To do a vehicle health check for a customer, the technician inspects tyres, brakes, steering, suspension, exhaust, lights, fluids and battery on every car in the workshop, grades each item red (fix now), amber (wearing, plan it) or green (fine), and films the red and amber findings on a phone while the car is on the ramp. The service advisor adds the prices, sends the video to the customer by SMS, WhatsApp or email, and the customer approves the work from the same page. Then the department tracks three numbers: VHC completion rate, approval rate, and the value of amber work followed up.
That's the whole process. The rest of this guide is how to run each step so the red work gets sold and the amber work comes back.
This post in 30 seconds.
- What changes: the customer watches the technician point at the worn disc instead of hearing a number over the phone, and authorises from the same page.
- The number: 51% of customers approve recommended work when the inspection comes with photo or video, against 24% without it (J.D. Power, 2024).
- Who it's for: service and aftersales managers at franchised dealers and groups who run a VHC on every car and still watch red work leave unsold.
We build Venta Video, a product of VentaVid, which turns the VHC into video for service departments that a customer can see and approve on their phone. Book a 15-minute demo and we'll map it onto your existing VHC flow, not a generic one.
In this post:
Why the phone call loses the red work
The call goes the same way every time. The advisor rings at 11:40, the customer is at work, and "your front discs are below spec and we'd recommend replacing them today" gets the reply every service manager knows by heart: "Let me think about it and call you back."
They don't call back. The car goes out with the red item still on the sheet, the advisory gets printed on the invoice, and the work goes to an independent down the road or never happens at all. A customer who declines a brake job usually isn't refusing the brakes. They're refusing a number they can't check, read to them by someone they met for four minutes at 8 a.m.
The data on this is blunt. In the J.D. Power 2024 Aftermarket Service Index, 51% of customers who received an inspection with photo or video had the recommended work done, against 24% of those who didn't. More than double, and only 23% of customers got any photo or video at all.
Two years later the gap is still open. J.D. Power's 2026 Customer Service Index found 64% of customers want photo or video evidence with their inspection results, while 26% of mass-market and 44% of premium customers get it. Advisor satisfaction scores were also highest when the evidence was there.
On the UK side, the older numbers are uglier. autoVHC data reported by Motor Trader put the average franchised dealer's unsold red work at £87,600 a year, £429m across the network, and Coachworks estimated around 30% of cars through franchised workshops got no VHC at all. That was 2018 data, and the process problem it describes (red work identified, never shown, never sold) hasn't gone anywhere.
So declined work is a visibility problem before it is a pricing problem. The steps below fix the visibility.
What does a vehicle health check include?
A vehicle health check is the structured, advisory inspection your technicians do on every car that comes into the workshop, whatever it came in for. Dealer groups list the same core areas for their customers: brakes, tyres, exhaust, steering, suspension, lights and fluid levels. Most VHC sheets add battery, wipers and bodywork.
Measure, don't eyeball. Tyre tread is the one item with a clear legal line in the UK: cars must have at least 1.6 mm across the central three-quarters of the tread. Everything else is graded against the manufacturer's spec, which is why the gauge reading belongs in the video.
A few terms worth lining up, because the same thing has several names:
- VHC / eVHC: the UK terms. The eVHC is the electronic record (the tablet checklist, the RAG report, the estimate). The video attaches to that record; it doesn't replace it.
- MPI / DVI: the US terms for the same inspection. If your group reports in multi-point inspection language, the video MPI guide covers the American version.
- MOT: a legal pass/fail test, so a different thing. The VHC is advisory and is where almost all of your customer-pay opportunity sits.
Your customers already know what to expect. Ford UK describes its Video Check as a 30-point health check where anything needing repair is captured on video and sent by email or text, with a traffic-light result and no work started without approval. Stratstone tells owners the check takes around 20 to 25 minutes and offers a free amber recheck later.
How to do a vehicle health check on video, step by step
Most workshops that struggle with video VHCs treat the video as an extra task after the inspection. The ones that convert film while the technician is already looking at the fault, in the 30 seconds they'd otherwise spend writing it down.
- Put the video on the VHC sheet. It's a line on the check, not a favour. Every car with a red or amber item gets a clip. Green-only cars get a 20-second "all clear" clip, and you'll see why below.
