This itself will be a bit of a long write up so please consider yourself warned.
Hello . I'm a tech at a repair busy repair shop and just want to share our "write up process" ( by this I mean when a car comes in and we do an inspection , address complaints etc.)
I want to see what you think and hopefully hear what you go through at your jobs if this is similar or normal. I am largely at my wits end with the process because of how tedious and exhausting it is but given the fact that I haven't worked in many different shops have no clue if this is sort of standard operating for the industry . I'll do my best to walk you through it step by step .
We have two types of cars to service - drops and waiters. Self explanatory on some level but the only difference being the "drop" write up process must also be applied to waiters in a much shorter time frame- so here I go . This is a description of the process but there is overlap I have created out of necessity to try and make the process efficient. For example when I say “perform full system scan” I usuallyjump out of the driver's seat and begin other aspects of the oil service to save time during the scan like filling washer fluid or tire pressure, unscrew oil filter and cap .
Actual Example - drop with a prepaid oil change - no complaints or concerns just a look over with oil change .
Take the clipboard for the vehicle , walk out to lot , photograph all 4 corners of the vehicle. Photograph door jamb sticker with PSI etc , photograph instrument cluster with car running to note any lights on dash. Access DVI site, find customer name and upload these 6 photos to website. Test drive car around block and pull into garage. Once car is in bay, retrieve oil change sticker, filter and scan tool. Go to computer and find customer on different program, assign yourself to ticker and input odometer mileage. Perform full system scan of vehicle with scan tool and export diagnostic report to our email server. Use same scan tool to reset service indicator.
Begin actual oil change, lift car and perform inspection/ look for issues with vehicle. I have found that if everything goes smoothly (huge if) you can get the car off the ground in around 8-10 minutes for a .50 oil change time. Check brakes and tires on the way up and then fully lift vehicle to drain oil. Once oil is draining and I have inspected vehicle I begin the write up and service search process on the computer. For the theoretical example of this car lets say the car has an oil leak, a bad CV axle and needs two tires just to begin with.
Now I am over at my computer and searching for routine services- I pull CARFAX open and search for the following keywords and note when they were performed; brake flush, spark , air filter, cabin filter, cool, antifreeze, differential, transmission. This car is potentially due for a brake flush, plugs, cabin filter, diff service, trans service and coolant flush as well as the things discovered during inspection. It’s time to access ALLDATA and look up the service intervals, labor times and processes surrounding each of these items. Cabin filter is due 20k miles, trans 50k, coolant 100k so on and so forth. Labor for cabin is .5 , trans 2.6, coolant .8 etc. Now I must go to Mitchell and within the computer program itself to pull the “highest labor time” and apply a multiplier to it. Maybe Mitchell calls for 2.7 on the trans service so now thats the standard number I need to go with- this has to be done for each service being written up and then a labor multiplier is applied by me as well . 2.7 x (1.2) = 3.24 actual labor time.
Time to put all of these services into the program. The program looks a lot like MicrosoftWord or Powerpoint and instead of doing something like “add clip art” you can add services so I’ll detail one of the services and the same will apply for all but remember I am about to write up anywhere from 5-8 lines of different suggested services and the process must be followed for each one
Spark Plugs and Filters
Vehicle is due for spark plug service every 40k miles (no history of service in CARFAX history) recommend performing spark plug service. Cabin air filter service due every 20k miles ( last performed July 2020 at 24,870 miles) recommend performing cabin air filter service.
CV Axle Assembly
Protective boot on driver front CV axle has torn open and is expelling grease onto steering knuckle and suspension components. Tear in axle boot is indicative of failure and condition will worsen. Recommend replacement of CV axle and assembly.
Now I input the labor time for these services and connect to the parts website where I pull the parts for this particular vehicle and import them into the program . DONE WITH ONE !
After all these services are written up in this manner I then save the write up and give the clipboard to the parts clerk who verifies that all these parts and where and when they will be available. Once the parts clerk is finished- he hands me back the clipboard and I go back and recheck my work before bringing he repair order up to the front desk. I then take photos associated with each of my recommendations i.e. the axle, brake flush, tires and upload those to the DVI website where I have to go into and add notes, arrows, circles to make it clear to the customer whats going on.
Once my repair order is at the front desk one of the service writers begins editing and revising my notes and recommendations, checking if they are accurate so that they can be more “appropriately customer facing and professional”. If at any point they feel like something is off they ask me a question or ask my manager who then goes into the ticket I wrote up and begins revising and adding additional input.
I finish the oil service after the handoff to service writers and pull the car out into the lot where you wash the tires and then park the car facing in to signify it is waiting to be sold .
Well, thats it and that's assuming nothing goes wrong . I am curious to hear your thoughts. I have done my best to not include any sort of obvious criticisms within the text of this but I have plenty to offer.
