How Automotive Diag Went from Emergency Calls to 250% Growth

In late 2023, Randal Scot Nichols, owner of Automotive Diag, logged into his business software and saw something that stopped him cold.

One of his client shops had $70,000 worth of potential calibration work—but Automotive Diag had completed only $2,000 of it.

"It was right there in the data from Revv,” Randal recalls. “I basically approached the owner of the shop and said, 'Well, you realize that if we completed everything listed here...I'd owe you thousands of dollars in revenue?'"

He did not. And it didn’t take long before one of Randal’s team members was working on calibrations within that same shop full time. “We’ve been averaging about $20K - 30K since then.”

The team at Automotive Diag currently provides their high quality services to over 150 shops in mid-Missouri. 

But it wasn’t always that way. In fact, it wasn’t even possible.

Challenge
Reactivity Won't Build a Scalable Business

Before implementing Revv ADAS, Randal’s daily operations resembled that of most mobile calibrators: responding to urgent calls about warning lights.

There was no way to anticipate or plan for demand. 

"I would just get random calls from shops - 'Hey, we got this car and it's got a light,'" he describes. “Then we’d scramble and send someone.” 

But without systematic tracking, required procedures were often missed. 

"There were probably a significant number of cars that needed AVMs [Around View Monitoring equipment] and we weren't doing them because it wasn't being highlighted to the team," Randal Nichols explains. 

Equipment needs would surface only after technicians arrived on site, leading to delayed services and repeat visits.

More fundamentally, the Automotive Diag team struggled to communicate the value and necessity of calibration services to shop partners. Without clear documentation and systematic validation of required procedures, getting buyin for comprehensive calibration services was an uphill battle.

That changed with a referral from a friend to check out Revv ADAS.

Solution
Better Systems Create Better Results

Beyond switching to a proactive model, creating a scalable ADAS calibration business requires robust, effective workflows powering everything.

For Randal, this meant developing new approaches to documentation, reporting, and shop communication. 

"I save 45 minutes per ticket," Randal explained, describing his current workflow. "When I had a third of my volume, I really couldn't keep up. If I had the volume I do today, there's no way it would happen."

After implementing Revv in late 2023, they quickly saw improvements across several areas:

Equipment planning 

Revv ADAS provides detailed requirements and calibration procedures needed for a vehicle before each job. No sending a technician in unaware. This also prevented unexpected equipment needs. 

"Revv has given me the ability to know what equipment I need to purchase because I can know what cars are coming ahead of time," Randal noted. "For example, the Ford AVMs? They need bigger targets and Revv revealed that need."

Automated documentation 

A significant improvement came from automated report generation and shop-specific templates. 

"Revv made it so easy. You can choose the shop when you upload the report, and it automatically adds all the discounts," Randal said. "I was doing all that manually before, going into each ticket to fix every single one."

Invoice management 

The platform's integration with QuickBooks simplified the billing process. This automation reduced manual entry errors and saved hours previously spent adjusting individual invoices.

These operational improvements allowed Automotive Diag to prioritize service quality and business growth instead of administrative tasks. 

When asked about managing his current volume without these systems, Nichols is clear: "There's no way. I was spending all my time doing paperwork," Randal said emphatically.

"I would have to manually go into each ticket and fix every single one. Frankly? It was annoying as hell."

Results
From Manual Processes to 250% Revenue Growth

In just four months in 2024, monthly revenue grew from $20,000 to $70,000—a 250% increase—made possible by redirecting time from paperwork to profitable service delivery.

It has only grown since then.

Consider that one shop partner we mentioned in the introduction: because Randal and his team aren’t spending all their time doing paperwork, they were able to turn $2,000 of work into $25,000 - $30,000. 

Plus, each reduction in documentation and invoicing and checking boxes for each ticket translates into more capacity for actual calibration work. Likewise, equipment planning improvements meant technicians arrived prepared for every job, eliminating costly return visits.

With Revv ADAS automatically identifying required calibrations and optimizing service workflows, Automotive Diag shifted from chasing warning lights to delivering comprehensive ADAS services to their 150-shop network.

Despite the increase in volume and processing significantly more calibrations today, Randal and his team aren’t remotely worried about missing any opportunities.

"Revv captures everything from a night vision calibration to a steering angle sensor calibration— really anything. It captures things that for sure would have been missed by other platforms."