please see blog posts like here, how that is already happening. The search ranking on Google + Local is determined by the filters described above and contains already social aspects to a much higher degree than the search results on Google.com.

What happened to my reviews?

Unfortunately some of you have lost some or all reviews from Google Places when Google moved 80 Mill. Places listings overnight to Google Plus. We recommend to wait up to three weeks and see whether they come back and solicit reviews from your customers at the counter. AutoVitals offers a service, which selects all gmail addresses and sends them a review contest email to collect reviews. The number of submitted reviews so far is between 1%-5%. Please feel free to contact us if you want to take advantage of that service.

What else will AutoVitals do for you?

We will create for all AutoVitals clients a business page, which will be managed by us and which also links to the places account. Once Google has ‘merged’ the two (to be expected soon) we will also offer a series of services to strengthen your engagement with your customers on Google Plus. Stay tuned for the next announcement and please feel free to leave questions, suggestions and your experience with Google Plus below.

Are You Scheduling Like a Dentist?

2012-05-18T16:58:36Z

We revived our tradition of the Service Advisor Huddle Webinar and started yesterday with the topic “How to schedule appointments at pick-up?”. Dave Dickson, a renowned coach and former owner of 21 auto repair shops joined us and shared with us how to do the scheduling most effectively and instill the motorist’s commitment to the appointment. Using the AutoVitals pick-up feature helps implementing this practice flawlessly and has 4 measures built-in to avoid that appointments turn into “no shows”. As an AutoVitals client you have access to the recording in our library of recorded webinars. I hope this session will help you implement the most effective way of filling your calendar so relying purely on of the day-to-day hope of phone calls can be minimized.

Here is what Lynne Cardwell with Car Care Center in Sacramento said about yesterday’s huddle:

“Great topic, one I’ve been convinced for 15 years is absolutely essential to car count, perhaps survival. I’m glad the session was recorded so Bill and Duke can hear it later.

I have a big old-fashioned scheduler calendar book gathering dust by my desk from 15 years ago when I had the same epiphany about my dentist and the pre-scheduling that I’ve come to expect at the dentist’s office. I’m not offended in the least when the receptionist asks me which date and time works for me…it has become the norm, and she is not shy about asking me to commit to something 6 months down the road. This translates to auto service so perfectly that it’s a no-brainer, particularly since now we have a precise mileage calculation/selling tool for the customer right there in your software.

On a sub-topic that came up in the Huddle, the precise intervals that AutoVitals provides are the service advisor’s best friend when it comes to scheduling, and in differentiating our shop from the common practice of every 3k or 5k or whatever. When I talk with first-time callers about maintenance scheduling, I’m able to honestly say that “our AutoVitals predictive software makes highly personalized service recommendations based on your very own driving habits. It is individualized and personal to you, and the way you use your vehicle. Instead of slapping a 3000, 4000 or 5000 mile interval, a one-size-fits all…which does not work well…we can see after just a few visits pretty accurately when your vehicle needs service.” And of course, I believe that myself so it probably comes across in my voice.”

Get More Appointments with our NEW Release

2012-05-18T01:28:03Z

With the increasing usage of the web for appointment requests, especially on the weekend and during after hours, we added a list of features, which make it more convenient and compelling to request an appointment. AutoVitals Clients can find more details here:

Visitors of collision shop websites can now request an estimate and upload images for the shop to see and respond to
Service Advisors and Shop Owners can now author text in their MyShop menu, which, once submitted, will immediately appear as scrolling text on the appointment form. Additionally you can author a second text for the mobile website to be shown in a very prominent space. Use it for promotional messages, useful information about how you want to be contacted and much more.
You can configure your appointment request form so that both phone number and email address are mandatory (please use this feature with caution, some visitors might go somewhere else when forced to reveal too much information)
Download a retention analysis report, which will give you information about your success rate in retaining customers. You’ll be in for a surprise, I promise.
In case you use QuickTrac, the leading technician and service advisor productivity tool, we just eliminated duplicate entries for YES and Mitchell1 users.

We are confident that these features are valuable to you and your customers. Please let us know by responding to this post how else we can help!

Shop Owner Magazine April 2012: Using The Web To Enhance Your Customer Service Efforts

2012-04-16T06:54:18Z

This is an article I had the honor to contribute to the Shop Owner Magazine. Please Enjoy:

“This time, I want to stay on the topic of the web, but delve a bit further by focusing on how web technologies can have huge customer service benefits, at the service counter and beyond.

In my experience working with dozens of auto repair shops, I’ve found two main ways that web technologies have a positive customer service impact: Customer appointment requests, and customer communication while the car is in the shop. In essence, web technology provides a “personal touch” similar to a telephone conversation, but in an always-on, multimedia environment that lets your service advisor truly inform and educate current and potential customers.

