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AUTO VITALS VS BOLT ON
As of October 2016 which system works best with Mitchell Manager SE Auto Vitals or Bolt On ?
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11 Replies
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AutoVitals is a great program and works well with Mitchell Product. The training program is great and wont leave you wondering what to do, or how to do it. There is also shop workflow management and technician dispatching (not available on Bolt-on) AND if you ever change operating systems AutoVitals will stay in place (bolt-on is an add on to Mitchell)
If you haven’t seen the inspections, time keeping CRM and other features yet, you’ll want to take a look
https://www.autovitals.com/godigital/
https://www.autovitals.com/digitalsupervisortraining/
Frank
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We are using Bolt On. It works great with our Mitchell program. We subscribe to all three of their products and we are happy with them. There is a learning curve and way back when we got it there was only a little training. I have heard that it is a lot better now.
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I’m shopping, just like you. I have friends using both systems, and I’ve decided on the Bolt On based on their experiences. The gentleman that is using Auto Vitals is even considering Bolt On right now, so take that for what it’s worth. Auto Vitals looks great, but for my purposes and what I’m trying to accomplish I made my choice. I think they are both good systems.
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Funny, we are looking into this right now. We currently subscribe to Bolt On for the Report Pro / Lube Sticker Pro / Messaging Pro. It is $100 per month per store. We also subscribe to Labor Profit Management for time keeping. We also subscribe to Repair Shop Solutions for vehicle inspection software. All of these combined is more than AutoVitals. AutoVitals does all this and more. I am most likely converting to AutoVitals. Moreover, it’s a complete package, not piece meal from 3 different vendors. AND, intedgrated with Mitchell SE.
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Frank can I get a demo on Auto vitals ? Thank you .
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Why do you only use one portion of the bolt on and use repair shop solutions for the other ? why not use bolt on for both ???
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Jeff,
I assume you are talking about Bolt On’s inspection process. When Bolt On presented it to me quite some time ago the start up cost was more than $5k with hardware etc. Way too expensive to find out it either doesn’t work for us or not practical. Plus it’s an additional monthly cost. AutoVitals as presented to me so far is the same price as what I’m already paying but it has a time clock and the inspection process all in. Much less than Bolt On. I have emailed Bolt On to get a presentation to see if anything’s changed but they so far has not responded, 2 days have passed so far. Maybe they have enough business? -
Frank can I get a demo on Auto vitals ? Thank you .
yes, I’ll let them know – the number is 866-949-2848 ask for Kevin X154 or Tom X115
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The reason why I decided to work
with AutoVitals goes way beyond inspections. It’s the first time I can do all
of the following with one company:- Inspections
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CRM
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Web Presence
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New customer
acquisition -
Technician time
keeping -
Shop dispatching
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Workflow management
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Reporting that
includes:-
Team effectiveness
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Advisor performance
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Sales by make
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ARO by make
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New customer sales
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Conversation sales
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Total number of visits
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Inspections completed
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Inspections emailed
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Emails collected
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ARO tracking
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Technician recommendations vs advisor sales
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AND MORE, with just
2 or 3 clicks in most cases . So, if a shop is only looking at
“a digital inspection” that’s also available. and affordable. If you are looking for a “true
total shop management system” then the only company I have found that does
it all is AutoVitals for a number of operating systems.
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I must say I am a raving fan of Bolt On, and we have had them for just under two years. I was speaking with somebody at a convention recently that had indicated they were doing a trial of Auto Vitals. I asked how it was going and they stated that the 1st trial with the new 10.0 updated software didn’t work and next they were told to try an older computer and it turned out software was told old. So they have yet to actually try it. We have never had integration issues with Bolt On and our computers are across the board.
Their support is nothing short of amazing. Have a problem? Contact them through their website, do a quick post on the issue you are having, invite the Tech to take command your computer and then go about your day. They go in and fix your issues and call you when fix is complete. Couldn’t be any simpler than that. And they are fast about it
When we compared apples to apples there was a small margin of difference pricing wise, to me it came down to how good the product is and what kind of support you get. We are super happy with both of those.
It just really does some cool stuff like…
1. Two way integration to pull and push data
2. Tablets are an actual extension of the management system
3. Easily identifies the status of vehicles being serviced
4. Color coding is awesome and can be used in a variety of ways depending upon your shop flow.
5. WIP Screen is a great visual and it helps the SA and Tech manage work flow more easily.
6. Change statuses with a simple drag and drop
7. In one click you can print an estimate and send it as a text.
8. The time clock rocks, accurately tracks tech time, clicks in and out of labor hours and records and automatically transfers back to SMS
9. Education videos are a great education/selling tool and they build right in to your inspection.
10. Advanced scheduling works well, adding rec’s to SMS based on today’s services and adding them to schedule automatically.
11. The text messaging works really well, and it’s what today’s consumers are looking for. We can message the digital inspection without leaving the work order.
Ok, I could go on and on, but for us we chose and continue to have a great experience with Bolt On. It seems as though we receive updates every week if not two or three times a week. They are always working to make it even better, which sometimes hard to believe!
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Great comments on all. I use Ro Writer , Labor profit Management and Repairshop solutions. All these programs do good “IF” you use them correctly. I have looked in to Bolt On and Auto Vitals and they do a good job of “Organizing” your systems together.
Now in my opinion , we do it everyday, we can do pretty much the same with the programs we have. We had to do some input to make them work that way but it works very well all the same. I forgot to mention I use MechanicNet too and there are features there that people don’t use and I don’t understand why. So they go out and buy these other programs to get the same features they already have. ( I am not trying to be a smart alec or take away from AV or Bolt On just stating my observation)I am a big fan of Repair Shop Solutions for the ease of use and reporting. Works with my Rowriter and Scott is always working on new things with it without rushing into them. He seems to research and test very thoroughly.From Ro writer screen we have status set up and we have an SOP that has policies and procedures that my guys must follow to make it all work.We use Lan Messenger that cost me 180.00 for a lifetime license to communicate with everyone on the networkI am spending for all this to work together just under 500 a month.If the other programs work for you and you don’t want to incorporate what you have now then by all means buy them they will work for you.I know the complaint is ” My employees won’t do that if I set it up that way” My question is to that statement ” Isn’t it your shop?”Great conversation everyone.
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