Cam Systems: Workshop Scheduler Increases Treadfirst Bookings 15%

Cam Systems says that its Workshop Scheduler integrated diary system has led to the recent 15 per cent rise in bookings at Suffolk’s Treadfirst Tyre & Exhaust Centre. Since using Workshop Scheduler to plan its MOTs and servicing, Mick Shaw, managing director of Treadfirst, says: “we have increased the number of jobs and bookings through more effective planning rather than just filling up a page in the paper diary then stopping.”

The application schedules all technician and service bay activity throughout the depot network, with booking periods ranging from 30 to 360 minutes. It provides both onscreen display and printouts of daily and weekly schedules, and enables detailed scheduling of every day of the week. “Workshop Scheduler is now business critical for Treadfirst to manage the increase in our MOT and servicing business,” says Shaw.

Fully integrated into Cam Systems’ Cameo platform, the IT provider explains that Workshop Scheduler uses “easy point-and-click operations to help speed up processes and drive efficiency.” Cam’s SMS Director also offers additional facilities to remind customers of appointments by text message the day before their appointment, reducing the number of no shows on an MOT, and the subsequent loss of business. In addition, the texting service issues messages to the customer’s mobile phone “car passed MOT” or “car failed MOT – please phone”, thus improving proactive customer communication.

Mike Allen, managing director of Cam Systems, adds: “Workshop Scheduler gives instant visibility of each depot’s bookings and how busy they are. This is an extremely effective tool for the business owner or head office, as it enables an operation to analyse its efficiency and effectiveness. It provides the ability to cross sell to other depots; if one centre is fully booked for MOTs you can view another depot’s schedule and make an appointment, maximising the business’s potential workload and productivity.”

Other features of Workshop Scheduler include the ability to export appointments to Cameo as service invoices; a rescheduling system that updates Cameo; an appointment search by vehicle registration number; the speeding up of customer administration by finding address details in PCode2 Lookup; the removal of the paper-based diary in use at most MOT / service centres.