booking system for auto repair shops

An auto repair shop operates differently from, say, a massage studio or yoga class—the customer does not arrive at a specific time to receive a particular service. They drop off their car, describe the problem, and leave. Based on what they find, the mechanics then determine what needs to be done and how long the repair will take. The key moment that needs to be scheduled is therefore the vehicle drop-off itself—and this is precisely where an online booking system makes the most sense.

What needs to be addressed ...
  • Scheduling vehicle drop-offs when the reception desk is open.
  • Collecting information about the vehicle, customer requirements, and the problem before the customer arrives.
  • Automatically confirming drop-off times and sending reminders so the customer arrives at the right time.
  • Maintaining a customer database with vehicle and visit histories.
  • Limiting the number of vehicles accepted on a given day.
  • Proactively contacting customers with reminders about routine inspections and special offers.

An auto repair shop that accepts bookings exclusively by phone or email inevitably ends up either discouraging customers by making them wait for a response or overloading the reception desk with unnecessary coordination. Yet much of this can be solved quite simply—by allowing customers to choose a vehicle drop-off time themselves, online and without waiting. The repair shop sets how many vehicles it can accept on a given day, and the booking page automatically offers only enough vehicle drop-off time slots to ensure that this limit is not exceeded. Instead of phone calls, the reception desk receives jobs that are clearly described from the outset—when booking, the customer enters the make and model of the vehicle, its year of manufacture and mileage, and what they need addressed. The mechanics know first thing in the morning what awaits them that day and can prepare accordingly. Automatic confirmation and appointment reminders significantly reduce the number of customers who simply fail to show up or arrive on a different day. And every car that arrives at the right time with all the information completed in advance is a job that can be handled efficiently from the very beginning.

A long-term customer relationship is one of the most valuable assets an auto repair shop can have—cars need repeated repairs, and satisfied customers return. A database of customers and their vehicles, including their visit history, gives the repair shop a solid foundation for this continuity: at the next drop-off, the staff immediately know what was last done to the car, and the customer does not have to explain the whole story from the beginning. Marketing tools then make it possible to use this database proactively—to remind customers about an upcoming vehicle inspection or inform them about a current service promotion. Integration with Google Calendar gives the repair shop a flexible overview of incoming vehicles directly in the tool the entire team uses every day. And custom messages tailored to different situations—confirmation of vehicle drop-off, repair status updates, notification that the vehicle is ready for collection—transform the way the repair shop communicates with customers: instead of having to respond reactively to inquiries, the customer receives information automatically, without needing to call and ask.

Key features for auto repair shops

Booking at an auto repair shop begins and ends with handing over the vehicle—and it is precisely this moment that needs to be well organized. Selected features help set vehicle intake capacity, collect the necessary information in advance, automate customer communication, and build a long-term overview of customers and their vehicles.

Custom booking forms

When the standard details collected from a customer during booking aren't enough, the solution is simple. Booking forms can be extended with custom fields that a customer may or must fill in while booking.

Custom booking forms

more in the documentation

Find out everything you need about customers right at the time of booking – extend the standard form with your own fields and tailor the form to a specific event and type of service.

Custom booking forms let you extend the standard reservation form (name, e-mail, phone) with any additional fields your business needs – from checkboxes, through selecting from options, entering text, all the way to uploading a file (e.g. a photo of the customer or a scanned confirmation). It's also possible to collect specialized data, where the system takes care of validating the correct format.

Individual custom fields can be required, or only shown based on the reserved capacity or a previously selected value. A special group is formed by form fields that affect the reservation price – which makes it easy to handle, for example, a surcharge for renting equipment, a discount for members, or a price adjustment for an above-standard scope of service.

A form can be assigned to a single event, or set globally so it automatically applies to all events on the reservation page. Working with custom forms is therefore very simple while also offering very broad possibilities for use.

Data entered in a custom booking form is saved as part of the specific reservation and can also be included in an export to Excel, and worked with further as needed.

Event: Interval

This event type allows opening hours to be split into regular time slots. Customers book one or more consecutive time slots according to their own needs. One of the most widely used and most efficient event types.

Interval event type

more in the documentation

If you offer services in regular time slots (60 minutes, 90 minutes, etc.), this is the ideal event type, offering a simple and clear booking process.

