Menu service
Oil change, tire mounting, inspection: the duration is known in advance. She captures the vehicle and the service, then books the slot in a free bay.
Repair shops and general mechanics
Your receptionist identifies the vehicle and books maintenance or an assessment into a free bay for the required duration. She answers progress enquiries using the shop’s recorded status. The appointment arranges the visit; approval for the repair remains a separate step.
$55 CAD / month · 50 Standard calls · 1 local number
For the requests you receive
A symptom to diagnose
A noise, a vibration, a warning light, a leak. She writes down what the caller observes and since when, without suggesting a cause, and books an evaluation.
Is my vehicle ready?
She takes the name and the vehicle and reads the status the shop recorded. When there is none, she asks the service advisor for an update and takes a message.
Other requests you can delegate
Vehicle that will not move
Breakdown on the shoulder, smoke or a burning smell, a car that will not start. She takes the location and what is happening, flags the request as urgent and alerts you right away.
A bay booked, with repair approval kept separate
The inspection sits on Tuesday, in the bay and for the duration the shop recorded. With the Estimates and approvals option, the estimate then goes to the payer and the approval is kept with its version; a broken spring found on teardown reopens an approval request, because the first yes does not cover the second estimate. Until the shop records something, the vehicle’s status stays one to confirm with the service advisor.
Read the full conversation
The owner is under a pickup on the hoist. A customer calls about a grinding noise under braking.
ReceptionistGarage Desjardins, good afternoon. Let me take your name and a callback number, in case we get cut off.
CustomerEric Bergeron, 450 555-0188. It grinds when I brake, and it has since Monday.
ReceptionistWhich vehicle is it — year, make and model — and roughly how many kilometres?
CustomerA 2018 Mazda 3, around 140,000 kilometres. Would tomorrow morning work?
ReceptionistThe inspection bay is taken tomorrow morning; I have Tuesday at 9. I cannot price the repair: the technician pulls the wheel, and you get the written estimate before anyone touches anything.
What she does for your shop
The moves she makes on calls to your shop, from the first appointment through to approval of a supplement, then what stays with the service advisor. Every line is a call your line gets.
When a customer calls for an appointment
She takes the name and callback number, then the vehicle — year, make, model — and the mileage, before asking what is going on.
The preset puts identification ahead of qualification, so a dropped call still leaves something to call back on.
She separates a menu service, whose duration is known in advance, from a symptom — noise, vibration, warning light, leak — that needs an evaluation.
One books straight into a bay; the other opens a diagnostic visit, with no cause suggested over the phone.
She checks whether the vehicle already has a file with you before opening a new one.
A customer calling back about the same noise adds to their file instead of starting your service advisor from a blank page.
She answers on a routine menu service — oil, tires, inspection — from the range you wrote down, and invents no figure of her own.
A repair that depends on a diagnostic has no range until you configure one; she then offers the evaluation instead of a number.
When the vehicle will not move, or someone asks if it is ready
She takes the location and what is happening for a roadside breakdown or smoke under the hood, flags the request urgent and alerts you right away.
The garage preset’s hot-lead rule applies before any appointment is sorted.
Outside your hours, she takes the message and texts it to you rather than leaving a stranded vehicle waiting until morning unanswered.
Solo setting: your mobile rings first; with no answer, the vehicle-and-symptom summary follows by text.
She reads the status your shop recorded when a customer asks whether their vehicle is ready, and takes a message when nothing is current.
The shop is the one who declares a vehicle ready, not her; the capability itself comes from the Auto shops and services base.
Booking, in a bay that is genuinely free
She books a service or diagnostic into a bay that is genuinely free, for the duration you recorded.
The resource limits the shop, not the ringer; an incompatible hoist is not filled just to please the call.
When the wanted bay is taken, she offers another slot or leaves the request in writing rather than forcing a time.
A written request stays visible for your advisor instead of vanishing into an already-full calendar.
She moves an appointment and passes on the practical details — key drop, address, waiting on site.
Those details travel with the new slot, so the customer does not have to give them again.
Between repairs, with Estimates and approvals
Options added separately, when they are useful to you.
- Add-on
She carries your shop’s written estimate through to the payer’s approval, and keeps the approved version.
Estimates and approvals option: the first yes stays attached to its own version and does not cover a second estimate. Estimates and approvals
- Add-on
She reopens an approval request when a supplement turns up on teardown, without advancing the work in the meantime.
Included in Estimates and approvals; a broken part found mid-job is not billed against the first approval. Estimates and approvals
- Add-on
She sends the payment request from your provider for a held bay and an ordered part, and stops the reminder as soon as it is paid.
Deposits and payments option: what was held for a customer who does not show up has a cost, and its real status is followed through. Deposits and payments
When your customers text, and if you already run Shopmonkey
- Channel
She continues by text the conversation about a vehicle drop-off and its known status, without announcing a repair approval over that channel.
Web and SMS conversational channel: a repair approval follows the authorization workflow, not a plain written exchange.
- Software
With Shopmonkey, she locates the customer, vehicle and repair order documented on the vendor side; writing an estimate and its approval still has to be proven on a real account.
Until writing is qualified, the estimate and work order stay wherever your shop already keeps them. Shopmonkey
- Software
With no connected software, she holds the schedule she books into while your shop keeps its estimate and work order where they are.
No second calendar is ever presented as synchronised with yours. Connect your software, or use ours
What she does not do on your line
- She does not diagnose over the phone the cause of a noise, a vibration or a warning light: that gets checked in the bay.