- Run the check in a fixed order. Same route around the car every time: tyres and brakes with the wheels accessible, then underneath (suspension, steering, exhaust, leaks), then lights, fluids and battery. A fixed route is what gets completion close to 100%.
- Grade as you go. Red, amber or green on the eVHC for every item, with the measurement typed in: tread in millimetres, pad thickness, battery test result.
- Film on the ramp, on the phone the technician already carries. One take, no editing, 45 to 90 seconds. Point at the part, say what it is, show the gauge, say why it matters. Start with ten seconds of what's fine.
- The advisor prices it. The service advisor attaches the priced red and amber lines to the video, so the fault and the price arrive together. The phone call can never deliver that combination.
- Send, approve, record. The next section covers this step in detail, because it is where most of the money is won or lost.
- Book the amber follow-up before the car leaves. Amber work comes due in three to six months. Log the date and the value now, so the reminder goes out with a link back to the original clip.
If you want to see the recording and sending screens, the servicing product page walks through them. For where video sits in the wider aftersales journey, from booking confirmation to handover, there's a guide on building personalized video into your aftersales workflow.
What to film for red, amber and green
The colour decides the clip. Red needs proof and urgency, amber needs proof and a date, and green needs 15 seconds of reassurance. Film all three the same way and customers stop believing the red ones.
Two things about honesty, because the video makes it unavoidable.
On a UK owners' forum, a driver described being advised to replace tyres at 4.7 mm of tread, with other posters adding that dealer groups do this "routinely" and "chase multiple times". A thin recommendation looks thin on camera, and the customer can pause it. If the advisory wouldn't survive the customer's brother-in-law watching it, don't film it and don't sell it.
I've watched technicians film for the first time, and the instinct is to film only the fault. The clips that got approved fastest in that workshop started with ten seconds of "your tyres are fine, your rear brakes are fine" before the camera went to the front discs. Green earns the right to sell red.
There's a full playbook on the selling side in how to upsell services using video. If you'd rather see it on your own ramp, book a demo and bring a car with an amber list.
How the video reaches the customer and gets approved
A loose MP4 in a text message is better than nothing, but it's a dead end: the customer watches it and then has to ring you. Venta Video turns the clip into an interactive video page with your own branding, the priced lines, and approve, pay and reply buttons. It goes out by SMS, WhatsApp or email, whichever the customer reads.
What happens next, in order:
- The video-seen notification fires. The advisor gets an alert the moment the customer opens the page. 85% of service videos sent through VentaVid are viewed within 15 minutes, so that's the call window. Ring while they're looking at the disc, not at 4 p.m. when they've forgotten the name of the part.
- The customer approves on the page. The approve button sits under the video and the estimate, so the repair approval arrives in writing instead of being remembered from a phone call. Price red and amber as separate lines, so a customer who wants the brakes today and the wipers next time can still say yes to something.
- The advisor records the decision. Approved lines go onto the job card. Declined lines stay on the eVHC as declined, with a note that the video was sent, so the next advisor knows what the customer has already seen.
- Declined and amber lines go into follow-up. A reminder linking back to the original clip, sent when the work comes due, is the cheapest job you'll ever book. The follow-up routine itself is covered in declined services follow up.
For what the advisor says on the call while the customer is watching, there's a separate service advisor script for identified work.
What it's worth on your workshop
Walk one advisor through the numbers. These are example figures to show the shape of the maths; swap in your own from last month's VHC report.
The £784 is 8 cars × £280 × 35%. You won't recover all of it. Some customers are skint this month, some cars are being sold, some ambers are three months away. But the share that declines because the disc was a sentence and not a picture is the share video goes after.
Mohsin Haider Darwish, a Suzuki dealer using VentaVid, took customer approval rates from 68% to 88% and parts and labour upselling from 55% to 91%, according to Salah Al Rahbi, its Service Manager.
Put your own upsell rate next to that. If you're at 30% on identified work and video moves you towards 40%, run the £784-a-day line again at the new rate and multiply by advisors. The dealership service department statistics page has wider benchmarks if you want to check where you sit.