The Interval event type lets you define a time range within a single day and split it into smaller, regular chunks. On the reservation page, a customer chooses these specific time slots, which can also follow on from one another, extending their reservation according to the defined rules.

This event type is typically suitable for sports facilities and sports complexes, consulting and advisory services, wellness, or a sauna.

Customer database

An overview of your customers, their details, and history is key to any business. The customer database not only records this data but also provides tools for communication, data export, and meeting GDPR requirements.

Customer database

more in the documentation

Keep a clear customer database with a reservation history and a whole range of related tools. The reenio system automatically builds the customer database based on reservations made or direct registration. A registered customer gains the ability to log in and manage their reservations directly within the reservation page. If customer credit is used, they can see their balance within their account and top it up online.

Depending on your settings, a reservation can also be allowed without registration, simply by entering an e-mail address or phone number, which is especially suitable where you don't expect one specific customer to use the reservation system regularly and often.

A well-maintained, extensive customer database is an important marketing tool. The system offers the option of bulk sending e-mail or SMS messages, which is useful for reaching customers with a new offer, a discount campaign, but also operational information or as part of crisis management.

The customer database naturally contains personal data, which today requires a certain approach to how it's handled and protected. The reservation system allows you to set up automatic deletion of personal data after a chosen period, and also keeps track of customer requests to have their data deleted. This makes it easier to meet GDPR requirements in line with the rules defined for your particular business.

If you need to import a customer database from another system or a manually maintained spreadsheet, that's no problem – an existing customer list can be easily and smartly imported into the reenio system.

Cloud hosting

Modern and secure cloud solutions are the foundation of efficient operation for many types of applications today. The same is true for the reservation system – reenio uses the Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services cloud solutions.

Cloud hosting

The reenio reservation system runs primarily on Microsoft Azure, one of the most widespread and thoroughly vetted cloud solutions in the world. Running in the cloud means you don't have to worry about your own servers, their maintenance, or backing up data – the infrastructure, availability, and security are handled by Microsoft, which invests heavily in the performance, security, and certification of the Azure platform over the long term. Some selected services also run on Amazon Web Services (AWS).

The Microsoft Azure platform was the first cloud solution in the Czech Republic to be vetted and listed in the eGovernment cloud computing catalogue, with the highest achievable security level, BÚ3. Running in such a vetted environment brings greater resilience against attacks or outages, modern data security, and continuous security updates already at the level of the platform itself.

Thanks to cloud operation, the reservation system is accessible from anywhere with an internet connection and can flexibly respond to growing demands – whether in terms of number of customers, reservations, or the volume of data.

SMS messages

A communication channel that, compared to standard e-mail messages, offers a greater guarantee of delivery and allows information to be sent quickly directly to a specific customer.

Deliver important information straight to a customer's phone, even in cases where an e-mail message isn't enough for various reasons – reservation confirmation, a reminder before an event, or instructions on how to use the service.

SMS messages are available in the system both as system notifications and as custom messages with any text you like. These can then be automatic, sent in connection with some event, or sent manually directly from a specific customer's detail page, or in bulk to multiple customers at once. SMS messages are limited by their length and what can be communicated, but even so play an important role in keeping customers informed.

An interesting option is using SMS messages for further functionality. This includes verifying a customer's phone number during registration or when creating a new reservation, or as a technical communication channel – for controlling a device using a predefined SMS text, e.g. turning on the sauna heater before the start of a reservation.

Custom messages

Automating communication with customers based on specific requirements and events brings a powerful tool that supports and improves how well informed your customers are, simplifies processes, and also improves your marketing work and how you gather feedback.

Custom messages

more in the documentation

Automate communication with customers exactly to your needs – from reminders, through satisfaction surveys, to marketing offers, in the form of e-mails or SMS messages. The possibilities of custom messages are, however, far broader. Custom messages can also be used to notify an external system or device, or to inform administrators or employees.

Custom messages allow you to set up sending of messages tied to a specific event in the reservation process and a corresponding moment in time. The event can be automatic (creation of a reservation, end of an event, etc.) or tied to a manual change of a reservation's status in the administration or mobile app.

  • E-mail

    The basic type of custom message, where a text e-mail message with your own content is sent.

  • SMS

    A popular message type which, although limited in size and format, offers greater delivery certainty.