- She gives no firm price on a repair that depends on a diagnostic; a range on a routine service only if you wrote one down.
- She does not confirm a vehicle is ready and invents no status: she reads what the shop recorded.
- She promises no precise repair lead time before inspection, and no part announced as available at the supplier.
- She carries no approval for extra work without the Estimates and approvals option.
- She quotes no firm price for work whose written estimate is required by law before it exists.
What you can ask her yourself
She answers from the requests and calls you are allowed to access. A question about an option only applies once you have switched it on.
The questionWhich customers are asking whether their vehicle is ready?
She retrieves requests and the workshop’s recorded status. An estimate does not become repair authorization.
Which bays are booked for tomorrow, and which are still free?
She reads the slots booked in the resources you allow. She does not move an appointment on her own.
Which estimates are still waiting on the payer’s answer?
Add-onWith Estimates and approvals: the time between sending and approval, per file. Without the option, she tracks no repair approval.
Which deposit requests are still unpaid?
Add-onWith Deposits and payments: the real status of each request sent. Without the option, she tracks no payment.
What happens to the request
You write your instructions once
Your menu services with their durations, your bays, your hours, who to alert on a breakdown, and what she may not say.
She answers and qualifies
Name and callback number first, in case the line drops. Then the vehicle — year, make, model —, the mileage, scheduled service or a problem, and what the caller notices.
You get a request, not a voicemail
Who, which vehicle, which request, which availability. The appointment sits in a resource that is both allowed and free; otherwise the request stays unconfirmed.
What the Auto shops and services base covers
She answers for you, in both languages, identifies the vehicle and the request, and books inside the resources you allow. No setup fee, and you keep your number.
- Identify the customer, the vehicle and the service being asked for
- Book a service or a diagnostic in a resource that is allowed and free
- Move an appointment and pass on the practical details — address, key drop, waiting on site
- Answer from the known status, or ask the shop for an update
- A written summary after every call, readable in the app
She does not confirm that a vehicle is ready and does not invent a status: she reads what the shop recorded, otherwise she takes a message.
Decisions that stay with you
- No diagnosis over the phone for the cause of a noise, a vibration or a warning light: that is checked in the bay.
- No firm price on a repair that depends on the diagnostic; a range on a routine service only if you wrote it down.
- No repair lead time promised before inspection, and no part announced as available at the supplier.
- This is a legal protection, not just caution: above the threshold set by the Consumer Protection Act, your shop must issue a written estimate before work starts, and no add-on is billed without your recorded authorisation. She records the request; your shop provides the estimate.
- Approval for extra work goes through the Estimates and approvals option, not the base.
Ask your receptionist, too
This is included in your base plan. She answers using the calls, requests and business information you are allowed to access.
Talk to your receptionistA question you can ask
Which customers are asking whether their vehicle is ready?
She retrieves requests and the workshop’s recorded status. An estimate does not become repair authorization.
What else you can hand to her
Beyond the base plan. Each one is added separately from the base, and only if you choose it.
When your customers prefer to write
You can add a channel so she can continue the conversation with your customers. Any action she takes follows the same rules and the options you have chosen.
Optional customer channel
Customer text conversations
Respond about vehicle drop-off and known status; repair approval follows the authorization workflow.
The transactional messages provided by your base plan and your own questions to the receptionist remain included.
Keeping your current software?
Check the actions supported, connection requirements and how to work when your software cannot perform the requested action.
Customers, vehicles and repair orders documented on the vendor side. What actually gets written, the commercial plan required and multi-location scope still have to be proven on a real account.
Your shop keeps its estimate and its work order where they are; Zenvox holds the schedule it books into. No second calendar is presented as synchronised.
An appointment is not an approval to repair
What limits your shop is the bay, not the ringer. So she books into the resource you open to her, for the duration you recorded; if the bay is taken she offers another window or leaves you the written request, rather than filling an incompatible hoist.
The price comes afterwards. She identifies the customer, the vehicle and the symptom, separates menu service from work that has to be diagnosed, and answers from the status the shop recorded. The written estimate comes from your shop, and the payer’s approval is a separate step, carried by the Estimates and approvals option.
In the same section
The other lines of work in this section run on the same engine, with their own requests and their own rules.
Garages & auto servicesRepair shops and specialist centres
Repair shops and general mechanics — your questions
Does an appointment authorise the repair?
No. The base arranges the visit; the written estimate comes from your shop after the inspection. The payer’s approval is a separate step, and extra work reopens an approval request: the first yes stays attached to its own version and does not cover the second estimate.
What about customers calling to ask if their car is ready?
She answers from the status your shop recorded. When there is no current status she asks the service advisor for an update and takes a message. The shop declares a vehicle ready, not her.
Can she give a price over the phone?
A range on a routine service, yes, if you wrote it down: oil, tire mounting, inspection. A firm price on a repair that depends on the diagnostic, no — the garage preset rules it out.
Do approvals work the same way across Canada?
No. In Quebec the shop’s written estimate is governed by the consumer protection office above a threshold set in law; Ontario has its own rules, and a fleet or insurer contract adds more. The flow is set to match your province.
Your rules, before the first call
Start your free trial with your email. Your website can help prepare your business information, but it is optional. Confirm the facts, choose a first task and test your receptionist. You can try options too, starting with the ones you need.
Keep my phone numberRepair shops and general mechanics