Systems for dealerships, service workshops and fitment centres
A dealership or workshop turns on two questions: was the enquiry answered while the customer still cared, and did the vehicle move through the bay the way the diary said it would. We put an answering layer on the front door and a live record behind the workshop doors, built on the numbers, cameras and systems you already run. Harris Auto runs our Front Door WhatsApp concierge in production today.
Most of the money is lost before the customer arrives
In the motor trade the enquiry is rarely a form on a website. It is a WhatsApp message about a vehicle on the forecourt at nine at night, or a missed call while the salesperson is out on a test drive. The buyer is serious, but the reply lands the next afternoon and by then they have been to another yard. The Front Door agent answers on the channel the customer used, while the buyer is still holding the phone, and hands over a qualified conversation.
A workshop diary that matches the workshop
Service departments seldom fail on technical skill; they fail on sequence. A car books in for a minor service, a fault is found, the owner cannot be reached, and the bay stands occupied while three jobs wait outside. We hold the job card as a live record: booked, received, diagnosed, awaiting approval, in progress, ready. Approvals go out carrying the photograph and the price and return as a recorded yes or no, so the service manager sees which bays are genuinely blocked.
The gate, the yard and the keys
Vehicles are expensive stock to leave standing overnight, and most yards already have cameras pointed at them. We read number plates off those existing cameras, so every movement in and out — customer car, courtesy car, test drive, trade-in — is logged with a time and an image instead of a name in a book. Bluetooth Low Energy tags, small battery-powered tags on a key fob or a tool, show where keys and equipment are, and movement outside agreed hours raises an alert.
Parts, quotes and the paperwork that eats the margin
One repair can generate a supplier quote, a parts requisition, a customer quotation, a warranty claim and an invoice, each typed again by hand. Document automation reads supplier invoices and parts quotes as they arrive, matches them to the job card, and flags those where the price has moved or the part number disagrees. Invoicing runs from InOne CRM or feeds the accounting package you use.
Aftersales and fleet customers
The customers you sold to last year are the cheapest work in the building and the easiest to forget. InOne CRM holds the vehicle, the owner, the service history and the next due date, sends service, tyre and licence reminders on WhatsApp, then asks satisfied customers for a review. Fleet accounts — a haulage operator, a medium-scale mine, an organisation running a pool of vehicles — get servicing by odometer or engine hours and one monthly statement.
What it covers
Answered while it still matters
Every WhatsApp, call, form and social message is picked up immediately, day or night, and qualified before a salesperson touches it.
One live job card
Booking, diagnosis, approval, parts, labour and handover sit on one record the service manager and the customer can both follow.
Existing cameras first
Plate reading and after-hours monitoring run on the CCTV you have. New hardware is proposed only where the assessment finds a real blind spot.
People stay in charge
The agent qualifies, books and follows up. It does not negotiate price or promise a delivery date; anything unclear goes to your salesperson.
How it works
Site assessment
We walk your sales floor and service reception, follow one live enquiry and one live job through to collection, and record the numbers, cameras and systems in place.
Integration
We connect your WhatsApp and phone numbers, website, cameras and the system holding vehicle and customer records. In this phase the system observes and reports; it may not reply to a customer.
Rules and guardrails
We agree what the agent may say about stock, price and availability, when it must hand to a person, and the after-hours escalation path, then test that against real past conversations.
Go live and optimise
The system takes the front door and the job card flow, and we review weekly at first, tuning replies and reminder timing. A first system is typically running in about four to six weeks.
Questions buyers ask
Will customers know they are talking to an AI agent?
Yes, and we recommend saying so plainly. It answers instantly in your tone, works only from the stock and service information you give it, and brings in a person when it cannot verify something.
Do we have to change our dealer management or accounting system?
No. We integrate through whatever it offers — an API, a database view or a scheduled file exchange — so vehicle, customer and invoice records stay where your accountant expects them. Where a system is closed, we work alongside it.
We are an independent workshop, not a franchise dealer. Is this sized for us?
It is. A workshop, panel shop or fitment centre usually starts with the front door and the job card only: enquiries answered, bookings taken, approvals recorded, reminders going out. Cameras and tags come later, once the first part earns its keep.
What happens during a power cut or when the internet drops?
Camera processing runs on a small computer at your premises, so plate reads and alerts continue and reconcile afterwards. The messaging agent runs over the mobile network and keeps answering when the office line is down.
Who owns the customer conversations and the footage?
You do. Conversations, vehicle records and camera data sit in your environment or a tenant dedicated to you, in a location you are told about, with access by role and an agreed retention period.
Book a platform briefing
Fifteen minutes with an engineer. Tell us where the enquiry or the vehicle goes cold — after-hours messages, approvals, bay time, keys — and we will say honestly what your existing hardware can do. sales@eigenstatesystems.com or WhatsApp +263 77 636 6999.