March 24, 2020—Frustrated with the amount of misinformation and “doom-and-gloom” that was cluttering his social media feed, Prasanth Chilukuri, co-founder and CFO of shop management system Tekmetric, decided to get the facts.
“We wanted to shine some light and use the data we gather for good and help shop owners with real trends instead of hearsay and Facebook posts,” Chilukuri says.
To do this, Tekmetric selected a sample size of 500 shops across all states and Canada (including both rural and urban locations, as well as shops of different sizes) to show how their ARO and car count have been trending during the coronavirus pandemic to create its Tekmetric Index.
The information is available from the end of February to highlight the impact of the coronavirus. Chilukuri has also highlighted the points when social distancing began.
The car count trend is down, which is most likely not a huge surprise to anyone, and certainly wasn’t to Chilukuri. ARO, on the other hand, is actually on the rise. This could be due to a number of different factors, such as people anticipating a recession and knowing that they will have to maintain their vehicles as long as possible or just wanting to make the most out of any trip they make.
The index can be used to help shops gauge how they are doing and help them realize that they are not alone.
“The whole point, for us, is that we want to give readers some facts—it may not be good or bad news—but it’s facts,” Chilukuri says.
Chilukuri wants feedback from shop owners.
“We want to help shops make better decisions,” Chilukuri.
He suggests an increase in marketing to remind customers that you are there for them. Look into declined services and reach out.
