Booking and rebooking
A caller says what the car is and what it needs, Merrows offers the times your calendar actually has, and the appointment is written to Tekmetric with the vehicle and the concern on it. A caller who cannot make it is moved rather than lost, and a no-show can be followed up by text.
After hours the shop is still taking bookings. A customer whose car broke on Saturday night has an appointment for Monday morning by the time the doors open, and the advisor reads it off the calendar rather than off a voicemail, with the vehicle and the complaint already on the appointment.
Status calls
"Is my car ready" is answered from the repair order in Tekmetric: what has been approved, what is in progress, and whether it is ready for pickup. The technician is not pulled off a job to answer it, and the customer is not asked to call back.
A question that needs a person, an estimate to approve or a diagnosis to explain, is transferred to the advisor with a summary of the call, or handed to your helpdesk with the transcript when nobody is free.
Phone, text and chat
The same booking and status conversation runs on your website chat and over SMS, so a customer who would rather text than call gets the same answer from the same repair order.
You pay by outcome: a booking made or a status question answered is a resolved conversation, and a call that went to the advisor costs less. The cost guide compares that with the minute-capped plans most shop receptionists sell.