Body shop updates: telling people about a job with no end date

Most status automation assumes you know when the job will be done. A body shop frequently does not, because the repair depends on an insurer approving work and a supplier delivering a part, and neither is yours to schedule.

That changes the problem. The customer is not really asking when the car will be ready; they are asking whether anything is happening and whether anybody is thinking about them. Those are answerable every week, even when the date is not, and answering them is what stops the phone ringing.

What we'll cover

• The question underneath "when will it be ready?"
• Why a promised date makes things worse
• Stages the customer can actually follow
• The waiting weeks
• Building it with CodeWords
• Three parties, one conversation
• Supplements, and the mid-job change
• Photographs, and what they are for
• The customer is probably having a bad month
• Making it survive
• Limits worth knowing about
• What to build first
• Frequently asked questions

The question underneath "when will it be ready?"

It is rarely a scheduling question. It is usually one of three things.

Has anything happened? The car has been gone for two weeks and there has been silence. Silence reads as nothing happening, even when a great deal is.

Is anyone dealing with it? Most people have experienced a repair that stalled because nobody chased something. They are checking that you are not that.

Can I plan? They need to know about a hire car, a lift to work, a weekend.

Each of these can be answered without a completion date. A weekly message saying what stage the job is at, what is being waited on, and who is chasing it answers all three, and the phone call stops being necessary.

Why a promised date makes things worse

The instinct is to give a date because it sounds like better service. On insured repairs with parts dependencies it is the single largest source of complaints.

A date given and missed is remembered as a broken promise. A date given, missed, and replaced with another that also slips destroys the credibility of everything you say afterwards, including the true information.

The alternative is not vagueness. It is being precise about what you do know and honest about what you do not. "We're waiting on the insurer's approval, which we requested Tuesday and chase every other day. Once it's approved the repair takes about four days, plus paint." That tells the customer more than a date does, and it survives the approval taking another fortnight.

Where you do give a date, give it only for the part you control, and say what it is conditional on.

Stages the customer can actually follow

Internal job stages are not customer stages, and using yours produces updates nobody understands.

Something like: with us and being assessed, waiting for the insurer, waiting for parts, being repaired, in paint, being finished and checked, ready.

Two things make these work. Each stage has a plain sentence saying what it means and roughly how long it usually takes. And the transitions are what trigger messages, so the customer hears from you when something actually changes rather than on a schedule.

Stage changes are also the only honest form of progress. A message saying the job has moved from waiting for parts to being repaired carries real information. A message saying the job is progressing well does not, and customers can tell the difference.

The waiting weeks

The hard part is the period where nothing changes, which on an insured repair can be weeks.

Send something anyway, weekly, and make it about the waiting rather than pretending to progress. What is being waited on, when it was requested, when it was last chased, and what happens when it arrives.

The message that "we chased the insurer again this morning and will chase again Thursday" is unglamorous and it is exactly what the customer wants to know, because it answers the real question, which is whether anybody is on it.

Silence during this period is what produces the daily phone calls, and the phone calls take far longer than the weekly message.

Building it with CodeWords

CodeWords connects to more than 3,000 integrations, and the connection is made once and reused.

1. Open CodeWords and start a new automation.
2. Describe what should happen in plain language to Cody, the automation builder: the customer-facing stages, what each message says, and the weekly update for jobs that have not moved.
3. Authorize the connections to your estimating or management system and your WhatsApp Business Platform account.
4. Describe the exceptions: a job waiting on an authorisation, an unexpected finding, a customer asking about cost, anything that sounds like a complaint.
5. Drive the messages from your job status rather than from a timer, so an update is never sent for a stage the job has left.

You describe the outcome; Cody builds it, connects it, and deploys it. The free plan covers light use, with Pro at $39 per month and Business at $100 per month as usage grows; details are on the pricing page.

Three parties, one conversation

An insured repair has a customer, an insurer and you, and the customer frequently does not know which of you is responsible for a given delay.

Be explicit about it, without blaming. "We're waiting on approval from your insurer" is a fact and is useful. Anything editorialising about insurers is not, and it comes back to you.

Two practical points. Make clear what the customer can usefully do, since sometimes a call from the policyholder moves an approval faster than anything you can do, and they will not know that unless you say so. And be careful about what you disclose: the customer's claim details are their business, and what you have been told by an insurer is not automatically yours to pass on.

