Born Inside a Workshop. Built for Yours.

Before I could walk, I was in a shop. My parents took over John Dale Motors in 2003. John left them with the wise words: "If you don't know how to run it by now, you will soon learn." They did. They scaled the workshop to 9 hoists with a full team of techs.

After two decades of growth, the workshop had scaled to 9 hoists, but the admin hadn't scaled with it. With my background in operations and workflow, I stepped in to fix the gap between the floor and the front desk.

One of the first things I uncovered was a truck from a large commercial fleet client, over 150 vehicles. More than $15,000 worth of work was missed on a single job because nobody had time to check the technician's last service notes. Parts that should have been ordered days in advance. Work that should have been planned and approved before the vehicle hit the hoist. The client was let down and given two options: try again next time, or take the truck off the road for longer. Both options cost them money.

We looked at the rest of the bookings and found the same pattern. Multiple people across different roles were given the task of prepping jobs. It was always slipping through the cracks. No amount of communicating, supporting, or pushing got it done consistently.

So we built the first triage. A few basic questions: last service recommendations, service schedule, oil and quantity, rego due. Now our core 7 questions that we do for every job prep. We trained Marissa, our first Virtual Service Advisor, how to triage every booking before it hit the hoist.

The results were immediate. Parts prepped on the shelf with POs raised. Staff discussing the work with the customer at drop-off, following a script that checked them in and got approval before anything started. ARO jumped over 160%. Techs still upsold, but now they had a targeted list of what to verify. No cars sitting on hoists without oil filters. Text messages handled. Jobs booked in.

From there we started automating: wheel aligner reports, SafeTStop, scan tool integrations, video inspections, and a texting platform that delivered personalised service and rego reminders. It became the breeding ground for putting in systems that get the work done and free up the right people to do the right jobs.

We rolled it into a handful of other workshops to make sure we could duplicate it. Every single one of them is still a client today. Now we have a client base across Australia and a built-out team that treats every workshop like a partnership because we know what it's like.

One thing that drives me is giving people the tools I wish my parents had 20 years ago. Yes, they did well, but imagine what else we could have done.