How to Increase Sustainable ARO in an Auto Repair Shop

If you ask most shop owners how to increase ARO, the answer usually revolves around selling bigger jobs, higher ticket repairs, or pushing harder on major work. On the surface, that sounds logical because a higher average repair order means more revenue per car, which should lead to better profitability.

The problem is that the approach creates an inconsistent business.

When your strategy depends on landing large repair tickets, your numbers start to swing. One good day can make you feel like everything is working, and one slow day can make it feel like the entire shop is off track. That lack of consistency is what keeps many shops stuck, even when they work hard and do good work.

What I have learned over the years is that increasing ARO in a sustainable way has very little to do with chasing bigger jobs and everything to do with increasing the value of the work you are already seeing every day.

Why Most ARO Strategies Fall Short

Average repair order is influenced by everything that flows through your shop, not just your larger repair tickets. If you are running a high volume of oil changes and basic services, those lower dollar tickets naturally pull your average down, even if your repair work is strong.

Most shop owners try to solve this by focusing on selling more expensive repairs, but that ignores the real opportunity sitting right in front of them. Every oil change, every inspection, and every customer interaction is a chance to increase the value of that visit.

When those opportunities are missed, it creates a ceiling on your ARO that no amount of big jobs can consistently overcome.

The Real Lever Behind Higher ARO

The biggest shift for me came when I stopped looking at ARO as something to chase and started looking at what actually builds it.

Every vehicle that comes into your shop, especially for an oil change, represents an opportunity to serve that customer at a higher level. A proper inspection, combined with a confident and honest conversation, should lead to recommendations that improve the safety, reliability, and longevity of that vehicle.

Those recommendations are where ARO is built.

When your team consistently identifies and communicates maintenance needs, small services begin to stack on top of each other. A fluid service here, a filter there, an alignment, a battery, a set of wipers. Individually, these are not large tickets, but collectively they transform the value of each visit. That is how you increase ARO in a way that is predictable and repeatable.

Why Oil Changes Hold the Key

Most shop owners underestimate the role oil changes play in the overall performance of the business. They see them as low-margin, necessary work, rather than the primary entry point for building value. The reality is that oil changes are your pipeline.

Very few customers come into a shop asking for a cabin filter, a brake fluid service, or a transmission service. Those are discovered through inspection and presented through conversation. If your team treats oil changes as quick in-and-out transactions, you are missing one of the most important opportunities in your entire operation. When you start measuring how often oil change visits turn into additional services, you begin to see exactly where your ARO is being created or lost.

Consistency Beats Occasional Big Wins

One of the biggest mindset shifts is understanding that consistent small wins outperform occasional large wins over time. A shop that adds meaningful value to a high percentage of its daily car count will outperform a shop that relies on a few large tickets to carry the month.

Consistency creates stability. Stability creates confidence. Confidence allows you to grow without constantly feeling like you are trying to catch up. When your team understands how to build value into every visit, your ARO becomes a reflection of your process, not a byproduct of luck.

What to Focus on Instead of Chasing ARO

If you want to increase ARO, shift your focus to the behaviors that create it. Start by looking at how effectively your team is converting oil change visits into additional services. Pay attention to how thorough your inspections are and how clearly your advisors are communicating the findings to customers. Look at the types of services being recommended and whether your team is consistently completing the conversation, especially on items like fluid services, filters, and maintenance work that often get overlooked. When those behaviors improve, ARO follows naturally.

The Role of Training and Leadership

None of this happens by accident. Your service advisors need to be trained on how to communicate value, not just present options. Your technicians need to perform consistent, high-quality inspections. Your managers need to review the numbers daily and coach the team based on what they see. When leadership is aligned around the right metrics and reinforces the right behaviors, performance improves across the board.

If you are trying to increase ARO by chasing bigger jobs, you are building a business that will always feel unpredictable. When you focus on increasing the value of every visit, especially through consistent maintenance recommendations, you create a system that produces results day after day. That is the difference between a shop that hopes for good months and a shop that builds them.

Want to Go Deeper?

If this resonates with you, the next step is to take a hard look at what your team is actually doing on a daily basis and where the opportunities are being missed. Inside Transformers Institute, we work directly with shop owners, managers, and service advisors to build these systems, train the behaviors, and create the accountability needed to turn this into consistent performance.

If you want to learn more, connect with us and see how our programs can help you build the business you have been working toward, with more clarity, more control, and far better results.