In detail
A body shop where people book the estimate and the drop-off, not the whole repair.
A fender to straighten and repaint keeps a car with you for days, and no appointment calendar describes that time well. What can be booked are the moments when the customer has to be there: when they show you the damage and when they leave the car. Here is how to use the app for those.
The inspection for the estimate
The item you find ready is a thirty minute estimate: the customer arrives, walks around the car with you, points out the dent or the scratch, and you get a sense of the work involved. Booking it from the link means three people do not show up at once while you are sanding. In the booking note the customer can write a couple of lines about the damage, so you know before the meeting whether it is a door or a bumper. The actual estimate you prepare and send as you already do: the app does not create or deliver documents.
Drop-off as a short appointment
A multi-day job should not go into the schedule as one huge block. Create a short item instead, for example a fifteen minute “car drop-off”, and book it yourself for the day the car comes in: the customer finds it on their page, with date and time, and gets a reminder if notifications are on. If you need breathing room between drop-offs, block the hours you spend in the booth and nobody books over them. The two hour polish, which is done the same day, stays bookable like any other service.
When the car is ready, you make the call
Today the app has no “car ready” button that alerts the customer: when you are done, you call or text them as always. What you can do is book the pickup in advance as an appointment, if you know when you will finish, so the customer has a time and your lot does not fill with people waiting for keys. If the paint needs an extra day to cure, move the pickup and the customer sees the new time on their page. With the delay notice you can also tell someone on the way that you need ten more minutes.
Insurers, adjusters and everything else
Paperwork with insurers and adjusters stays outside the app: SeeYouNext keeps no case files or damage photos for individual customers. In your contacts, though, each customer has text notes where you write model, plate, claim number or the adjuster’s name, plus the history of every appointment. The gallery on your page can show finished work you are proud of. If several people work at the shop, each with their own hours and items, one account holds up to 12. No online payments: the bill is settled at the counter.
