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lift inspection software

When should I automate my automotive lift inspection reporting?

“I’m an ALI Certified automotive lift inspector and I’m just not sure about automation at this time.”

There is no doubt the world has changed in 2020. Businesses are struggling, unemployment is high and people are uncertain about the future. But with every economic downturn there are lessons to be learned and opportunities to be harnessed. In this blog, I want to discuss three situations where investing in automation for your automotive lift inspection business can be beneficial to maintain or even grow your customer base during these uncertain times.

1. You had to downsize.

Like many other companies, you made the tough decision to downsize your team. We hope it’s just a matter of time before the economy picks up, but right now business is slow, and you can’t afford to take on more staff. But here is the problem, customers are requesting their automotive lift inspections now. You are working hard to get it all done, but you’re behind on the paperwork and it’s getting out of control. The pile of incomplete reports is growing by the day. Your customers continue to wait, and you may even be limiting additional service and maintenance revenue. If you relate to this, then now is the time to eliminate the paperwork. With automation software, inspections are completed on site by entering results into a mobile app. Once you’re done, you submit the data and the rest is completed automatically. An email is instantly sent to your customer with a link to the final inspection report. No more manual summarizing, formatting, saving, filing, scanning, and delivery.  You can also reduce repair quote turnaround time by using the summarized list of repairs included in the report.  Implementing this process can make an immediate impact on your business and get your automotive lift inspection service back on track without the need to hire additional staff.

2. You’re looking for a competitive advantage.

As business slowly returns, other equipment service companies are competing for the same automotive lift inspection and service work as you are. Your existing customers may even be looking around for better prices or more value. Lowering your prices may seem like a quick solution, but this will erode profits and make it harder to provide a high level of service. A better approach is to consistently improve your value and adjust your pricing accordingly. This sets you apart from the competition, attracts a higher quality customer and makes it less likely your customer will want to leave for a cheaper deal. So, what steps can you take right now? For one, get your ALI Certified lift Inspector designation. This clearly shows current and potential customers that you care about quality and are serious about lift inspections. It will also get you exposure on search engines like google and access to more discerning customers like larger corporations, franchises, government installations, schools and more.

If you are already a certified inspector, start reducing your documentation workload. ALI Certified Inspectors produce detailed inspection reports, which are great, but adds to the inspector’s overall workload. Reducing this burden with automation can drastically improve your efficiency and reduce overhead costs. Additional benefits include quicker quote turnarounds and easier to read reports. So, if you’re looking around for what’s next in your automotive lift inspection business, start building your competitive advantage.

3. You’re getting more work.

Maybe one of your competitors have already closed shop. You’re now the top company in town and your phones are ringing. This is bittersweet news, but you did not plan for this. You have more work that you can handle with the staff you have, but not enough to justify additional hires, so what do you do? Well, this problem is much like a company that has downsized. If you want to take on the additional business, you need more people, more hours, or some way of reducing the amount of work. For your lift inspections, automation is the quickest way to carve out additional capacity without having to add more staff. You can take on the additional inspections for a faction of the cost of adding and training another person.

We all agree these are tough times, but you can take comfort in the fact that your competitors are feeling the same way. Take inventory of your budget and try to carve out room for incremental investments in efficiency improvements. This will help you maintain and even grow your business during these confusing times.

If you have any questions or want to learn more about automating your automotive lift inspection reporting, please email us at info@liftspec.com or sign up for a trial and test it out yourself.

Categories
lift inspection software

Why Should Lift Inspectors Opt For Automotive Lift Inspection Software?

Have you noticed a shift towards automotive lift inspection software from the traditional paper forms? These lift inspection software are an attempt to make reporting painless.

As a lift inspector, how many times have you ended your day with stacks of automotive lift inspection sheets? And then, how many times did you spend hours to match every detail, like images, with the inspections to make sure that the report is precise and complete? But the process doesn’t end there, does it? These paper trails of your inspections have to be recorded, assessed, and recommendations have to be made depending on those assessments. These sheets have to be preserved as a record for next year’ inspections. In short, too much grunt work!

Now imagine a scenario where there is minimal work, zero manual compilation and quick output of customized lift inspection reports!

At LiftSpec, we are studying physical inspections and developing automotive lift inspection software that improves inspection flow, reduces office management by dispatching inspections and increases value add by providing immediate access to inspection reports, online stored records and customized reporting options. Templates and reports used in our lift inspection software are created using  ANSI, CSA, UL, CE automotive lift inspection requirements and standards. Here is how our lift inspection software does all the work for you-

Cloud Storage and Data Management

We can imagine the frustration you must feel to sift through drawers full of past inspection papers every time you conduct a new inspection. It is a waste of time, effort and energy. They can be difficult to decipher, can be destroyed or misplaced.

With LiftSpec’s cloud storage and data management, you can store and access previous lift inspections from anywhere! Your data is stored in a secure document vault using Amazon S3 and Azure cloud hosting services with unlimited storage capacity.

Instant Reporting

If you are using a paper automotive lift inspection checklist, then you are most likely not including pictures and video. If you are, then this is handled separately over email.  This takes time, on average we have found 1-2 hrs additional formatting per inspection, sometimes higher. If you developed a form on Excel or a editable PDF, you still need to import, save, format and comment on pictures individually. This also runs you a minimum of 1-2hrs per lift inspection or higher.

Bid goodbye to these painstaking and time consuming processes! Answer the built-in questions as you flow through your inspection gathering pictures, video and signatures with your tablet or smartphone’s built in features.

Our lift inspection software allows you to effortlessly take as many pictures as you like to describe a situation adding individual comments to each picture. The final report will automatically format to include all the pictures and comments. Once you’re done, the auto lift inspection report is automatically compiled and ready for submission in a PDF format.

What’s more? You do not have to wait to submit your reports. If you have a working internet connection on your phone or tablet, simply add the submission email into the appropriate field and the report will automatically be sent to that email once you complete and submit the lift inspection checklist.

Dean Kamen, an American inventor, once said “Every once in a while, a new technology, an old problem and a big idea turn into innovation”. Our lift inspection software solution is an attempt to increase productivity of work, efficiency and innovate work management.