How To Reduce Customer Follow Up Calls In Your Repair Shop
Most 'is it ready?' calls are preventable. Here's how to cut them without adding work to your team's plate.
Every repair shop gets them: the customer who calls on day three, the one who shows up early, the message that comes in at 7pm asking for an update. Most of those customers aren’t being difficult, they’re just trying to fill in the silence on their own because nothing has come from your side.
The good news: most of this is preventable, and fixing it doesn’t require more work from your team.
Why customers call for updates
It comes down to uncertainty. When a customer drops off a piece, they’re leaving something valuable (sometimes irreplaceable) with a stranger, and they have no visibility into your process, no sense of whether you’ve even started, and no mental model for when they’ll hear something.
The follow-up call is them trying to resolve that uncertainty themselves. If you resolve it for them first, they don’t need to call.
Set an expectation at intake
The most effective thing you can do is simple: at drop-off, tell the customer exactly when they’ll hear from you. Instead of a vague “we’ll be in touch”, a more specific commitment like “We’ll send you a message by Thursday once we’ve assessed it.” can eliminate most early-stage calls.
Send a confirmation when a job is logged
A quick message (even just “We’ve received your piece and it’s in our system”) signals that you’re organized and the job isn’t lost. It also gives the customer something to reply to instead of calling.
Update at each stage, not just at completion
Many brands only contact customers when a job is done. But customers don’t know how long “done” takes. A brief update when you start work, and another when you’re waiting on a part, keeps them oriented. It also keeps you in control of the communication.
Make it automatic
The challenge with all of the above is that it adds tasks to an already busy day. The solution is to make it automatic. When a technician updates a job status in your tracking system, they can send a message directly to the customer. No extra step, no extra thought.
Workbench sends automated SMS and email updates to customers in English or French.