Chatbot for Car Repair Shops: Books Open Bays While Your Techs Are Under a Car
Short version: in tire season the shop phone doesn't stop: "how much to swap my winter tires?", "anything open Saturday?", "can you do an alignment while it's in?". Your techs are working, the service writer can't keep up, and the customer goes to whoever picked up. A chatbot for your auto repair shop answers from your own website and price list, right away, and books the customer into an open bay or lift — sized to how long the job takes. The day before the appointment, the customer gets a reminder.
This is the AI chatbot for your website with a booking mode built for repair shops.
Why This Hurts in a Repair Shop
- Seasonal rushes. Where winters are real, everyone wants their tires swapped in the same couple of weeks in the fall and again in spring — and many of them message in the evening.
- Greasy hands. A tech can't answer a chat from under a car, and the service writer is on the phone, handing back keys and checking in the next customer at once.
- The same questions all day: price of a tire swap, whether you store tires, how long an oil change takes, whether you're open Saturday.
- Bookings on a sticky note. The customer shows up and the lift is taken, because someone booked by phone and never wrote it down.
What the Bot Does for Your Shop
Answers about services from your website, and prices from your price list
The bot indexes your shop's website and answers from it: services, hours, address, whether you do diagnostics on weekends. Prices are a separate source: the bot answers "how much" questions only from the price list you enter in the dashboard (Training → Docs/Q&A → Pricelists), never from your site's pages. That gives you one place of truth for prices, and the bot won't quote a stale figure from an old page. The booking card shows each service's price from your booking setup, but the chat answer itself doesn't see those prices, so add them to the price list too. If a price isn't in the price list, the bot says it doesn't have that information. It doesn't make up numbers.
Books a bay, not just "a time"
In the booking mode for repair shops, the bookable unit is a bay or lift. Each has its own schedule, and open time is worked out for each one separately:
- a tire job in bay 1 at 10:00 doesn't block 10:00 on the alignment rack;
- job length comes from your price list: oil change 45 minutes, diagnostics an hour;
- a buffer between cars, so the bay is clear before the next one rolls in.
The customer taps through service, bay (or "Any bay") and time in the chat. Make and plate can go in the comment.
Booking is on paid plans, starting with Base ($39/mo). Answers from your website work on the free plan too.
Reminds customers and lets them reschedule themselves
24 hours before the appointment, the customer gets an e-mail reminder, and a second one 2 hours before (you set both times). Can't make it? They reschedule or cancel from the link in the e-mail, up to 12 hours before (you set the cutoff). The freed slot opens up again right away. A customer who books less than 24 hours ahead gets only the second reminder.
One schedule for the bot and the phone
Under Appointments in the dashboard you get a day grid with a column per bay. A customer calls — your service writer clicks an empty cell and books them. The bot and the phone write into the same schedule, so two cars never end up in one bay at the same time.
A booking link wherever people find you
Your booking page gets a short address like botchata.net/b/main-street-auto (Latin letters, numbers and hyphens only). Put it in your Google Business Profile, on Facebook, or print it as a QR code on the invoice. A link to one service opens booking with that service already picked — so your "tire season" post links straight to the tire job.
What to Know Before You Start
- A bay and a tech aren't two separate things. You book the bay. If it matters which tech works on the car, set the tech up as a "bay" or split them by schedule.
- No per-vehicle quotes. The bot knows your price list, not a parts catalog.
- Starter services come without prices. Choosing "Car service" adds five starter services (computer diagnostics, oil & filter change, wheel alignment, tyre fitting, full wash) with durations but no prices. Add your own before you turn booking on.
- No SMS. Reminders go by e-mail only. A customer who left only a phone number gets no reminder.
- No deposits. The bot reserves the time; payment happens at the shop.
What You See in Numbers
| What | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| How busy each bay is | booked minutes vs. working hours |
| Expected revenue | service prices at the time of booking (BotChata doesn't run your register, so this is a plan, not actuals) |
| No-shows and cancellations | the status of each appointment |
| Questions the bot couldn't answer | a weekly e-mail — add the answer to your site and click Run reindex (Training → Links; automatic weekly re-index comes with Business), or the price to your price list, and the bot answers it from then on |
The last row does the most for your website. Customers ask about tire storage, AC service, hybrids. If that isn't on your site, you'll see it in the e-mail. Every account gets this report, including the free one.
How to Start
- Add the bot to your website with one line of code. It indexes your pages and answers from them.
- Dashboard → Capabilities → Book appointment → on "What kind of business is this?" pick Car service. The wording switches to "bay", and five starter services appear — set your own prices.
- Tab Bays: each bay's schedule and the services it handles.
- Settings → check the time zone under Schedule & availability, then turn on Appointment booking mode. Without this switch, the widget gets no Booking tab and no bays.
- Book yourself from your phone, then try to grab the same time a second time.
Answers from your website are free forever. Booking into bays from $39/mo. See full pricing.