Answer · for auto repair shops
Your hands are covered in oil and the phone is ringing
A driver whose car will not start calls three shops and books with whichever one answers. This one answers, works out what is wrong with the car, checks you work on it, and puts them in a bay.
from $1,500 setup + $350/mo
Nobody in the building can pick up the phone
A repair shop is the clearest version of this problem there is. The people who can answer questions about a car are the people who are physically inside a car. The phone rings during a brake job and either it goes unanswered or a tech slides out, wipes his hands, and loses ten minutes of billable work to a question about whether you take Subarus.
The caller is not patient, and reasonably so. A car that will not start is an emergency for the person it belongs to. They are standing in a parking lot or waiting on a tow, and they are calling down a list. First shop to answer with a real human voice gets the vehicle, and the second and third shop never learn they were in a race.
It gets worse after five. Cars do not break during business hours as a courtesy. The tow calls, the will-not-start calls, and the strange-noise-on-the-highway calls all land in the evening, and every one of them turns into a booking for whoever is reachable.
What people actually ask when they call a shop
It does not quote repairs. It cannot see the car and neither can you, which is the honest answer to most of these. What it does is find out enough that the vehicle is in your bay and your estimate is the one they are waiting on.
“Do you work on my car?”
Answers from your actual list of makes and the work you do and do not take, so a diesel or a European car is not booked into a shop that will have to turn it away.
“How much to fix it?”
Explains how your shop handles estimates, including your diagnostic fee if you charge one, and never invents a repair price for a car nobody has looked at.
“It is making a noise when I brake.”
Asks the follow-ups a service writer would ask, so the ticket says grinding under braking at low speed rather than customer says noise.
“Can you get me in today?”
Books into your real schedule and only offers slots that exist, then texts the confirmation.
“Do you have a loaner, and can I wait?”
Answers from what your shop genuinely offers, which stops the argument happening at the counter on the morning of the appointment.
A Thursday at 4:50pm
Her car will not start in a grocery store parking lot. The tow truck is thirty minutes out and the driver asked her where she wants it taken. She is calling shops in the order Google gave her.
4:50pm
She calls. It answers while your lift is still down.
4:51pm
It asks the year, make and model, whether the engine turns over, and whether the lights come on.
4:52pm
It confirms you work on her vehicle and explains your diagnostic fee, so nothing at the counter is a surprise.
4:53pm
It books tomorrow's first open slot, texts her the address, and tells her what to say to the tow driver.
4:54pm
Your summary arrives: vehicle, symptoms, tow arriving tonight, and the transcript.
The other two shops on her list are still ringing. Her car is coming to you.
It cannot possibly quote a repair.
Correct, and it does not try. Quoting a repair from a phone description is how shops end up in an argument at pickup. It screens the job, explains your diagnostic fee, and books the car in. The estimate is still yours, made after somebody has looked at the vehicle.
My customers want to talk to a person.
Some will, and it hands those calls off. But the comparison is not the AI against you, it is the AI against a phone that rings out while you are under a car. There is a live number on the pricing page you can call to judge how it sounds before you spend anything.
We already have voicemail.
Voicemail works when the caller has already chosen you. It does not work when they are standing next to a dead car with three more numbers to try. That caller does not leave a message.
How much does an AI receptionist for an auto repair shop cost?
A fixed setup fee plus a monthly, both published on the pricing page before you talk to anyone. No per-minute billing, so a busy week does not change the bill.
Can it tell customers what a repair will cost?
No, deliberately. It explains how your shop estimates and what your diagnostic fee is, and leaves the number to you once the car has been looked at.
Will it book into our existing schedule?
Yes, into the calendar or scheduling tool the shop already uses, so it cannot offer a bay that is not free.
What about calls after hours and tow arrivals?
Those are the calls this exists for. It answers at any hour, takes the vehicle details, and tells the caller what to do with a tow so the car is at your shop in the morning.
Do you only work with shops in Minnesota?
No. Hewstone is based north of the Twin Cities and most clients are Minnesota businesses, but a phone line works anywhere.
Hear it before you decide anything
This is the same Answer package every other business gets, set up around how a auto repair shop actually takes calls. The number below is live. Call it, ask it awkward questions, and judge it on what you hear rather than on this page.