Spurtys Mechanical

ABOUT SPURTYS

Spurtys Mechanical was founded in 2012 by Paul “Spurty” Szolkowski.

Situated in Kalgoorlie, West Australia, Spurtys is smack in the middle of mining country; a bulk of their customers transports mining equipment like food, iron ore, and so on. All of those supplies need to be carried in and out on trucks, and as you can imagine, it’s hard on those trucks. That’s where Spurtys comes in.

We spoke to Terry Hosking. He’s the service manager over at Spurtys, but he also has his hands in just about everything else, like parts sourcing, invoicing, and tools.

WHAT DID SPURTYS NEED?

Because Spurtys is a small operation, everyone had their hands in just about everything. They had picked up some shop management software in the hopes that it would help them streamline operations, but it was difficult to integrate into their daily habits and offered more trouble than assistance. The Spurtys crew wanted shop software that actually made their lives easier, cut down on paperwork, and offered time tracking.

CHALLENGE #1 THE PROBLEM WITH PAPERWORK

The shop’s current software could not be used on the go, which meant everything the crew did had to be entered into it after the fact. The shop used physical job cards that techs had to fill out. These job cards are how they tracked time, necessary parts, and so on. You can imagine the time this took up; if they stuck to the proper procedure, techs were pausing in their work to write down what they were doing…or they tried to recall everything they were doing once a job closed out.

Many of Fullbay’s customers have bemoaned the trouble that using handwritten notes and records can bring, and Spurtys is no exception. “Everything was manually done,” Terry says, which meant he often spent hours trying to decipher handwriting so he could build up a service order or invoice. “Everything was backwards and forwards!”

Handling physical paperwork full of handwriting led to huge problems with invoicing and charging for parts – sometimes customers even brought in their own parts to avoid the trouble of the shop picking up a new one. If a job wasn’t billed correctly, Spurtys had to send over a second invoice to a customer to make sure they were properly paid for their work – a task Terry describes as “very, very embarrassing.”

“It was very, very labor-intensive. We were on paperwork all of the time.”

CHALLENGE #2 LACK OF SUPPORT

Their prior software didn’t have the kind of support they needed. There just wasn’t a lot of assistance provided when Spurtys needed help; calls often went unanswered, and when they did get through to a live person, there was often nothing that person could do to assist them. The prior company had stopped updating the software and could only offer extremely basic assistance. If something went wrong within the application itself, odds were it couldn’t be helped.

The Spurtys crew needed new software that actually made their lives easier, with a product staff that would give them a hand if things went wrong.

ENTER FULLBAY

Spurtys took to the internet to find the right program. They knew technology had moved ahead and that there must be different kinds of software available. Fullbay, with its time-tracking abilities, cloud-based existence, and responsive customer service, sounded like exactly what they needed.

“The [Fullbay] system works well for us! It’s been great! It’s made things a lot easier, a lot faster turnaround, especially with the larger jobs.”

A MORE STREAMLINED SHOP

One of Fullbay’s major selling points is that you can access it from everywhere. As long as Spurtys’ techs have their tablets handy, they can update service orders as they go. This means Terry isn’t spending hours trying to figure out what his guys have scrawled on cards.

“[We wanted] something that works for everyone, not just something that works for one or two people in the business,” Terry says. Fullbay did exactly that, making it easy for everyone in the shop to know exactly what was going on at any given time.

Terry was particularly thrilled because he no longer needed to devote entire portions of his day to paperwork. “We’re not held up by deciphering handwriting and waiting for everyone to do their part. It’s almost immediate!”

“[Fullbay] has made it a lot easier to see where the hours are going and who is doing what.”

TOP-NOTCH SUPPORT

Spurtys had one other crucial element: product support. Software could act up, or not agree with their systems; they wanted someone on the other end who was willing to listen and help out. They absolutely got that with Fullbay, delivering a special shout-out to the continuing support of their Onboarding Rep, Sarah, who was ready to aid them the moment they purchased the app.

One of their first requests was to change how the date appeared. Australia formats its dates differently than the United States, and Fullbay only had the default U.S. format available at the time. Since proper dating is quite critical to a repair shop, Fullbay’s developers added formatting options, including the Australian date/time.

Since then, it’s been a steady correspondence; if they need help with something, they ask Sarah, and she responds by the next day.

“Anytime we send an email off to Sarah, we get a pretty great response. She’s amazing!”

FULLBAY DOWN UNDER

Fullbay has made life easier for everyone at Spurtys, and there’s been an additional bonus: their customers like it, too! The customer portal is new to them, but they appreciate the transparency into how work is going on their vehicles.

Spurtys has been happily using Fullbay and they report that the app continues to be a great help to them. We can’t wait to see what our friends Down Under can do in the future!