Using the Web to Streamline the Customer Appointment Request Process

Did you know that the busiest day for web-based appointment requests is Sunday? Added to the fact that many appointment requests are made after business hours, it’s easy to see how the telephone is no longer the most effective way to meet busy motorists’ needs. Web-based appointments can change the game by allowing for an easy, two-part process: the appointment request, and the appointment confirmation.

If you’re a shop owner who feels like web-based appointment requests forego important direct contact with motorists, or fear that you’ll be inundated with customers who are simply shopping around for a price,

consider this: A short, simple, web-based form, like the one you see to the right, which is optimized for mobile devices, makes it easy for customers to make their initial request. And, it also sets up the perfect situation for a follow-up e-mail or phone call to fill in missing information — meaning that your service advisor can have that direct customer contact while weeding out the “price only” shoppers.

And the more convenient you can make the form, the better. For example, allowing an existing customer to select the vehicle he needs to be serviced from a drop down menu of cars associated with his account will save him time and show him that your shop really knows its stuff.

What’s the appropriate timeframe for responding to web-based appointment requests? Talking with shop owners, we’ve found the sweet spot to be within a few hours of receiving the request. Wait any longer, and you’ll run the risk that the motorist will start searching for another shop. Thankfully, smartphones and tablets make it easy to respond to appointment requests without being at the service desk. And, with the addition of smart software that integrates your appointment scheduler with your Google Calendar, you’ll be able to see current appointments and schedule new ones anytime you’re online.

Read here for the whole article

Shop Owners Recommend AutoVitals

2012-07-07T15:08:35Z

Rick Korn, Woodinville Sports Cars, Woodinville, Washington

I saw the integration with ALLDATA today, with that part working I would think Autovitals is now the leader in our industry, congratulations !

Garry and Jerylin Plimmer, Garry’s Automotive, Boise, Idaho

Uwe,

Just a quick note to express my pleasure on how well or Google search results have improved since you folks have gone to work on our website! I know we can’t always expect the top rating, but you guys have dramatically improved how well or customers can find us. My hat is off to you and your crew! Please keep up the good work.

Stephanie Gutierrez, Victory Auto Service, Ham Lake, MN

By the way, Kent is absolutely wonderful to work with. You did a great job in hiring him! I think that your whole team has been a pleasure to work with. I’m an AutoVitals fan

Ron Haugen
Owner, Westside Auto Pros, West Des Moines, IA

WOW ! What a difference the new website makes. That looks great Uwe. Very professional looking, thank you !

Mark Watson

Owner, TOS Toyota Lexus Honda Acura Auto Repair, Sacramento, California

I have worked with Uwe for a little less than a year and have had better than expected results in all areas he has managed in our business. I highly recommend Autovitals and Uwe if you want to grow your business.

Nikki Ayers

CFO at Ayers Automotive Repairs, Santa Barbara, California Area

I like working with Uwe for several reasons. First, he has an exceptional product in the automotive marketing world. Second, he is extremely responsive to a clients needs. He makes you feel like you are his only client. Finally, he has great knowledge of the services he provides my business. I highly recommend Uwe Kleinschmidt as a great business consultant

Larry Moore

Serial Entrepreneur, San Francisco Bay Area

Uwe is a pleasure to work with and his no-nonsense logical approach to every problem gets incredible results. I had high hopes when we first began to work with him and his results have surpassed even my highest hopes. He is very patient in working with people like myself who are not technologically advanced, he explains things in a way I can understand, and listens carefully to be sure he understands what I am asking. I highly recommend him and the services he provides through AutoVitals. Our customers appreciate the services he provides and we appreciate the great results he gets for us.

Lynne Cardwell

Owner, Car Care Center, Sacramento, California Area

Uwe and his team simply make things happen–and they make things happen simply. Entrepreneurs in this economy and in the automotive service field, we have to stay focused on results from those we partner with, not on guesswork or trial-and-error experimentation with one program after another. Uwe founded AutoVitals with a great deal of insight into the automotive aftermarket and its people. His comprehensive and intuitive client acquisition and retention program is light years ahead of the competition. In fact, I’m not sure there IS any real competition at his level. We’ve been in business since 1969 and I have seen a great many programs come and go, but AutoVitals has become an absolute business essential because of consistent measurable results. For us, that means a steady flow of new clients, while our current clients are kept freshly motivated to learn more about their own vehicles’ upkeep which not surprisingly, is just exactly what we do at Car Care Center.

Dan Downey from Dannicks Auto Care in Sunnyvale, CA

I went to a luncheon that was hosted by the San Jose Mercury News. While at this luncheon all businesses were asked to provide their website to be rated on a 1-80 scale based upon Design and SEO. I was pleased to find out that out of the hundreds of businesses at the luncheon my website was the least expensive yet MOST effective website of all businesses present. My website ranked at a 72 while companies, who had spent thousands of dollars on their site were ranking anywhere between 15-20. Hats off to AutoVitals!