Where excess payments, courtesy car arrangements or policy questions come up, those belong with the insurer, and saying so clearly saves everyone time.

Supplements, and the mid-job change

Strip the car down and something is worse than the estimate said. The job now needs approval for additional work, and the timeline resets.

This is the moment customers most need to hear from you and most often do not, because the shop is busy dealing with the supplement itself.

Tell them the same day. What was found, that it needs authorising, who is authorising it, and what it means for the timeline. A customer who learns about a delay when they ring to collect has had a much worse experience than one who knew about it three weeks earlier.

Anything involving what the customer might have to pay themselves is a conversation rather than a message. Send the notification, route the cost discussion to a person.

Photographs, and what they are for

A picture during the repair does something a status message cannot: it proves work is happening.

The useful moments are the strip-down that revealed something, the point where the repair is visibly underway, and the finished result. Three photographs across a three-week job changes the experience substantially.

Keep them plain and free of clutter, and treat them as records too: save them against the job, not only in the conversation. Photographs of damage and of work done have a habit of mattering later, and a thread on somebody's phone is not where they should live.

The customer is probably having a bad month

Worth holding in mind when writing the messages, because it changes the register.

Most people at a body shop got there through an accident. They may be shaken, dealing with an insurer for the first time, without their car, and worried about cost. The repair is one more difficult thing.

That argues for warmth and for plainness. Say what is happening in ordinary words, avoid the internal vocabulary, and make it easy to reach a person. And route anything expressing distress or frustration to a human immediately rather than replying automatically, because an automated response to somebody upset reads as indifference at the worst possible moment.

Making it survive

Drive messages from job status, never from a timer.

Send the waiting-week update even when nothing has changed.

Save photographs against the job, not only in the thread.

Route anything about cost or complaint to a person.

Check the stage before every send, so no update describes a stage the job has left.

Limits worth knowing about

You cannot promise what you do not control, and dates on insured repairs mostly belong to somebody else.

Updates do not shorten a repair, they remove the calls asking about it.

Not every customer wants messages, and some will ring regardless.

Claim information is not all yours to share, so be careful what an automated message repeats.

The channel has rules, so proactive contact outside the 24-hour window needs an approved template, which matters for jobs where the customer has not written in for weeks.

What to build first

The weekly waiting update. One message a week on jobs that have not moved, saying what is being waited on, when it was last chased and when it will be chased next. The waiting period is where the phone calls come from, and this is the message that stops them.

Two habits make the difference. Give a stage rather than a date, since a date on an insured repair is a promise about somebody else's decision. And tell people about a supplement the same day you find it, because the difference between hearing about a delay early and hearing about it at collection is the whole customer experience.

Frequently asked questions

What are customers really asking when they ring for an update?

Whether anything is happening, whether anybody is dealing with it, and whether they can plan. All three are answerable weekly without knowing a completion date.

Should I give a completion date?

Not on a job depending on an insurer approval or a parts delivery. Give the stage, what is being waited on and what happens next, and give dates only for the part you control, with the condition stated.

What stages should customers see?

Plain ones: with us and being assessed, waiting for the insurer, waiting for parts, being repaired, in paint, being finished, ready. Each with a sentence on what it means and roughly how long it takes.

What should I send during the weeks when nothing changes?

A weekly message about the waiting itself: what is outstanding, when it was requested, when it was last chased and when it will be chased next. Silence in this period is what generates the daily calls.

How should insurer delays be communicated?

As facts, without editorialising. Say what is being waited on, say what the customer can usefully do since a call from the policyholder sometimes moves things, and send policy and excess questions to the insurer.

What about supplements found mid-job?

Tell the customer the same day: what was found, who is authorising it and what it means for the timeline. Anything about money they may owe is a conversation with a person, not a message.

Are photographs worth sending?

Yes. They prove work is happening in a way a status message cannot. Three across a repair is enough, and they should be saved against the job rather than living only in the thread.

Should updates be triggered by time or by job status?

By status. A timer will eventually send an update describing a stage the job has already left, which undermines everything else you have told them.

What tone works?

Plain and warm. Most people at a body shop got there through an accident and are already having a difficult month, so internal vocabulary and brisk efficiency read badly.

What must always reach a person?

Anything about cost, anything expressing distress or frustration, and anything resembling a complaint. An automated reply at those moments reads as indifference.

Related reading

• Stopping customers chasing updates
• Sending estimates and approvals
• The availability problem underneath booking