Eric’s Garage in northeast Seattle has been providing foreign and domestic auto repair services to its community since 1991. It’s also where, Eric, a second-generation mechanic, uses technology, specifically his Qwest phone service, high speed Internet, email service and website hosting, to stay on top of the scheduling, parts management, and customer service tasks that could quickly overwhelm his time.

“Before the Internet, it was a three-day project just to deal with the paperwork and keep the business flowing,” explains Eric. Qwest helped him set up his email and build a new website for his business including a section that allows customers to request service appointments. It replaced an amateur website by "a friend" which was not the best solution according to Eric. But now, with his fast new and more reliable website and email system in place, Eric can turn more attention to interacting with his customers and fixing their vehicles.

“One of the most important parts of the business is communicating with the people (his customers and vendors),” says Eric. “To be able to do that is so much easier and faster with modern communications — the phone, the Internet, and top-notch service to go along with it — it has worked out well.