Question 1

A caller wants a price on the phone — "how much for brakes / alignment / timing belt?" — does the AI just quote one?

Accepted Answer

Honest answer: no, because the AI cannot see the vehicle and cannot diagnose it over the phone. The AI opens every call with a clear AI disclosure so the caller is not misled about who (or what) is on the line, then runs the same intake the service writer would run — year, make, model, mileage, what the caller is hearing (squealing, grinding, knocking, leaking fluid), when it started, whether the warning light is on. The intake books a free in-shop diagnostic (real inspection, real number) and texts the caller the queued slot — never an invented quote, never a "ballpark" the writer would have to walk back. If the shop runs a flat-rate menu for common jobs like brake pads, the AI reads the price list you configured; if the job has to be inspected first, the AI books the inspection. The AI never invents a number the shop has not given, never pads an estimate, and never makes a quote the writer cannot honor in the bay.

Question 2

How does the AI tell an emergency ("won’t start", "leaking on the ground") from a routine oil change without mixing them up?

Accepted Answer

The AI opens every call with a clear AI disclosure, then branches intake on what the caller is describing BEFORE offering a slot. A "won’t start at the Shell station two blocks down" or "fluid is leaking under the car" or "smoke from the hood" lands in urgent repair — towing may be the right answer, an "as soon as we can tow you" or "first open bay" slot is offered, and 911 / roadside safety redirect happens for the cases where a stranded caller should not be on the phone. An "I’m due for an oil change and tire rotation" or "I want my winter tires swapped" lands in routine maintenance — next available drop-off slot, with mileage / last service / VIN last-6 captured so the writer opens the RO with the right unit already attached. Urgent and maintenance never share a queue; the service writer and the on-call tech are not mixed on a tow-in vs a routine oil-change call.

Question 3

Will the AI capture the right vehicle details so my service writer is not starting every RO from scratch?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The AI opens every call with a clear AI disclosure, then anchors the intake on what every repair-order writer needs at the top of the ticket — year, make, model, trim (or VIN last-6 when the caller is not sure), mileage, last service date, last shop if not yours, and the complaint in the technician’s voice, not the caller’s. Photos of the leak, the failed belt, the cracked rotor, the warning the dash is showing can be attached to the call so the writer or technician walks in with the diagnostic context already on the screen. If the caller cannot attach a photo on phone, the AI books the bay / drop-off slot and notes the missing photo for the tech to capture on arrival. The RO lands in the dashboard with the unit, the complaint, and the contact details already attached — not a blank ticket the writer has to take down by hand while the customer is standing at the counter.

Question 4

Can the AI book a drop-off, a tow-in, and a "wait while you fix it" visit without losing track of which is which?

Accepted Answer

Yes — three different calendar slots, three different intake contexts. A drop-off caller hands the keys over at open and picks them up at close; the AI books a drop-off slot with the agreed pickup time, captures the contact for the pickup day, and the writer stages the RO to a known pigeonhole. A tow-in caller is coming in via flatbed; the AI captures the towing company, the driver’s ETA, and the tow address so the writer knows the vehicle is inbound without a phone tag. A "wait" caller is staying on-site; the AI books a maintenance-only slot the bay can satisfy in the estimated time (oil change, tire rotation, brake fluid flush), never a wait slot on a multi-hour diagnostic call. The three streams never cross because the dispatch branches on caller intent; the bay and the customer’s expectations stay in lockstep.

Question 5

What happens when a caller hangs up after two rings during the Saturday-rush crunch?

Accepted Answer

If a caller hangs up before the AI can speak, a one-time SMS consent invitation may go out within seconds. It does not grant consent itself; only a clear keyword-only reply (YES, START, SUBSCRIBE, UNSTOP, Y, OK) grants consent for later non-essential SMS, and an arbitrary reply does not. The invitation identifies the AI assistant and the customer-service and recordkeeping purpose, while the text-back captures the vehicle + complaint already on hand so the writer can call back with context. STOP-family keywords (STOP, STOPALL, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, QUIT, OPTOUT, REVOKE) opt the caller out immediately, and the original call attempt plus SMS decision are stored together in the dashboard audit log. Useful for the 2 PM caller who phoned the shop, the 4 PM caller who got voicemail because the line was tied up, and the 11 PM caller who Googled your shop and tried once before walking to the one two lights over.

