The estimate went out at 2pm. By Friday, the customer's gone quiet.
AI services that follow up on estimates, run service-due reminders by VIN, and pull Google reviews on every RO.
Independent shops and small dealer service drives lose more revenue to ghosted estimates than to anything else. The car's still on the lift, the customer hasn't called back, and your service writer is already on the next vehicle. Throughway AI runs the follow-ups your shop never gets to.
The problem
Walk through any independent shop on a Friday afternoon. Three cars are parked out back waiting on customer approval. The service writer texted the estimates Tuesday and Wednesday. Nobody's called him back. He doesn't have time to chase, because the bays are full and the phone keeps ringing with new diag requests.
The other side of the shop is the recurring customer. The 2018 Camry that came in for brakes nine months ago is due for a coolant flush, and nobody's calling. Parts come in for a held job and the customer doesn't know. Reviews trickle in when a customer feels strongly enough to bother. Most don't bother.
Workflows we run for repair shops
- Estimate follow-up calls. Sent estimates get a same-day text, a next-day call, and a third touch before the job is dead.
- Service-due reminders by VIN. Customers get the right reminder for the right car at the right mileage, pulled from your DMS.
- Parts arrival texts. When the part hits your counter, the customer gets a text and a booking link that day.
- Missed-call recovery. Calls that bounce to voicemail get a text inside a minute and a callback put in the queue.
- Post-service review push. Every closed RO triggers a Google review request, with unhappy customers routed to the manager first.
- Declined work follow-up. Service recommendations that the customer passed on get a sixty-day check-in.
- No-show rebooking. Missed appointments get rebooked the same day before the slot is wasted.
What fits a shop
A single-bay independent runs well on Starter with the Reputation service added. The typical three to six bay shop with a service writer and an office manager fits Pro, which adds Receptionist for inbound calls, Bookkeeper, and Reputation. Multi-location groups and dealer service drives go to Elite, where the Sales service runs warm-lead callbacks and declined-work outreach across the customer base.
Pricing
Single workflows run $129 to $349 per month, so you can start with just estimate follow-up or just review push. The full auto AI system is $499 per month and covers all ten workflows.
Let the techs focus on what's on the lift.
Your techs do good work. Your service writer is doing the job of two people. Throughway AI takes over the chase work, the reminders, and the review asks so the shop can focus on what's on the lift.