Prepared for

Call answering for auto repair shops

The car broke down. The shop phone is in a bay.

Somebody is standing next to a car that will not start, working down a list of shops. The one that picks up gets the tow in, the diagnosis, and everything that follows.

AutoCalls answers every one of those calls, around the clock, asks what you would ask, and books the job before you have picked up the phone.

Monday · 8:12 AM · inbound
CallerMy check engine light came on and the car's running rough. Can you look at it today?
AutoCallsI'm the automated line for Northside Auto Service. I'll get the details and find you a slot. What's the year, make and model?
Caller2016 Ford Escape, about ninety thousand miles.
AutoCallsIs it drivable right now, or does it need to come in on a truck?
CallerIt drives, it just shakes a bit at a stop.
Booked · sent to the service desk at 8:15 AM
Vehicle
2016 Ford Escape · ~90,000 miles
Symptom
Check engine light, rough idle at a stop
Status
Drivable — customer driving it in
When
Today, drop-off before 10:00 AM

The problem

Every ring is a bay you have not filled yet.

A repair shop's phone rings hardest between eight and ten, which is exactly when every tech is turning wrenches and the person who answers is also the person writing the tickets.

So it rings out, or somebody picks up mid-job with their hands full and takes half a message. The call does not go unanswered because you stopped caring. It goes unanswered because you were under a car.

The caller is not waiting. They ring the next shop, and the shop that answered gets the tow in, the diagnosis, and the brake job behind it.

What one unanswered morning costs

A diagnostic is an hour of labour. The repair behind it is a day's ticket, and the customer who got a real answer at eight in the morning brings you the other car too.

You are not being undercut. You are being out-answered.

How it works

Three steps. Nothing you use today gets replaced.

01

Forward your line

Keep your number. Point it at us after hours, at weekends, or all the time — your choice, changed whenever you like.

02

It answers and asks

Every call picked up on the first ring. No hold, no queue, no matter how many come at once.

03

You get the job

Qualified, booked, and sent to you with the details. You wake up to work, not to voicemails.

It asks what you would ask

Every call, the same questions you would ask.

Takes the year, make, model and what it is doing before it books anything. These are the questions it actually works through — not a summary of them.

  • Year, make and model, and roughly the mileage
  • What it is doing, in their words: a noise, a warning light, will not start, overheating, pulling, leaking
  • Whether it is drivable right now, and whether it is somewhere safe
  • Whether it is already at the shop, at home, or needs to be towed in
  • Whether they need it back by a particular day, and whether they need a ride or a loaner
  • Whether this is a warranty, an insurance claim or a fleet account, because that changes who authorises the work

What's included

Everything, from the first ring.

  • Answered through the morning drop-off rush, when nobody can reach the desk
  • Qualified with your questions, not a generic script
  • Booked into a real schedule your own calendar subscribes to — Google, Outlook, Apple
  • Job details texted to whoever is on call
  • Handed to a person the moment it hits its edge, with notes from the call
  • A weekly summary of what came in and what got booked
  • Your number, your recordings, your customer data — exported whenever you ask

What it isn't

No chatbot on your website.

A chat bubble is the most visible and least useful version of this. Somebody with a real problem at nine at night is not typing at you. They are calling.

It says it's automated. On every call, in the first sentence. Pretending a machine is you works exactly once, and the moment somebody notices you have spent the trust this was supposed to earn.

It never quotes a price. It gathers, it books, and it hands over. Anything that commits you to a number or a promise routes to a human first.

Terms

Flat monthly fee

No per-call charge. No setup fee. No contract.

  • First month is the trial. If it hasn't produced booked jobs, switch it off and owe nothing further.
  • You own the number, the recordings and the customer data. All of it comes with you if you leave.
  • Priced on call volume and how many bays it books for. Told to you before you commit, not after.

Questions

The ones everybody asks.

Will my customers know it's a machine?

Yes, and it tells them — it says it is the automated line in its first sentence, on every call. It sounds like a calm person who is good at their job, and it does not need to pretend. The caller wanted somebody to pick up.

What if it can't handle the call?

It says so and gets you. An emergency, a complaint, or a price it should not guess is handed to a person along with notes from the call. Handing off well is a success, not a failure.

Do I have to change my phone system or software?

No. Keep your number and point your overflow at us — after hours, at weekends, or after a set number of rings. Nothing on your phone changes and there is no new app to remember to open.

How long until it's running?

About a week, and most of that is writing your questions with you. The answering itself works on day one.

What happens to the recordings?

Recording is off unless you switch it on, and when it is on the notice plays before the greeting rather than after it. Recordings are yours, they are never sent to a customer, and you can delete them.

How do I know it's actually working?

A summary text every week: what came in, what got booked, what needed you. Every call is logged with what it asked and what it did, and you can export the lot whenever you want.

Next step

Tell me what happens to the 8am call today.

Walk me through a Monday morning — who picks up while the bays are full, and what happens to the calls nobody gets to. Fifteen minutes is usually enough to see whether this is worth doing, and I will tell you straight if it isn't.