Specialty and fast-service shops
The right glass, the right vehicle, the first time
Glass is a VIN business. Get the vehicle wrong and the part is wrong, the trip is wasted and the day is gone - whether the job is in your bay or in a customer's driveway.
- Vehicle 2018 Honda Civic
- VIN 2HGFC2F5XJH000000
- Customer concern Cracked windshield
- Part Windshield and moulding
- Part status Ordered, PO #2071
- Where Customer driveway
- Photos on file 4, taken before the work
Decoded from a US database. A car sold in Canada can come back with very little, so fill in the rest by hand.
Part received. Whoever holds the job gets an alert.
What gets in the way
Sound familiar?
- A wrong windshield is a wasted mobile trip and a second appointment.
- Chip repairs are small, fast and easy to lose track of entirely.
- Half your work happens at an address that is not your shop.
One windshield, from the call to the keys
Glass is a vehicle business. Here is what MecanoPro does at each step of a job, in the bay or in a driveway.
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The call
A VIN, not a description
Type the VIN and MecanoPro checks it against the vehicles already on file as you type. Press Decode VIN and the year, make and model come in, so the glass is ordered against a vehicle record rather than a phone conversation.
- Decode VIN works for passenger vehicles, motorcycles and heavy trucks. A VIN whose check digit is not valid is flagged, since it was almost certainly typed wrongly.
- A duplicate VIN is worth stopping for. It usually means the vehicle is already here under another client.
- Add the vehicle from the appointment you are booking. New vehicle? Add here brings you back with it chosen.
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The schedule
Half your work is at an address that is not your shop
Locations are the bays or places work happens in, so a mobile truck can be a column of its own beside your bays. A driveway appointment books like a bay appointment, assigned to the technician who is driving to it.
- A bay or a technician already taken is refused before the promise is made, so a wrong windshield is not also a double-booked trip.
- Reminders go out by text, email or both, and the customer confirms or cancels from a link with no login.
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Before you start
Photograph what was already there Growth and up
A chip repair is small, fast and easy to lose track of, and a pre-existing crack is easy to be blamed for. Draw on the vehicle picture where the damage is, and add up to five photos to any line.
- The Damage Inspection field lets you draw in red, blue or black, undo a stroke, and edit the drawing later.
- Walk-around photos taken at check-in sit in the work order's gallery, and the vehicle keeps its own photo gallery.
- The customer signs the work order on a tablet at drop-off, and the signed copy is kept on the record.
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The part
Special-ordered, and tracked until it is on the vehicle
Each part moves from Needed to Ordered, Received and Installed. The technician asks for it with Request Part, the advisor orders it from a vendor or takes it from stock, and the order lands on a vendor purchase with its own number.
- When every part is on order, the work order moves to Awaiting Parts by itself. When the purchase is received, the person holding the job gets a Part received alert.
- Linked parts come in under one catalogue item, so the glass and its moulding are ordered together.
- Work you send to another shop is a Sublet line, beside labour, part and fee.
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The approval
A price the customer has signed
Quote for Approval puts the waiting jobs on one quote, and you send it by text or email for signature. A signed quote approves the jobs, and each job is approved on its own.
- A signed quote is kept as signed, with its timestamp, so what was agreed is never in question.
- A job cannot go beyond its quote plus the percentage you allow without a new approval. It starts at zero.
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Done
Keys back, and the next customer on the way Growth and up
Close the work order and invoice it, then text or email the customer that the vehicle is ready, with the message already written. A person taps it, so nobody is told before you mean them to be.
- Your own reviews page can take a customer's review from an invite link, marked verified, and you approve what is shown.
- A page for each town you serve, with its own address, helps local searches find the shop that comes to the driveway.
The parts of MecanoPro this shop uses
Each one is a real module, and each is explained on its own page.
Where it stops and you start
A windshield is a lot of small facts. Here is what the software does not do for you.
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The decoder reads a US database
It only holds what manufacturers submitted for the US market. A car sold in Canada or Europe often comes back with very little, or with only the make and year. That does not mean the VIN is wrong.
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There is no glass catalogue inside
Parts come through the vendors you buy from and the supplier catalogues we work with today: NAPA, Nexpart, Distribution Stox, Worldpac and DT Tire. Another supplier's site can be set up for your shop. Ask us.
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Nobody is told until you tell them
Moving a job, receiving a part or finishing the work does not message the customer. The ready message, the signature request and the review invite are all sent by a person.
See it on your own jobs
Book thirty minutes and we will walk through it on your own work orders. No pressure and nothing to sign.
See it running on your own work orders
Thirty minutes, at a time that suits the shop. We load a few of your real jobs in and you tell us where it would break.