Auto repair
Nobody in the shop can answer the phone at 2pm.
Your techs are under cars and the service writer is at the counter. SetMore AI answers the text, gets the year, make, and model, and books the bay.
What's actually costing you appointments.
Everyone who could answer the phone is either under a vehicle or standing with a customer, so calls go to voicemail during the busiest part of the day.
A driver with a check engine light calls three shops and books with the first one that answers, because the car has to be somewhere tomorrow.
The first question is what it will cost, and that cannot be answered before the vehicle is looked at, so the conversation stalls before a visit is booked.
Messages after close come from drivers who just noticed a noise on the way home, which is the moment they are most willing to book.
Declined work from a previous visit sits in the system with nobody chasing it, so a brake job quoted in March is still not done in July.
Detailing and maintenance bookings are price-sensitive and easy to lose to whichever shop replied with a straight answer first.
From first message to booked call.
- 1
Answer while the bay is full
Texts, missed calls, and messages from your Google profile route to one line and get a reply in seconds, without anyone putting down a wrench.
- 2
Get the vehicle before anything else
It asks what the issue is or whether this is routine maintenance, then the year, make, and model, so the service writer knows what is coming in and can plan the bay.
- 3
Do not diagnose by text
It acknowledges the symptom and books the visit. It does not guess at the cause or quote a repair, because that is what the inspection is for and a wrong guess by text is a hard conversation later.
- 4
Talk price the way your service writer would
It quotes only the prices you set, typically diagnostic fees and flat-rate services. Anything else, it says the inspection sets the number.
- 5
Go back after declined work and due maintenance
An outbound text reaches customers with work they declined or service coming due, which is revenue already sitting in your system.
Auto repair
my check engine light came on this morning, whats that gonna cost to fix
Thanks for reaching out to Sandhill Auto. A check engine light can be a lot of different things, so we'd need to pull the codes and take a look before anyone can price a repair. What's the year, make and model?
2017 honda crv
Got it. Is the car driving normally otherwise, or is it running rough?
drives fine just the light
Good, that gives us some room. I can get it in tomorrow at 8am or Thursday at 1pm for a diagnostic. Which works better?
Common questions before you start.
It can't diagnose a car over text, so what's the point.
It should not, and it does not. The point is that the car gets on the schedule while the driver is still deciding where to take it.
Customers will expect a price and get annoyed.
They get a straight reason why the price comes after the inspection, in one message, immediately. That reads as competent. Voicemail reads as closed.
Our service writer handles the phone fine.
When there is one customer at the counter. The calls that get lost are the ones during a rush, and those are the ones that went to another shop.
We don't get that many texts.
Most shops get more missed calls than texts, and a missed call that gets an instant text back is the single biggest source of recovered bookings.
Questions about this use case.
Will it tell a customer what is wrong with their car?
No. It acknowledges the symptom, asks for the year, make, and model, and books the diagnostic. The shop does the diagnosis.
Can it quote a repair price?
Only fixed prices you set, like a diagnostic fee. For anything else it says the inspection determines the cost.
Does it work for missed calls?
Yes. A missed call gets an automatic text back within seconds, which is where most recovered bookings come from.
Can it follow up on declined work?
Yes. Customers who declined recommended work or have service coming due can be reached with an outbound text.