July/August 2020

Below: Vehicle Health Check on TechMan BY Leo Freebairn, National Sales Manager at TechMan D uring difficult economic times, it’s natural to hunker down and cut costs, which include marketing, software subscriptions and planned improvements for the business. However, it’s important to remember that this isn’t the end of the economy. Though times are tough now, this won’t be the case forever. Forward thinking business owners are now turning their attention to when this pandemic is over and how quickly they can recoup any of the profits they’ve missed out on during the last few months. A common theme being heard over and over again by TechMan is “I know we should have looked at changing software, or implementing it for the first time, years ago, but we simply never had the time to do it.” Nearly every new customer wants to go live immediately, using what’s left of the downturn to fine tune their new business processes and be ready for life beyond COVID-19. Paperless Business goals differ for many of our customers, but early all of them want to reduce the admin that takes place on a daily basis within their workshop. Every new customer that comes to TechMan is still producing paper job cards for their technicians and paper service sheets for its customers. A process once described as filling out a “data graveyard,” something TechMan did away with back in 2017. Over 70% of TechMan’s subscribers now operate a paperless workshop using electronic job cards and service sheets allowing them to take images and video and email or text results to customers. The benefits are endless, both internally for communication and clarity. Internally, it gets you away from oily pieces of paper. Meanwhile, externally it gives your customers clear and concise information on the nature of the defects that have been found on their vehicle, and advisory work that will need fixing in the future. Looking ahead, it is a real no- brainer for any workshop looking to embrace new practices. Remote access Remote access is a well-understood process in today’s digital era, with cloud and web services everywhere we turn. Due to recent events, many garages have been forced to change and can no longer effectively operate without the capability of accessing their business remotely. With social distancing now a part of our lives, everything from old paper diaries to local disc software can often be out of reach. This makes online services more pertinent now for users and their customers than ever before. What’s more, they are here to stay. Hours sold One subject that will never go away is the issue of hours sold. Many business owners are telling us they have been guilty of not monitoring hours sold versus hours taken to complete a job. Those owners also admitted to paying closer attention to the bank balance, and being far less focused on how well their technicians were performing on a daily basis. Visibility has been the barrier for 12 AFTERMARKET JULY/AUGUST 2020 BUSINESS www.aftermarketonline.net WORKING ON THE BUSINESS TechMan have been busy speaking to business owners during lockdown, and one common theme was at the top of everyone’s agenda; Preparation