Shop-Ware Reviews

Customers love the presentation of pictures and recommended repairs as clean line items with totals. Get ready to increase ARO 50%

I wish there was more color for the user interface and ability to flag recommendations as “customer concern” “safety” and “maintenance”. As well as more in depth visuals for capacity in the workflow area. Like quickTrac shows how many hours are sold but waiting to be produced by individual technicians and the shop as a whole. I understand both of these are in the works.

The Digital inspections.
Communications with customers via text.

The program has many quirks that should be worked out before charging nearly $300 per month.

Shop-ware is still flexible since they are rigid like a RO Writer. They truly work to help their customers have success using the software. They are still young, so features are coming out still and some more abilities are being added. They have a ways to go on tires.

The inspections portion of the software is great. I think this is what attracted is at the start and keeps us happy every day we use it.

Overall they will work with you to get a product you want to use.

Doesn't not work well for tires. You must use Quickbooks and it's hard to "balance" at the end of the day to know you have the correct cash and credit cards.

The way they setup parts is difficult. There is no pricing matrix and parts all link to a main nomenclature. They works well in certain instances, but not well in others. Everything is a give and take. Overall you can work fast within the software.

Ease of use, inspections are part of the software, ability to access from anywhere, customer service from Shop Ware team, monthly improvements, built in time clock, customer facing interactions

lack of reporting, inventory control and transferring, lack of permissions for larger shops,

This software makes it so easy to communicate, advise and present service information with all my customers.

I honestly don't have any cons with this software

Workflow is simple and easy for new users to learn. 90% of everything you need is in a few screens. As an online system, we can move from computer to computer and everything is in sync. The database is an open design, no need to save work or changes. Customer's get easy to understand repair orders or estimates for approval via text or email.

Still needs some feature development to be on par with more robust systems.

Customer facing sms with powerful features to paint the value picture to your customers.

Weak on parts inventory management and editing control.

The ease of communication with the customer is amazing. It keeps the customer updated and approvals come in faster.

I would like to be able to customize the schedule and have “canned items” to post such as “off” “ out sick” etc.

The most impactful feature to our shop is the seamless communication between the advisor and customer, often work is approved before our advisor's reach the customer by phone!

The backend of this program is lacking in some areas: Technician needs to know how much time has been spent on a labor operation , warranty tracking non existent, need to have flexibility with hours charged VS flat rate hours, marketing and reporting are all going to need improvement...

This program helped our shop move into this century with direct digital connectivity to clients and the work that is being recommended. It has improved our shop flow and we find we are providing better, more focused service because we have freed ourselves from the drudgery of old, not very workable software.

The inventory leaves much to be desired. In all fairness, I was told that it is not an inventory management program. But it would be helpful if it were better in this arena.

-AVG RO increase of 30%-actual and real ROI
-Service Advisor efficiency is second to none with Shop-Ware
-Customers love the transparency

Michigan specific State Invoice requirements

I love the clean user interface and the continual improvements being made.

I would love to see a labor matrix for older cars, and better tracking of time completed on open RO's (AKA Labor Inventory). Also, I'd love it if the inspection would allow the images/videos to be inserted directly into the line items with which they are associated.

The ease of using the software. The efficiencies of doing more in less time with a system that is above all other POS systems in my industry.

My clients love it. From a user, Batch payments Option, parts invoices (counter sale require vehicles & mileage) are a few..

Ease of use from the digital inspection process & building estimates to the text to pay feature & text approval process we love what Shop-Ware offers. The customer support is always fast, friendly and helpful. Very client friendly, ease of use for clients is a plus. One system takes care of what we used to need 2 or 3 systems for.

Lack of ability to add text or symbols to photos, hard to navigate the initial approval process for clients, no texting options, cannot delete duplicated parts, cores being a separate part vs included in the same line.
Estimator hours could be improved by using a better estimator, the hours are off when compared to Alldata.

Accessibility for customers and all employees helps keep the flow of the shop moving and everyone informed, very easy, and quick to build estimates.

The aforementioned inability to unlink with WorldPac, causing parts to wrongly "shoot" onto repair orders already linked.
Would also like the ability to end access times to the software for employees after-hours, so they can't access customer information after-hours.

I love the silent communication between the service advisors and myself. I also love how willing the Shopware team is to accepting our input and ideas and implementing things we need.

The service advisors use at the VIN details and service specifications occasionally which I find inconsistently correct. You can rarely trust the engine code in the VIN details because it almost always picks the one that is first alphabetically. I have found that some of the fluid capacities are wrong as well.

Moving to Shop-Ware, the transition was very manageable. We have 2 locations that made the switch coming off our previous system that we had been on for almost 30 years. One of the biggest things noticed that i wasn't expecting is the amount of paper and toner cost that was reduced moving towards dispatching work orders and moving them through out the shop electronically. The amount of data and kpi's that are available also gave us the opportunity to make much needed and over due changes in our business and to update our business model.

We are an independent Goodyear Dealer, So the Tire aspect of the system is really the only thing lacking in my opinion. There could be a seprate tire catalog but we are making due using the parts inventory for now.

What's not to love. My team loves it. My clients love it. Shop-Ware allows us to offer the transparency that we need, our clients need and the industry needs. Shop-Ware allows our clients to interact with the software. This gives them an opportunity to be a part of the repair process. After our clients participate with their repair, they are hooked. They have confidence in our team and they tell their friends.

I can't think of one thing that I don't like about Shop-Ware.

We were looking to move toward a paperless format and Shop-Ware made that easy. It alos enhanced the communication process with our customers and integrated a DVI from the jump.

I am hopeful that they can take over some of the CRM functions that are currently supported by outside vendors. I would love to see an automatic text reminder sent to upcoming appointments.

Being able to send photos to the customer adds transparency and increases RO. It shows we are trying to fix your car not just pad our wallets.

Being web based you need to make sure that you have good WFI and internet. Also good tablets with flashes