How many hours have service writers lost this week because of a missing wheel lock?
How many frustrating hours wasted getting wrong parts because of incorrect VIN numbers?
Little stuff like this really adds up. And the busier you get, the faster your systems break down.
The Hidden Cost of “Good Enough”
As a shop owner, I know from experience how easy it is for service writers to lose between 20 minutes to an hour on every repair. That’s not an exaggeration—it’s math.
And it’s not just the shop that loses those hours. Customers lose them too. When your service writer spends an hour fixing a mistake, it slows up the tech, which slows up the customer. All of those little inefficiencies cost the customer time and money—and cost your shop time, money, and customers.
The Growth Trap
For years, our systems would break down every time we tried to grow. As car count increased, systems would grind to a halt one by one:
- Techs started pencil-whipping inspections
- Service writers stopped fully advising customers
- Customer service plummeted
- We’d lose our best customers trying to bring in new ones
- Capturing VINs digitally so parts orders are right the first time
- Digital inspections that can’t be pencil-whipped
- Automated follow-up so customers don’t slip through the cracks
- Real-time visibility into what’s happening in every bay
By the time our shop hit $1.5 million, we were easily losing $50,000 per year because of broken systems.
Sound familiar?
Working Smarter, Not Harder
Here’s what we learned: you can’t out-hustle broken systems. The answer isn’t working harder—it’s working smarter.
That means:
The shops that are growing sustainably aren’t doing it through sheer effort. They’re doing it with systems that scale.
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Want to see how top shops are eliminating wasted time? Book a demo and see what’s possible.