What a custom agent looks like inside an independent repair shop or collision center — the ten roles in your language, and what each plugs into in a business running Tekmetric, Shop-Ware, Mitchell or CCC.
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A repair shop's day is decided by two things: how quickly a customer approves recommended work, and how fast parts arrive. A collision center adds a third — an insurer who has to agree to the scope before anyone is paid. All three are communication problems, and all three are handled by a service advisor who is also answering the phone, which is why approvals sit and cars wait.
The honest version of "does it integrate with my software." These are the systems this industry actually runs on, and what each one means for a build.
The modern systems of record for mechanical repair — estimates, digital inspections, approvals, parts and invoicing, with genuinely accessible interfaces.
The language insurers settle collision work in, carrying scope, labor times and parts pricing, plus the workflow between shop and carrier.
PartsTech, Nexpart and supplier portals for ordering and availability, where a wrong or delayed part is the most common cause of a car sitting.
Photos and video sent to the customer with the recommendation, which is the single largest lever on approval rates.
Times and procedures that estimates are built from and that disputes are argued with.
Payment links and repair financing offered at the point of approval.
Text and email for approvals and status, which is where most of the advisor's day actually goes.
Each of these is a real build, not a feature of a product you already pay for. Follow one through to see how it works in general.
Nothing you are owed gets dropped.
Whatever arrives, in whatever format, becomes a clean record.
Writes the recurring document from your own past work.
Knows what expires, renews or comes due — and says so first.
Answers from your own records, not from the internet.
The conversation becomes the record, without anyone typing it up.
Assembles the recurring report from systems that do not talk.
Matches two sets of records and queues only the exceptions.
Two systems that do not talk, now talking.
Applies your rules, escalates only what needs judgment.
If that is a job in your business, the next step is half an hour on a call. Bring whatever you know about the volume — how many a month, who owns it now, which systems it touches. That is enough to scope it properly and quote it flat before anything starts.
Everything in this library is built to order rather than bought off a shelf — and whatever I build, I host and maintain. The rest of the library is here.