Customer approval of car repairs by SMS for your shop

What problem does SMS approval solve?

SMS approval gives you a recorded decision on extra work instead of leaving the job dependent on an unanswered call or an unclear conversation. When a mechanic finds something outside the agreed work, your team needs to explain the finding, state the price and establish what the customer wants. A link gives the customer something concrete to review. It also helps your service adviser avoid treating a general response such as “sort it out” as agreement to every additional item.

For your shop, the practical aim is to make a quick answer possible, not to promise that every customer will reply in minutes. Someone working, driving or away from their phone may still need time. In Georgia, an imported used car with uncertain service history can generate several recommendations during one visit. Keeping those recommendations separate helps you explain what you found without making the customer feel that accepting one item means accepting the entire list.

How does approval work for staff and customers?

The workflow starts with extra work on the current job and ends with a saved decision on each proposed line. Extra work found during a job goes to the customer as an SMS link with the price (and often the mechanic's photo); the customer approves or declines each line, and the answer is saved in the order's history. In the staff app, prepare the proposed work and check its wording and price before sending it. Your customer then opens the link and reviews the individual items rather than having to reconstruct a telephone conversation.

Once the customer answers, your team can act on the recorded approval rather than asking the mechanic to interpret a message passed between colleagues. The mechanic carries on as soon as the customer approves; the order moves out of "waiting for approval". For the customer, the important distinction is that seeing a recommendation is not the same as accepting it. Explain this when you send the request, especially if you have discussed several possible repairs and only some of them are now being proposed.

• Identify the extra work found during the job.
• Check each proposed line and its price.
• Include a useful mechanic's photo when available.
• Send the SMS link for the customer's decisions.
• Review the saved answers before carrying out extra work.

What is recorded after the customer decides?

Junto keeps the customer's line-by-line answer in the order's history, including recommendations that were declined. Declined lines stay on record as "recommended, not done". This distinction matters when your team looks back at a previous visit: work that was suggested should not be confused with work that was completed. Use clear descriptions so that a colleague reading the order later can understand the recommendation without needing to find the person who originally spoke to the customer.

The approval link also has access and usage controls. Approval links are tokenised, expire and record when they were used. Treat those controls as part of the workflow, not as a substitute for checking that you are contacting the right person. Before sending a request, confirm the customer's contact details and establish who will decide about extra work. If a customer questions an item later, review the saved decision and the order together rather than relying on what someone remembers from a busy shift.

Who uses approval, and how does it connect to the job?

Your mechanic, service adviser and manager each have a practical part in getting a clear approval, although the way you divide those responsibilities depends on your shop. The mechanic identifies and explains the finding; the adviser checks the customer-facing wording and price; the manager establishes a consistent process. Junto has staff roles and a mechanic's view on a phone. Decide internally who prepares recommendations, who checks them and who handles questions, rather than assuming everyone should send requests independently.

Approval connects the proposed extra work to the work order, rather than leaving the decision in a separate conversation. Junto work orders contain labour and part lines, while check-in can include photos and a signature. Keep the purpose of each stage clear: check-in documents arrival, while extra-work approval addresses newly proposed items. Later, invoices and payments are another part of the workflow. Your customer can also follow the repair's status on their phone, which helps separate a progress update from a request that needs a decision.

How can approval affect your average invoice?

SMS approval can support a higher average invoice when customers accept appropriate extra work, but it does not guarantee an increase. The useful change is that a finding becomes a specific, priced decision instead of a recommendation that never reaches the customer clearly. Some customers will accept all proposed items, some will choose a few, and others will decline. Your goal should be an understandable decision about the car, not an approval rate achieved by putting pressure on the owner.

To assess the effect, compare your own completed invoices over time and consider changes in the mix of jobs, parts and customers. A larger invoice alone does not show that the approval process improved: the underlying work may simply have been different. Junto includes reports, but do not assume a particular approval metric or calculation is available without checking. You can also review individual orders with your team to see whether descriptions were clear, questions were answered and approved work was actually carried through.

What should you check before using SMS approval?

Check module availability, SMS balance and your team's sending process before making approval links part of daily work. Some features are modules; the pricing page shows which plan includes them, and an owner can request a module that is not in the plan from inside the app. Do not assume that a particular plan includes the approval setup you need without checking that page. Junto works in Georgian and English, on a computer and on a phone, so you can plan the workflow around how your staff actually work.

Message length affects SMS use, so keep the invitation concise and leave the repair explanation to the approval content. SMS costs 0.04 ₾ per segment from a prepaid balance; a Georgian-script segment holds 70 characters (67 when a message is split), Latin 160 (153). Choose language for customer understanding rather than length alone. For customers using Georgian, a clear Georgian message is more useful than unfamiliar wording chosen simply to fit more characters. Agree on a short, recognisable invitation your team can use consistently.

• Check the pricing page for module availability.
• Confirm the customer's number and preferred language.
• Describe the finding without unexplained workshop shorthand.
• Check prices before sending the request.
• Explain who to contact if the customer has questions.

Questions and answers