To choose auto shop software and marketing vendors, check that each one does its job well and that a customer's details get from its program to the next. Test that with one real customer before you sign or renew.
For years, most owners chose auto shop software the same way. They looked at what successful shops used, narrowed it to a few big names, and went with the best reputation. That worked.
It still gets you good software in each category. It doesn't tell you whether a customer's details get from one program to the next. The checklist near the end shows how to test it. The Shop Marketing Guys is a vendor too, so we answer the same questions about ourselves there.
The usual way shops pick auto repair software
A shop management system, a website, phones, reviews, payments: each has a handful of obvious names. Picking the industry standard feels safe, and it often is. The vendor already knows what a repair order is and has customers like you. You can call another owner and ask how it went.
That's all still true. But the software has changed, and the way shops pick it mostly hasn't.
Your shop took on software one job at a time. Repair orders and inspections went digital. Scheduling moved online, and the phones became software.
That was real progress. It also left you with many separate programs, bought at different times for different jobs. The website company thinks about the website, and the ad agency thinks about ads. The management system is built around repair orders.
You're the one who has to think about all of them.
What goes wrong when your software doesn't connect
A customer might find you on Google, visit your website, request an appointment, and call with a question. Then they show up in your management system, get an estimate, approve the work, come back six months later, and leave a review.
The customer sees one company. Vendors see a separate product to sell at nearly every step. A lot of the trouble comes when details have to move between programs.
You see it at the counter. A customer gives the same details twice. The advisor retypes a request from one screen into another. Your ad agency knows a form came in, but not whether that customer spent, say, $150 or $4,500.
The ads keep promoting a service you can't get in a bay until next week. One program has a useful detail the next one never gets, because the two don't read the same customer record.
Each vendor may be doing its own job fine. The programs still don't connect.
Is it a marketing problem or a shop problem?
A company that does one thing usually knows it well. For one clear problem, that's still worth a lot. But much of what costs you money today is more than one kind of problem.
Online booking is a website problem and a front counter problem. Weak marketing isn't only an ad problem if the shop misses calls every day. When you can't tell which ads paid off, the cause may be programs that don't share details. If the schedule is already full, do you need more ads, or more control over what kind of work comes in?
You have to look at the whole shop to answer that. That's the case for fewer, better-connected tools.
Before you spend more on ads, check two things. Look at your phone system's call log for last week and count the missed calls, especially the ones nobody called back. Then look at your schedule and see how many days out your next open bay is. If calls are going unanswered or you're booked solid, more ads won't fix it.
Does your shop management software already connect to what you need?
Before you buy anything new, check what your management system already connects to. Those connections are called integrations. Tekmetric's integrations list, for example, covers marketing, communications, parts, and accounting. Find the list for your own system, or ask your rep for it, before you assume you need new software.
If a product is on that list, ask what gets sent, in which direction, how fast, and what happens when something doesn't fit. Also ask whether the connection costs extra on either side, and which company fixes it when it breaks. Two products can be connected and still leave your advisor doing the important part by hand.
Say an online request creates the appointment in your management system but drops what the customer wrote about the problem. The advisor still has to call and ask.
A good demo doesn't settle it either. You still need access to your own records, someone responsible for each problem, and a plan for when a connection stops working.
Should you hire a big auto repair marketing company or a small team?
If you look at the whole shop, a different kind of vendor can make sense. It's smaller and more technical, with no departments. It knows shops, software, marketing, and data.
Small isn't better by default. An established company can be more reliable, give better support, and sell a finished product. Custom software can turn into an expensive experiment, and new vendors can go under. AI work that nobody checks can go out wrong.
A larger company has many people who each do one thing. That matters if you need steady help with ads, your website, and reporting. A small senior team can fit too. Ask how long they've worked with shops, how many they work with now, and who takes over if your main contact leaves. A small team can do better because fewer people are involved from spotting a problem to fixing it. The person running your ads talks directly to the person building your website. Nobody has to wait for a manager's OK before acting.
Either way, ask who will actually work on your account, by name, and who covers for them when they're out. The industry standard is still a fine place to start. At each renewal, ask yourself: knowing what today's software can do, would you pick the same vendors again?
Walk one real customer through your software before you renew
Tracing one real customer tells you more than a feature list. You can do the first two steps today, on your own. Do the rest with each vendor before you renew.
- Pick one real customer, ideally a first-time customer from last month. Pull up the repair order in your management system.
- Ask your advisor how that customer first reached the shop: a call, a web form, a text. Then ask what had to be typed into the repair order by hand. Write down each retyped item.
- Go through that customer's steps with the vendor: first contact, calls and texts, appointment, finished job. At each step the vendor handled, have the vendor find them by name or phone number. If they can't, add that to your list.
- For each item on your list, ask who is responsible for moving it between systems. Get a person's name and phone number, not just "support."
- Ask how they'll know when a detail doesn't get sent, and who at your shop gets told. A good answer is an alert or report sent to a named person. "You'd tell us" means nobody is watching.
- Ask how you get it all back if you leave: customer list, repair history, call recordings, website, and domain name (your web address). Ask what format it comes in and how long it takes. Get that answer in writing before you sign or renew.
To set up steps 3 to 6, send each vendor this:
"Before we renew, I'd like 30 minutes to walk one real customer through your system. I'll have the repair order. Show me that customer on your side, what you send to my management system, and what my advisor still does by hand."
If a vendor won't do the walk-through, weigh that before you renew.
How The Shop Marketing Guys answers these questions
Here is how we're set up, in the checklist's terms:
- Who works on your account: our two founding partners, one from marketing for service businesses and one from building software. You work directly with the people who build the system.
- How the pieces connect: we build the shop's website and connect it to the phones, texts, email and customer history.
- What we report: repair orders. A customer counts only after the job is completed and invoiced, traced back to how they first got in touch. More on that in following leads to paid repairs.
- Ad spend: charged at cost, with no markup.
- Contract: both plans are month to month, and you can cancel by text.
Questions shops ask
How do I choose auto shop software?
Start with the job you need done and the programs it has to work with, not the feature list. Ask what gets passed between the new program and your management system. Then walk one real customer through it with the vendor and see what someone still has to do by hand.
Do I need a new shop management system?
Often you don't. Check what your current system already connects to. The trouble is usually moving details between programs, not the program itself.
What should I ask an auto repair marketing company before I sign?
Ask them to follow one real customer from the first click to the finished repair order. Ask who's in charge of each connection and how they'll know when a lead is missed. Ask how you get your data back if you leave.
How is The Shop Marketing Guys set up as a marketing and software vendor?
The Shop Marketing Guys builds and runs marketing and software for owner-run auto repair shops, and clients work directly with its two founding partners. Plans are month to month and can be canceled by text, and ad spend is charged at cost. Results are reported in repair orders, counted only after the job is completed and invoiced.
Next step
To see what customers see about your shop online before they call, start with a free visibility audit. We'll show you what's clear, what's missing, and what to fix first.
Written by Jay Carroll, co-founder of The Shop Marketing Guys. Jay has spent about ten years in auto repair marketing.