Question 6

An "I’m stranded" or "won’t start" call rings at 2 AM Friday night / Saturday morning — does the AI page my on-call or just take a message?

Accepted Answer

The AI opens the call with a clear AI disclosure, then runs the after-hours urgent-repair path the shop’s on-call rule actually defines. A safe-to-tow stranded caller (out of fuel, dead battery, alternator, no spare) routes to the on-call tech per the shop’s configured tow-and-recovery rule, never to voicemail. An unsafe-to-drive caller (fluid leaking on hot exhaust, smoke from under the hood, fuel smell, accident damage) is redirected to 911 first, then the shop’s after-hours line takes the post-tow capture so the writer knows the unit is inbound Monday morning. A "Monday morning first thing" urgency (overheating last night, drivable but worried) routes to the open-Monday slot. The AI never invents an on-call dispatch the shop has not configured, never pages a tech on a maintenance call, and never makes the after-hours caller wait for a Monday inbox reply that arrived too late.

Question 7

The vehicle is being towed in but the owner is the caller’s spouse / neighbor / boss — how does that intake work?

Accepted Answer

The AI opens the call with a clear AI disclosure, then runs the three-way intake the bay actually needs: the vehicle (year, make, model, VIN last-6, license plate if the caller has it), the owner contact (full name, phone, insurance carrier if relevant to the repair), and where the keys are (who is dropping off, who is authorizing, what ID will arrive with the unit). A caller who is NOT the owner of record gets the customer-of-record disclosure — the work will not start until the owner (or an authorized signer) signs the RO on file, never sooner— and the dashboard flag tells the writer the caller is not the signer so the writer reaches out before the bay pulls the unit in. Tow-in, drop-off, and customer-of-record branches never cross because the dispatch anchors on caller’s relationship to the unit, not on ring count.

Question 8

A lot of our callers speak Spanish — will the AI answer in Spanish too?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The AI opens every call with a clear AI disclosure, then answers in the language the caller opens in — English or Spanish today, with the same intake fidelity in both. The greeting is configured in the shop’s real voice, the urgent-vs-maintenance branching runs in the language the caller is using, the vehicle-aware intake captures the same year / make / model / VIN last-6 / mileage fields in Spanish, and the dashboard transcript is saved in both languages so the writer can read the call in their preferred language without losing what the caller actually said. Bilingual coverage is not a Spanish-language aftermarket add-on — it ships with the same intake, the same routing, the same text-back, and the same compliance posture as the English intake, so the shop does not run two queues for the same caller.

Question 9

Is this affordable for a one-bay owner-operator shop versus a multi-bay shop with a service writer?

Accepted Answer

The Solo plan at $99/month is built for the one-bay owner-operator: phone or voicemail transcription, up to 500 conversations a month, every urgent-vs-maintenance branch, every vehicle-aware intake field, every tow-in / drop-off / wait booking context, the shared SMS disclosure, every Spanish / English intake, no platform fee, no per-call surcharge. The Team plan at $299/month covers the multi-bay shop with a service writer and a couple of techs: phone + SMS, up to 5,000 conversations a month, per-bay routing, per-tech routing, and A-CRM (the built-in CRM) so leads and RO context stay in the same dashboard as calls. The Multi-location plan at $899/month covers up to 25,000 conversations a month, with per-shop routing and per-shop reporting for groups that run more than one bay. You are paying for call volume, not for a CRM licence you renegotiate every renewal, and not for an agency layer that sits between you and your customers.

The AI receptionist for auto repair shops.