Full at one site, quiet at the other
You run three MOT centres a few miles apart. On Saturday morning, the town centre site is fully booked and turning people away at the desk. The site on the ring road has three empty slots. Nobody at the town centre site knows, because each site has its own diary.
Online, each site has its own booking page. A customer who picks the wrong one sees nothing available and goes to a competitor, without realising another of your sites could test them that morning.
Each site grew up on its own
Multi-site MOT businesses often grow by opening or buying a second site, then a third. Each comes with its own diary, booking page and phone number, and its own ways of working. That independence is useful for running the site. It is a problem for the customer who just wants a test near them.
Different bays and testers at each site make it harder. One site has a class 7 bay, another does motorcycles, the third only does cars. A customer with a van needs to be sent to the right one, and the desk may not know which.
Management reporting suffers too. Comparing how full each site is means asking each manager for their numbers, in their own format.
What separate diaries cost
| Problem | Effect |
|---|---|
| No shared view | Customers turned away while another site is quiet |
| Separate online booking pages | Customers pick the wrong site and leave |
| Bay classes differ by site | Vans and motorcycles sent to the wrong place |
| Different processes per site | Inconsistent customer experience |
| No combined reporting | Hard to see which site needs more testers |
Customers also notice inconsistency. If one site sends a confirmation text and a reminder and the other sends nothing, or one takes online payment and the other does not, the business feels like two different companies. For a customer who might use either site depending on where they are that week, that is confusing.
How we build one booking view across sites
- Each site's bays, classes and tester rota feed one booking system, while each site still manages its own diary day to day.
- Customers book from one page. They enter their registration and location, and see the nearest sites with suitable bays and free slots.
- Staff at any site can see availability at all sites and book a customer into another site from the desk or the phone.
- Confirmations and reminders carry the right site's address, directions and phone number.
- Each site's records, testers and equipment stay separate, so local responsibility is clear.
- A combined report shows bookings, empty slots and no-shows by site and day, so you can move testers or change hours where needed.
If each site already uses a garage or MOT system with a diary, we look at connecting them rather than replacing them. Where that is not possible, we explain the options.
Saturday morning, across three sites
The town centre site is full. A walk-in is told there is a slot at the ring road site in twenty minutes, booked on the spot, with directions sent by text. Online, a customer searching from the town centre sees both sites and picks the ring road slot.
At the end of the month, the combined report shows the town centre site is full most Saturdays while the third site is quiet. You move a tester for Saturday mornings.
- One booking page for every site
- Staff can book any site from any desk
- Customers sent to a site with the right bay
- Combined reports to balance testers across sites
Customers who move house within the area stay with you too, because the nearest site is always offered first, and their history, reminders and preferences come with them rather than starting again at a different branch.
Are your sites working against each other?
- Each site has its own diary and booking page.
- Customers are turned away while another site has space.
- Staff cannot see other sites' availability.
- Van and motorcycle customers are sent to the wrong site.
- You compare sites by asking each manager for numbers.