Repair Follow-up
Recover work customers postponed.
Identifies repairs a technician marked as deferred, checks the repair history to confirm the work is still outstanding and invites the customer back when the agreed review date arrives. It refreshes the estimate when the price has changed and records the customer’s decision to book, postpone or decline.
A real customer situation
Three months ago a customer postponed two recommended front tyres. The tyre price has gone up since, and nobody is sure whether the tyres were fitted elsewhere or at a later visit. The deferred-work report sits unread.
Where the owner wants to be
Every deferred job either comes back as a booking at a price the customer approved, has one agreed reminder, or is closed with the customer’s decision. No one is chased for work already done.
What it handles
- Joins deferred jobs to completed repair orders before any contact
- Invites the customer using the technician’s own note
- Refreshes changed or expired estimates and asks for approval before booking
- Records book, postpone or decline, with one reminder per postponement
- Stops at the contact limit and on decline or opt-out
What it deliberately does not do
- Makes no new diagnosis — only the technician’s recorded note is used
- Never books against an out-of-date price
- Never contacts customers about work already completed
Interactive demo
Try it with sample data
No sign-up needed. Pick a scenario, change the inputs, then play the customer and the owner. The right-hand panel only shows what the workflow actually recorded.
Interactive simulation using a sample deferred-work report and repair history. No message is sent and no real booking or reminder is created.
Choose a scenario
Tyres postponed 3 months ago; the price has since risen, so the refreshed estimate is approved first.
The tyre price has changed since the estimate; the alignment price has not.
Review date is 3 months; estimates are valid for 6.
Highlights that reply; you can still choose any.
Customer side · SMS thread
Press “Run scenario” to start. Every message and record here comes from sample data.
Workflow and harness
How Repair Follow-up runs
Reference schematic for the proposed workflow. Blue steps do the work, purple paths handle exceptions and returns, and amber checks are the harness controls that a step cannot pass without.
Overview — business stages
Read the full flow as text
- Deferred work reaches review date (business step)
Technician-set review date (3 months). Output: Job due for follow-up. Leads to: Check repair history. - Check repair history (business step)
Join to completed repair orders. Output: Outstanding or completed. Leads to: Confirm work still outstanding; Already completed. - Confirm work still outstanding (business step)
Technician-marked; no open booking. Output: Eligible job. Leads to: Invite customer to return. - Invite customer to return (business step)
Technician’s note only; max 2 per cycle. Output: Invitation in outbox. Leads to: Refresh estimate and select slot; Customer postpones; Customer declines. - Refresh estimate and select slot (business step)
Compare with current price list and validity. Output: Current estimate + slot choice. Leads to: Book and update deferred record; Price changed. - Book and update deferred record (business step)
One booking per job operation key. Output: Booking + recovered record. - Already completed (exception or return path)
Suppress contact; close job. Output: Closed deferred record. - Customer postpones (exception or return path)
One reminder at the agreed date; max 1. Output: Scheduled reminder. Leads to: Deferred work reaches review date (agreed date). - Customer declines (exception or return path)
End outreach; record decision. Output: Closed deferred record. - Price changed (exception or return path)
Refreshed estimate needs approval. Output: Estimate v2. Leads to: Refresh estimate and select slot (approval required). - Technician marked work (harness check)
Technician-selected; note quoted, no new diagnosis. Output: Eligible. Leads to: Confirm work still outstanding (required check). - Contact eligibility (harness check)
Consent; 2 per cycle, 7 days apart; stop on decline. Output: Allow / stop. Leads to: Invite customer to return (required check). - Current quote accepted (harness check)
Booking must reference the accepted current version. Output: Accepted estimate. Leads to: Book and update deferred record (required check).
Harness controls
- Only technician-selected deferred work is eligible
- Completed-work suppression before any contact
- No new diagnosis; the technician’s note is quoted as recorded
- Current estimate required; changes need customer approval
- Contact limits: two invitations per cycle, one postponement
Systems and data
Production reads repair history and the deferred-work report, checks current estimates and writes to the workshop calendar and messaging. The demo uses two fictional Northside Auto deferred jobs, a fixed price list and an outbox that holds every message.
Demo boundary
External calls, customer messages, payments and business writes use synthetic fixtures and an on-screen outbox. The demo shows only verified demo state. Custom production connections are a paid implementation deliverable.
What gets delivered
The records your business receives
Booking confirmation
Work, time and the accepted estimate version and price, sent to the customer and written to the workshop calendar.
Agreed reminder
One dated reminder per postponement, with earlier invitations cancelled and the job still visible to the adviser.
Deferred-job record
Status from deferred to recovered, postponed or closed, with the customer’s decision and the reason.
Custom deployment
Configured for your business during a paid implementation. Integrations are confirmed during discovery, never assumed.
Your business rules
- Which deferred work is eligible and the technician’s review dates
- Estimate validity and when a price change needs re-approval
- Contact limits, spacing and consent by channel
- How many postponements before the job returns to the adviser
Systems we connect
Measurement
We measure completed business against a baseline, not messages sent. No results are promised before discovery.
Business results
- Completed recovered jobs
- Contribution margin from deferred work
Operational reliability
- Invitations sent for work already completed (target: zero)
- Bookings made on a superseded price (target: zero)
- Reminders created per postponement (target: exactly one)
Want this working through your deferred-work report?
Book a call about Repair Follow-up. We start with discovery: your current process, volumes, systems and who handles exceptions. The proposal then defines the integrations, approvals and acceptance tests before anything goes live.