For garages, MOT centres & independent workshops
Nobody can answer the phone from under a ramp
Maeby picks up while the workshop is busy, quotes your MOT and servicing prices, books the car into a slot you can actually make, and takes the registration and the fault before the caller tries the garage down the road.
UK & EU data residency · No call recordings
- Answered on the first ring, including evenings and weekends
- Every callAnswered on the first ring, including evenings and weekends
- Captured on the call, not guessed at from a voicemail later
- Reg + faultCaptured on the call, not guessed at from a voicemail later
- The agent won't diagnose a fault down the phone; that books in
- No diagnosisThe agent won't diagnose a fault down the phone; that books in
- Call data processed and stored in Ireland
- EU onlyCall data processed and stored in Ireland
Where the phone costs you money
The phone rings when every pair of hands is busy
A workshop's busiest hour is the one where nobody can safely stop. Two technicians are under cars, one is on a road test, and the person who normally answers is out in the yard moving a vehicle off the ramp.
- Booking calls arrive during the morning drop-off rush and go to voicemail
- Callers ringing about a noise or a warning light want reassurance now, not tomorrow
- Whoever picks up first gets the car in, and it's rarely the garage that's flat out
An empty ramp is the most expensive thing in the workshop
A no-show or a late cancellation leaves a bay standing idle, and filling it means working the phone at exactly the moment nobody has time to. The slot usually just goes.
- Same-day gaps need an outbound response you can't staff mid-shift
- The customers most likely to take the slot are the ones already ringing to ask
- Waiting lists only work if someone is free to call down them
The calls come after you've shut the shutters
Cars fail in the evening and at the weekend. A driver whose MOT runs out on Monday rings on Sunday, gets voicemail, and books wherever answers first thing, which won't be you if you're opening at eight.
- Out-of-hours calls arrive as a voicemail list with no urgency attached
- Urgent and routine sound identical in an inbox on Monday morning
- MOT expiry and warning lights don't wait for opening time
The details get taken twice, or not at all
Registration, mileage, and what the car is actually doing get scribbled on the back of a job card, then re-keyed into the system later. Things get lost in the gap, and the technician starts the job with half the story.
- Registrations mis-heard over a noisy workshop cost a parts order
- "Making a noise" on a job card tells the technician nothing
- Admin lands at the end of a nine-hour shift
What your agent handles
Tools are switched on per agent and configured with your details — no bespoke development.
Quotes your published prices
MOT, interim and full service, brakes, cambelt, aircon regas: answered from your price list, consistently, instead of from memory or a guess.
Books into real ramp availability
Reads your diary, offers slots the workshop can genuinely make, and confirms before the caller hangs up.
Takes the registration properly
Reg, make and model, mileage, and what the car is actually doing, captured and read back on the call rather than deciphered from a voicemail.
Books diagnostics instead of guessing
A noise, a warning light, or a vague fault gets a diagnostic booking and an honest explanation of the charge, never a price plucked out of the air.
Handles the price-shoppers
Answers the ten-a-day "how much for an MOT" calls without taking anyone off a job, and books the ones that were going to convert.
Logged against the customer and the vehicle
Caller matched by phone number, with the call summary, the reg, and the outcome written back as activity.
Why garages lose calls specifically
Unlike most businesses, a workshop misses its calls in the middle of the day: the drop-off rush, a car coming off the ramp, the one person who normally answers walking a customer round a set of tyres.
That timing matters, because of what tends to arrive in those windows. The 8:30 call is usually a drop-off or a booking. The 11am call is often a driver who has just had a warning light come on and wants someone to look at it today. Both are work. Neither survives a voicemail greeting, because the caller is sitting in a layby with a list of local garages and no particular loyalty to any of them.
What can be answered without a technician
Forget “simple versus complex”; the line that works is information the garage has already written down versus judgement about a specific car.
The first category is bigger than most workshops assume:
- Prices for fixed-price work, from your own list: MOT, interim and full service, brakes, cambelt, aircon
- Availability, and booking into it
- Confirming, moving, or cancelling a booking
- Whether you can take the vehicle at all: van, hybrid, EV, LCV, class 7
- Courtesy car and collection arrangements, opening hours, where to park, which entrance
None of that needs a technician. All of it currently needs someone to stop what they’re doing.
The second category (“what’s that noise,” “is it safe to drive to Manchester,” “how much to fix it”) is not on the list, and is not something we will let an agent answer. A fault described down a phone is not a diagnosis, and a price given against one is a number you’ll have to walk back when the car is on the ramp. Those calls become a diagnostic booking, with the charge explained, or a transfer to someone who can talk it through.
Where garages tend to start
The lowest-risk entry point is out-of-hours. Nobody is answering those calls today, so the agent is up against voicemail rather than your service advisor, which is an easier bar and an easier conversation with the team.
It also happens to be where the MOT work hides. A driver whose certificate expires on Tuesday rings on Sunday afternoon, and books with whoever picks up. That call is worth having answered even if nothing else changes.
After a week or two of reading the out-of-hours transcripts, daytime overflow tends to follow on its own. The agent picks up when the desk doesn’t within a set number of rings, so the front counter keeps every call it’s free to take.
What to check before you commit
Three questions sort the suppliers in this space; don’t accept vague answers to any of them:
- Where is the call data processed and stored? Not just stored: processed. Both need to be in-region for this to be straightforward under UK GDPR.
- Is the audio retained at all? If it is, you have a conversation to have about voice data that you could have avoided.
- How long do transcripts live, and can you delete one customer’s? Both “indefinitely” and “we’d have to delete everything” are answers you’ll actually hear, and both leave you holding the problem.
Compliance
Built for GDPR,not retrofitted to them.
The constraints that make voice AI awkward in regulated markets were designed in from the start.
- Processed and stored in Europe
- Calls, transcripts, and summaries stay in Europe. AI models are also based there and have zero data retention policies.
- Audio is never stored
- Speech is transcribed as the call happens and discarded.
- Everything a caller said expires
- Transcripts, caller numbers, and messages are deleted automatically 90 days after the call. Not a setting you have to remember.
- Erase customer data
- If a caller asks to be forgotten, you can erase every trace of them from the dashboard.
Frequently asked questions
Will customers know they're speaking to an AI?
That's your choice, and we'd recommend it. The greeting is yours, spoken word for word as you write it, and the one we start you with says the caller is speaking to an AI assistant.
Can it quote for a job it hasn't seen?
No, and it won't try. Fixed-price work (MOT, servicing, common replacements) is quoted from your price list. Anything that needs the car on a ramp is booked in as a diagnostic with the charge explained up front. An agent that guesses a figure to avoid an awkward pause costs you the job twice.
Can it book MOTs against expiry dates?
It books into your diary like any other job, and captures the registration and the expiry the caller gives. It doesn't query the DVSA record itself, so treat the caller's date as the caller's date until you've checked it.
Does it work with our garage management system?
Calls are written back as contact activity with the caller matched by phone number and the registration captured on the call. Tell us which system you use when you sign up, and we prioritise integrations by demand.
What happens if someone rings about an unsafe car or a breakdown?
You define what counts as urgent and where those calls go. The agent can transfer straight to a nominated number, or capture the details and flag the call for priority callback. It does not advise on whether a car is safe to drive.
How long does setup take?
Most garages are testing an agent in the browser the same afternoon. Going live on a real number takes longer only if you need a new UK geographic number, which requires a verified business address first.
Hear it answeryour phone.
Set up an agent, try it in your browser, and put it on a real number.