What a higher health check approval rate does to the workshop's revenue is worked through in how to increase workshop revenue.
Want to test the maths on real cars rather than a table? Start a free trial and send your first VHC video this week. No credit card, no editing, one technician and one phone.
What to measure: completion, approval and amber follow-up
A video VHC that isn't measured drifts back to phone calls within a quarter. Three numbers do most of the work on the Monday report, and three more tell you why they moved.
The three that matter:
- VHC completion rate: cars that got a full check, out of cars through the workshop. Coachworks' 30%-missed figure is the one to beat; the best retailers run above 95%.
- Approval rate, red and amber separately: identified value approved, out of identified value, by colour. Blending them hides the fact that amber is usually where the process leaks.
- Value of amber work followed up: the value of amber lines that got a follow-up contact when they came due, and how much of it was booked. If the first figure is low, nobody is sending the reminders; if the second is low, the reminders aren't showing the original clip.
The three that explain them:
- Video attach rate: VHCs with a red or amber item that also got a video. Target 100%. Below 80% means technicians think the video is optional.
- Video-seen rate and time to view: did the customer open it, and how fast. If your median is over an hour, you're sending to the wrong channel.
- Time from send to approval: minutes, not the next morning. This shows the approve button is doing its job.
Watch hours per repair order and CSI as the lagging pair. If approvals rise and CSI falls, someone is filming ambers as reds. Approval rate is also the number to coach advisors on week by week; how to increase service advisor sales sets out what to look at with each one.
And the mistakes, in the order we see them:
- Sending a raw video file. The customer watches it, then has nothing to press.
- Filming only the fault. No green context, no proof the rest was checked. The customer assumes you're only looking for things to sell.
- Leaving the price off. "Watch this and I'll call you with a quote" puts the phone call straight back in the loop.
- Telling technicians it's extra. If it's outside the VHC time allowance, it won't get done. Put it on the sheet.
- Buying a general video tool. If people have to edit, upload and copy links, adoption collapses in week two. The platform checklist lists what a service department needs.
For the broader set of tactics that lift customer-pay work, there's a separate piece on strategies to boost repair sales, and one on video messages for the service department beyond the health check itself.
Frequently asked questions
How do you do a vehicle health check for a customer?
The technician inspects the car in a fixed order (tyres, brakes, steering, suspension, exhaust, lights, fluids, battery), grades each item red, amber or green, and films the red and amber findings on a phone. The advisor adds prices and sends the video to the customer, who approves the work from the same page.
What does a vehicle health check include?
The core areas are brakes, tyres, exhaust, steering, suspension, lights and fluid levels, and most dealers add battery, wipers and bodywork. Each item is measured where it can be (tread depth, pad thickness, battery test) and graded against the legal limit or the manufacturer's spec.
What do red, amber and green mean on a VHC?
Red means the item needs fixing now: it's worn past the limit or not working properly. Amber means it's wearing but safe today and will need attention within months. Green means it passed and needs nothing.
How long does a vehicle health check take?
Dealer groups such as Stratstone tell customers around 20 to 25 minutes. Filming adds 45 to 90 seconds if the technician records while already at the fault. If it adds more than that, the video is being done as a separate task, which is the thing to fix.
Is a vehicle health check the same as a service?
No. A service replaces consumables on a schedule (oil, filters, plugs). A health check is an advisory inspection of the car's condition, done alongside the service or any other job, and it's where the red and amber recommendations come from.
Does video work with our eVHC or DMS?
Venta Video works with the systems you already use: standard integrations, including Keyloop and EVHC by Autoconnect, and an open API that connects it to any DMS, CRM or BI tool. The eVHC stays your record of the inspection; the video is the explanation attached to it.
Talk to us
If red and amber work keeps dying on the phone, the quickest way to see what a video changes is to watch one go out on your own VHC flow. We'll shoot one with your technician on a 15-minute call, attach a real estimate, and show you what the customer sees.
What it takes to start.
- 7-day free trial, no credit card required, so your advisors can send real VHC videos before you commit.
- No editing skills needed. Technicians film on the phone they already carry.
- We'll show it on your own inspection flow, with your eVHC, on the demo.
A real person from the VentaVid team runs these demos on your workshop flow.