AI receptionist for auto shopsThe automotive answering service that books the drop-off

Both advisors are with customers and the phone keeps ringing — that’s the job that books at the next shop. Penny answers every call in one ring, gets the year, make, model, and symptom, and books it straight into your calendar.

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Don’t take our word for it

Call Penny right now.

This is a live line answered by Penny herself — not a recording. Hear how fast she picks up and how she handles a real conversation.

(224) 257-3735
  • Ask her to book an appointment and listen to her read back the details before she locks the slot.
  • Start talking over her mid-sentence — she keeps up and doesn’t lose the thread.
  • Ask her straight out if she’s a real person — she’ll tell you the truth.
Phones in auto repair

The calls auto shops actually miss.

The advisor can’t be in two places

Your service advisor is writing an estimate at the counter and a tech needs a second opinion in the bay. The phone rings anyway — and a caller with a dead car books wherever someone picks up. Penny answers the overflow while your advisor finishes the customer in front of them.

Monday at 8am

Every breakdown from the weekend calls at once, before the coffee’s even on. Voicemail fills up and half those callers never call back. Penny answers all of them in parallel, captures the vehicle and symptom, and books the drivable ones in.

“Is my car ready?” all day long

Status calls are the most common ring in the shop and the biggest interruption to flat-rate work. Penny can’t see your shop management system, so she takes a detailed, urgency-flagged message instead of guessing — and that still beats a voicemail nobody hears over the impact gun.

Quote shoppers with no callback

Someone pricing a brake job hangs up at voicemail and dials the next shop. Penny answers the basics — your hours, service area, and the services you offer — captures the vehicle and what it’s doing, and leaves you a lead with a callback number instead of a dial tone.

Listen in

A real auto repair call, booked end to end.

A Monday-morning brake-noise call, triaged and booked end to end while both advisors were at the counter — no one had to pick up the phone, and the customer got a text confirmation.

pennyassistant.com/calls/live · 00:48
Inbound call · Ridgeline Auto Repair
Penny is speaking · transcribing live
Penny
Thanks for calling Ridgeline Auto Repair — this is Penny. How can I help?
Vanessa (caller)
Hi — my car’s started making this grinding noise when I brake. It’s kind of freaking me out.
Penny
Let’s get that looked at. First thing — is the car drivable, or does it need a tow?
Vanessa (caller)
It drives fine, the grinding just happens when I press the brake.
Penny
Good — then we don’t need a tow. Can I grab your name and the year, make, and model?
Vanessa (caller)
Vanessa Pruitt. It’s a 2017 Honda CR-V.
Penny
Got it — 2017 Honda CR-V, grinding under braking. What’s the best callback number for you?
Vanessa (caller)
Sure, it’s 555-0142.
Penny
Thanks, Vanessa. I’ve got a drop-off opening tomorrow at 7:30 AM or Thursday at 8 AM. Which works?
Vanessa (caller)
Tomorrow at 7:30 is perfect.
Penny
Booked — tomorrow at 7:30 AM, with the brake noise noted on the ticket so the tech knows what to check. I’m texting you the confirmation now. Anything else?
Vanessa (caller)
No, that’s everything. Thank you!
Penny
You’re welcome, Vanessa — see you at 7:30.
Captured automatically
Name
Vanessa Pruitt
Vehicle
2017 Honda CR-V
Reason for call
Grinding under braking · drivable
Appointment
Tomorrow · 7:30 AM drop-off · confirmation texted
Synced to Jobber & calendar
Do the math

What does voicemail cost you?

Plug in your own numbers — the defaults are sourced, not invented.

Default job value: $500 AAA — average car repair bill ($500–$600 range) (as of 2017-04-04). Adjust to your numbers.

What voicemail costs you

If you miss 6 calls a week and close 50% of them at $500 a job, voicemail is costing you about

$6,495/month
Penny starts at $29/month — about one booked job pays for a whole year of her answering.
The playbook

How Penny handles Auto repair calls.

This is documentation of what she actually does — configured to your services, your calendar, your rules.

