How DRW Performance Grew Revenue 35% After Ditching Pen and Paper
From handwritten job cards to a fully digital workshop. See how DRW Performance achieved 35% revenue growth with Autopilot GMS.
About DRW Performance
Performance tuning specialist based in the West Midlands, focusing on remapping, diagnostics, and high-performance modifications.
2019 — Established
3 — Team Members
15+ — Vehicles per Week
Performance — Speciality
The Challenge: Running a Workshop on Pen, Paper, and Hope
When DRW Performance first opened its doors in 2019, the business was small enough that pen and paper felt manageable. Job cards were handwritten, bookings were scribbled in a desk diary, and customer records lived in a stack of notebooks behind the counter. The owner kept track of most things in his head and relied on his phone for reminders.
But as the business grew and word spread about the quality of their remapping and diagnostics work, the cracks started to show. Bookings were being missed because the diary was hard to read or entries were accidentally overwritten. There was no way to pull up a customer's vehicle history quickly, which meant repeat customers had to explain previous work every time they visited. Hours each week were lost to admin tasks that should have been straightforward, from writing out invoices by hand to chasing payments via text messages.
Perhaps most critically, there was no clear picture of revenue. Without digital records, the owner had no way to track which services were most profitable, which months were strongest, or how much outstanding payment was owed at any given time. Growth felt chaotic rather than controlled.
— Owner, DRW Performance
The Solution: Going Digital with Autopilot GMS
After looking at several garage management systems, DRW Performance chose Autopilot GMS because it was built specifically for independent garages and didn't require weeks of training to get started. The entire team was up and running within a single day. The owner started by digitising their existing customer records and moving all upcoming bookings into the system. From that point forward, every job, every invoice, and every customer interaction was tracked digitally.
Three features in particular transformed the way DRW Performance operates day to day:
Jobs Management — Schedule, track, and manage every job digitally
Clients — Customer database with full vehicle history
Invoices — One-click invoicing with payment tracking
With Jobs Management, every remap, diagnostic session, and modification is now logged with full details including the vehicle, the work carried out, parts used, and technician assigned. The team can see their daily schedule at a glance and nothing falls through the cracks. The Clients feature gave DRW Performance something they never had before: a complete history for every vehicle that comes through the door. When a returning customer calls about their BMW 335d, the team can instantly see what was done previously, what was recommended for next time, and any notes from the last visit.
Invoicing was the other major win. What used to involve handwriting an invoice, photographing it, and texting it to the customer now takes a single click. Invoices are generated directly from completed jobs, sent digitally, and payments are tracked automatically. No more chasing customers for outstanding balances or losing track of who has and hasn't paid.
The Results
The numbers speak for themselves. Within the first six months of switching to Autopilot GMS, DRW Performance saw a 35% increase in revenue. This wasn't because they suddenly had more customers walking through the door. It was because they stopped losing the customers they already had. Missed bookings dropped to zero, follow-ups happened on time, and the invoicing process meant payments came in faster and more reliably than ever before.
The time savings were equally significant. The owner estimates that the team saves around 10 hours per week on admin alone. That's 10 hours previously spent writing job cards, creating invoices by hand, searching through notebooks for customer details, and manually tracking payments. Those hours are now spent doing billable work on cars, which is a large part of why revenue increased so dramatically. With a clearer schedule and better workflow, the team went from averaging around 7-8 jobs per day to consistently completing 15 or more vehicles each week.
Beyond the headline numbers, there's been a noticeable improvement in customer satisfaction. Repeat customers appreciate that the team remembers their vehicle history without being reminded. The professional digital invoices have also elevated the brand, making DRW Performance feel more established and trustworthy to new customers who find them through word of mouth or social media.
— Owner, DRW Performance