A service writer asks for the vehicle first. So does this
Nothing useful can be said about a repair until you know what the vehicle is, and nothing can be scheduled until you know whether it can be driven in. Mazingi asks both in the first thirty seconds, so an enquiry that arrives overnight reaches you already sorted into "book it in" or "send a truck".
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What an unanswered enquiry costs auto repair shops
The bays are busy exactly when the phone rings
A shop running full is a shop nobody can answer the phone in. The enquiries you miss on your busiest days are the ones that fill next week.
A breakdown enquiry has a very short shelf life
Someone whose car will not start is calling shops in order until one responds. There is no second chance at that enquiry an hour later.
Without the vehicle, nothing can be quoted or ordered
"My brakes are making a noise" is not a job you can price, schedule or order parts for. Year, make and model turn it into one.
The questions it asks, and why in that order
The auto template asks for the year, make and model before it asks what is wrong — the same order a service writer uses, because almost nothing about the job can be assessed without it. What the vehicle needs comes next, separating repair from maintenance from detailing. Then it asks whether the vehicle is currently drivable, which is the question that decides whether this is an appointment or a tow.
Every question is editable — the template is a starting point, not a fixed script.
Auto repair & detailing template — 7 questions
- 1What name should we put the request under?*
- 2What phone number is best to reach you?*
- 3What is the year, make, and model of your vehicle?*
- 4What does the vehicle need (repair, maintenance, detailing)?*
- 5Is the vehicle currently drivable?
- 6When are you hoping to have this done?
- 7What email should we send the estimate to?
* required before the lead is counted as qualified
How it sounds on your site
An auto repair answering service that asks what a service writer would
A general answering service takes "car making a noise" and leaves you to work out the rest on the callback. A virtual receptionist trained on your shop asks the way your service writer does — year, make and model, what it is doing, how long it has been doing it, and whether it is still drivable — so the enquiry that reaches you is bookable rather than a puzzle.
Questions auto repair shops ask
- Does it ask for the vehicle first?
- Year, make and model is the first qualifying question, before the symptom — the same order a service writer works in, because parts, labour time and price all depend on it.
- Will it diagnose the fault?
- No. It captures the symptom in the customer's own words and answers only from your own published content. Diagnosing a grinding noise over chat is how a shop ends up committed to a price it should never have quoted.
- Does it know when a vehicle needs towing?
- It asks whether the vehicle is currently drivable, and the answer arrives on the lead. That is the difference between an appointment and a recovery, and it changes what you tell the customer to do next.
- Can it quote labour rates?
- It quotes whatever you have published — a diagnostic fee, an hourly rate, a set price for common services — and cites the page it came from. Anything you have not published, it declines to guess at and captures instead.
- Does it work for detailing as well as repair?
- The same template covers repair, maintenance and detailing, and asks which one it is as its second question. You can edit the options to match exactly what you offer.
- Is this cheaper than an auto repair answering service?
- Yes, on both price and shape: no per-call charge, and free for the first 50 conversations a month. It also arrives with the vehicle details already collected, which is time your service writer gets back.
- Can it act as a virtual receptionist for MOT, inspection and tyre enquiries?
- Yes. Add those services with your prices and it will answer and book them like any other job, keeping the quick jobs out of the queue you use for diagnostics.
Other industries
Stop losing the after-hours enquiries
Point it at your website, pick the auto repair & detailing template, paste one line of code.