  • Webhook

    A technical solution for notifying an external system that some event has occurred. Typically used for various automations.

  • Mobile app

    A quick way to send a notification directly into a specific reenio mobile app.

  • Smartemailing

    If simple text content for an e-mail isn't enough, you can use templates and sending via the Smartemailing tool.

Unlike system notifications, which have a fixed structure and content, with custom messages you decide the content and purpose yourself – typically these are used for a thank-you or a request for feedback after an event ends, a reminder before an upcoming event, a marketing offer, booking instructions, birthday or name-day wishes (even with a gift coupon), or a reminder to a customer who hasn't booked for a while.

The content of custom messages can also contain so-called placeholder variables, which are replaced with the corresponding value when the message is actually sent, e.g. the customer's name or the reservation's start time. Custom messages are assigned to events via message groups, so there's no need to set up rules for every event separately, while still keeping flexibility for different situations and needs.

A special feature of certain message types and specific events is the ability to add dynamic elements to a custom message – a satisfaction survey or a generated coupon code. It's entirely up to you how you integrate these options into your marketing activities.

Reservation approval

The standard model assumes that as soon as a reservation is created, it's fully valid. The reservation approval feature brings the option where a customer is clearly informed that they must wait for their reservation to be approved.

Reservation approval

more in the documentation

Don't let customers create reservations online without your say – decide for yourself which reservation to approve. This is useful anywhere a booking request needs to be reviewed first, before you actually assign the customer an event.

The reservation approval feature changes the standard process so that a reservation created by a customer isn't approved right away, but first waits for your approval in the administration. After creating a reservation, the customer is informed that their reservation is awaiting approval, and receives final confirmation (and, if applicable, a prompt for online payment) only once you approve, or alternatively reject, the reservation.

This is useful anywhere you want full control over how events are filled – for example for individual consultations, where you first need to check whether a time slot is suitable, for services that require related preparations to be arranged, or anywhere you want to prevent random or unsuitable reservations.

Google Calendar sync

Having a clear overview in a calendar is an important part of organizing time, especially with online reservations. Thanks to synchronization, you can keep your Google Calendar up to date, and conversely block off time within the range of events on offer.

Google Calendar sync

more in the documentation

Calendar synchronization lets you connect the reenio system with an external calendar. This is typically a connection with Google Calendar, and is set up simply by logging in with your Google account and granting access.

Reservations created in the reenio system will appear in your calendar, but the reverse doesn't happen – reservations aren't created from events in your Google Calendar (the booking process is complex enough that a calendar event alone isn't sufficient). In the other direction, i.e. from Google Calendar into the reenio system, synchronization is therefore only limited – events can be synchronized as time blocks, so that no new reservation can be created for that particular date and time.

Marketing tools

Growing a business isn't just about the range of services and pricing, but also about marketing. Within the reservation system, this can take various forms, from measuring traffic to automatically sending customers a satisfaction survey.

Marketing tools

more in the documentation

Connect your reservation page with Google Analytics or the Facebook Pixel and track how successful your campaigns are, gaining important data. At the same time, you can use the system to communicate with customers in an automated and efficient way, retaining them, motivating them, or gathering feedback.

You can add tracking code for Google Analytics, the Facebook Pixel, or similar tools to your reservation page, and track visitor behaviour as well as conversions from advertising campaigns.

The reenio reservation system also offers a whole range of tools for staying in touch with customers at different stages of the customer lifecycle. For example, using custom messages, you can automatically send a satisfaction survey shortly after an event ends and gather feedback without having to reach out to customers manually. In the same way, a customer who hasn't made a booking for a while can be encouraged to return with a reminder or offer, or you can wish them a happy birthday or name day and add a gift coupon straight away. Thanks to tags, customers can also be automatically sorted according to which service they used, and you can work with them further in a targeted way as part of your own marketing activities.

Also suitable for your business

Rental of Premises and Real Estate Sports Equipment Rental Consultant Massage Parlor Fitness Center Sports Complex Yoga Studio Self-service sauna Tire Service Bridal salon Self-Service Gym Restaurant

Are you wondering if an online reservation system is right for you? Check out the FREQUENT QUESTIONS or the DOCUMENTATION pages and try out the reenio system.