What she asks every caller
  • Name and best callback number
  • Year, make, and model of the vehicle
  • What it’s doing — the symptom in the caller’s words
  • Drivable or needs a tow, and whether the driver is stranded
What she books on the spot
  • Drop-off appointments for repairs and drivability problems
  • Oil changes and scheduled maintenance against open calendar slots
  • Diagnostic appointments for check-engine and warning lights
What she hands to a human
  • Stranded or unsafe-to-drive callers — during shop hours she warm-transfers them to your advisor under your rules; off-hours she flags it urgent with the vehicle, location, and symptom and texts you so you see it first
  • “Is my car ready?” status calls — she can’t see the shop management system, so she takes a detailed message and marks it for the advisor
  • Price-quote calls — captured as a lead with the vehicle, symptom, and callback number, since she won’t quote a number you haven’t configured
After hours

Penny answers 24/7. Overnight and weekend breakdowns get the drivable ones booked into your next open slots with a text confirmation, and the urgent ones flagged with a complete message texted to you; during shop hours a stranded caller can be warm-transferred straight to your advisor, and routine calls get booked for business hours.

Works with
Google CalendarJobberSoonHouseCall ProSoonZapierSoon

Google Calendar is live today; the rest are on the roadmap. Every lead and booking is emailed to you now.

Beyond answering

One receptionist, every call handled.

Answers every call, 24/7

Penny picks up on the first ring — nights, weekends, lunch breaks, and when you’re already on the other line.

Books jobs to your calendar

She checks real availability, offers slots, and writes the appointment straight into the calendar you already use.

Captures every lead

Name, number, address, and the reason they called — logged and emailed to you the moment they hang up.

Answers the everyday questions

Hours, pricing, service areas, “are you open today?” — Penny answers FAQs and escalates the calls that need you.

Plays nice with your stack

Books into the tools you already run on.

Appointments land in your Google Calendar today — and the CRM and field-service connectors below are on the way, so leads will flow straight into the tools your team already lives in.

GGoogle CalendarJJobberSoonHHouseCall ProSoonSServiceTitanSoonZZapierSoonCCalendlySoonQQuickBooksSoonHHubSpotSoonSSalesforceSoonOOutlookSoonTTwilioSoonSSlackSoon
More CRM, field-service, and messaging connectors — plus 5,000+ apps through Zapier — are on the roadmap.
Auto repair questions

What auto shops ask us.

Still curious? Penny can answer your questions too — give her a call.

Yes — that’s where she earns her keep. Her first question is the one a good service advisor asks: is the car drivable, or does it need a tow? She captures the year, make, model, and symptom, books the drivable ones into your next open drop-off slot, and texts the confirmation. A stranded or unsafe-to-drive caller gets warm-transferred to your advisor during shop hours, or flagged urgent with a complete message texted to you off-hours, so you see it first.

No — she can’t see your shop management system, so she won’t guess at a status. Instead she takes a detailed message and marks it for your advisor with the customer’s name and vehicle, so the “is my car ready?” calls stop interrupting flat-rate work and still get a real answer fast — which beats a voicemail nobody hears over the shop noise.

No. She answers the basics — your hours, service area, and the services you offer — but she won’t quote a number you haven’t configured. A quote shopper becomes a captured lead with the vehicle, the symptom, and a callback number, so you call back and win the work instead of losing it to voicemail.

She’s set up on your services, so she speaks your customers’ language — drop-offs, drivability, check-engine lights, the difference between a tow and a drive-in. She won’t diagnose a wheel bearing over the phone, but she captures the year, make, model, and symptom so your tech knows what to check before the car’s even on the lift.

How Penny introduces herself is your choice. What we don’t do is pretend: if a caller asks whether she’s a real person, Penny says she’s an automated assistant — and then keeps right on booking the drop-off. Most callers care that the call got answered, not who answered it.

Yes — Penny is bilingual. She picks up the language the caller is speaking and answers in it, English or Spanish, so a Spanish-speaking driver with a dead car gets the drop-off booked instead of hanging up to find a shop that can take the call.

Penny starts at $29/month with 60 minutes of call time included, and plans scale to 625 minutes. Traditional human answering services bill per minute per agent — see our answering service cost guide for the side-by-side math.

More trades

Penny works where the phone rings.

Stop sending customers to voicemail.

Give Penny your number and let her answer the next call. You’ll have her booking jobs before your coffee’s cold.

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