Texting, calls & email
Every text, call and email on the customer’s record.
One inbox per customer for texts, emails and report replies. Connect Shop Cloud and your own Twilio number for business texting, calls that ring up to five of your phones at once, voicemail, missed-call texts and an optional AI receptionist.
Opens Main Street Auto Service, a made-up sample shop, in your browser. No sign-up.
Sound familiar?
Where calls and texts fall through
- Customer texts land on an advisor’s personal phone.
- Calls missed at lunch never get returned.
- No record of what was promised.
Every conversation lives on the customer
Texts, calls, voicemails, emails and report replies sit in one thread on the customer’s record. With Shop Cloud and your Twilio number connected, they come from your business number, not someone’s cell.
Messages
One inbox, twelve ready templates
In WPI Driveline Shop Management System, each customer has one conversation. Texts, emails, calls and replies from their inspection report all land in it, so whoever is at the counter can pick it up.
Twelve editable templates
Merge fields fill in the customer’s name, the vehicle, your shop and the right link. Edit the wording so it sounds like your shop.
- Estimate ready
- Checked in
- Status update
- Live status link
- Vehicle ready
- Payment request
- Payment receipt
- Appointment reminder
- Service reminder
- Declined work follow-up
- Review request
- We miss you
One conversation per customer
Filter the inbox by All, Unread or Call back. Missed calls and voicemails you haven’t returned wait under Call back.
Texts from your business number
With Shop Cloud and your Twilio number, texts go both ways from your shop’s number. Picture messages and delivery receipts arrive live. A first-time texter becomes a contact, and STOP and START are honored.
No Twilio? Still logged.
Without it, texts and emails open in your device’s Messages or Mail app, and each one is still logged on the customer.
Suggest reply
The AI assistant drafts an answer in the composer. You edit it and decide whether it goes. It runs on Shop Cloud with your own Anthropic API key.
Calls
Calls that reach someone
Incoming calls ring up to five listed phones at once. A screen pop shows who’s calling, their vehicle and the open repair order.
Voicemail is recorded and transcribed. When nobody picks up, a missed-call text lets the caller reply instead of calling back.
Click-to-call rings the advisor’s phone first, then connects the customer, who sees the shop’s number.
Calling runs on Shop Cloud and your Twilio number.
AI receptionist
An AI receptionist that says it’s one
Choose when it picks up: Off, After hours, When no one answers, or Answers every call. The receptionist:
- Greets callers as the shop’s virtual assistant (the default greeting; you can edit it), by name when the caller ID matches a customer with an open repair order or an appointment in the next two weeks.
- Tells a matched caller where their vehicle stands.
- Answers from your hours and the notes you give it.
- Takes a message for your team.
- Files appointment requests into Calendar → Requests.
- Texts the booking link or directions when the caller asks.
- Rings your phones when a caller asks for a person during business hours.
It’s instructed never to make up prices, part availability or diagnoses, and to offer an advisor callback instead. Every call lands in Messages with a summary and its transcript. Calls, texts and requests are filed into Messages and Calendar by your signed-in devices, each checking about once a minute while it’s open.
It needs Shop Cloud, your Twilio number and your own Anthropic API key. Its model has its own setting and defaults to Claude Haiku 4.5 for quick replies.
Email from your own address
Estimates, invoices, receipts, updates and campaigns go out from your domain in a branded layout with your text as written. An email sent from a repair order can carry its estimate, invoice or receipt as a PDF.
Domain setup lists the DNS records to add, then Check DNS records confirms them.
Add the delivery webhook in Resend, and each email shows Delivered, Opened (when open tracking is on in Resend), Delayed, Bounced or Marked as spam. A bounce or spam complaint flags the address, and bulk sends skip it.
Until the domain is verified, emails open in your Mail app. Sending from your address uses Shop Cloud and Resend.
Automatic reminders
Reminders that respect the clock
Turn on automatic appointment confirmations and day-before reminders. They’re off until you do.
A signed-in device queues them, and the server sends them from your Twilio number even when no device is open.
No automatic confirmation or reminder goes out before 8 AM or after 9 PM shop time. One that comes due overnight waits until 8 AM, and a text more than 6 hours late is dropped.
Server sending uses Shop Cloud and your Twilio number. Other follow-ups, like review requests, are lined up for staff to send in one pass.
How it works
From a text to the RO
Every message has a home. It lands on the customer, you answer from the same screen, and what you send stays with the job.
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Customer texts or calls
A text, a call, a voicemail, an email or a reply from their inspection report comes in.
Text in -
It lands on their record
It joins that customer’s one conversation. Unread messages and missed calls show on Today.
On their record -
Reply with a template or a suggested reply
Pick one of the twelve templates, or tap Suggest reply for a draft you edit.
Reply drafted -
Logged with the RO
What you send is saved on the customer and tagged with their open repair order.
Logged on the RO
Questions
Messaging questions
Do texts come from my number?
From the Twilio number you connect. Without one, texts open in your device’s Messages app and come from that phone.
Will reminders go out at 2 AM?
No. Automatic confirmations and reminders aren’t sent before 8 AM or after 9 PM shop time; one that comes due overnight waits until 8 AM. Missed-call texts, after-hours replies and texts the AI receptionist sends during a call still go out right away.
Will the receptionist quote prices?
Only prices you write into its notes, like a diagnostic fee. It’s instructed never to make up a price, and it offers to have an advisor call back with exact pricing and takes a message for your team.
Can I see if an email was opened?
Yes, once the Resend delivery webhook and open tracking are set up. Each email then shows Delivered, Opened, Delayed, Bounced or Marked as spam.