Stop losing jobs to a phone nobody can answer.
IG Digital Lab, Sacramento builds the two systems a busy repair shop is missing: an AI agent that answers the phone while your techs have their hands in an engine, and automatic texts telling the customer when a car moves from diagnosis to approval to ready.
A two-to-six-bay shop runs on one phone line.
And one person who is also the service writer, the estimator and the parts chaser. Every problem below is the same problem: that person can only be in one place.
The phone rings while everyone is under a car
A ringing phone competes with a torque wrench and loses. The caller leaves no message; they dial the next shop on the map. Lunch, evenings and Saturday morning are the worst gaps.
Approval stalls hold a bay hostage
California requires the customer's authorization before the bill passes the written estimate. So you call, get voicemail, and the car sits on the lift, producing nothing.
“Is my car ready?” eats the morning
A steady stream of callers asks a question the shop already knows the answer to. Nothing pushes the answer out, so customers pull it out by phone, one interruption at a time.
Diagnostic work looks like a mystery from outside
Auto electric and driveability jobs bill hours before a part is named. A shop that puts the diagnostic charge in writing before drop-off argues about invoices far less.
Only your regulars can find you
A shop with no website shows up only when somebody types its exact name. AI assistants are harsher still: with nothing to read, they name a competitor.
What we build for a repair shop
Take the pieces that match your bottleneck. We do not install all of it at once.
AI for calls
Answers on the first ring, day or night, in English or Russian. Takes year, make, model and symptom, books a drop-off slot, and hands off to a person on request.
Answers calls day and nightWorkflow automation
The status chain: received, diagnosed, estimate sent, approval needed, ready. Approval goes out as a link with the estimate attached.
Status texts and approval linksA website that takes appointments
Services, hours, directions, the diagnostic fee stated plainly, and a booking form landing in your calendar.
Booking form to your calendarSEO and AI search visibility
The listing data, service pages and local signals that get a shop named for “near me” searches and by ChatGPT.
Named in AI search resultsDevices and smart spaces
A locked-down tablet in the bay, so a tech marks a job done with one thumb.
One-tap status from the bayHonest note: write-back into Tekmetric, Shop-Ware or Mitchell 1 depends on what your plan exposes. Where there is an API we use it; where there is not, the chain runs off a one-tap update from the bay, and you learn which before any money moves.
How the work goes
Free audit first. Then a scope, a fixed number, and one process built end to end.
We walk your day
We follow one job from first ring to pickup and mark where a person does what software should. The findings are yours either way.
Proposal
Scope, a fixed number from the bands below, and the order we would build in. No packages.
Build
Configured and tested on your real numbers and workflow; you sign off before anything answers a live customer.
Support
Monitoring, tuning, and a monthly count of calls handled, jobs booked and escalations.
What it costs and how long it takes
Pricing starts from $2,500, exact figure after the free audit. Timeline: 3 to 6 weeks for a standard build, 6 to 12 when integrations are involved.
The phone agent, or the booking-plus-status chain, built end to end.
- AI phone answering, configured on your shop
- Or the booking-plus-status text chain
- Typically 3 to 6 weeks from kickoff
Several systems joined, or a custom internal tool.
- Phone agent plus status chain plus booking site
- Shop-management integration where an API exists
- 6 to 12 weeks, tested on real jobs first
Bespoke software, built from scratch.
- Multi-system builds and custom integrations
- Full DevOps and a security review
- Shipped in slices, with support after launch
3 to 6 weeks for a standard build, 6 to 12 weeks with integrations, 8 to 16 for a full portal. Full price list, including hosting, is on our pricing page.
Who this is not for
We turn away work that will not pay off. Here is who that usually is.
- Shops booked three weeks out and turning work away. More answered calls will not help; scheduling will.
- Dealerships and franchise groups whose phone system and DMS are set by the manufacturer.
- Owners who want the AI to quote repairs. It books, informs and routes; it does not price a job.
- Anyone wanting a guaranteed number of new customers. Nobody can honestly promise that, so we do not sell it.
Common questions
Answers to what shop owners ask before signing on.
Will customers know they are talking to a machine?
The agent identifies itself as an assistant when asked and hands off to a person on request. It runs on the same voice stack answering the IG Digital Lab main line, (916) 618-0502, so the fastest way to judge quality is to call it and behave like a customer with a no-start.
Can the AI answer in Russian?
Yes. IG Digital Lab works in English and Russian, and the agent can greet and take details in either language, switching to whichever the caller uses. For shops whose customers are largely Russian-speaking, the website and the status texts can run bilingual as well.
Will it integrate with our shop management software?
Sometimes. Tekmetric, Shop-Ware and Mitchell 1 differ in what they let outside software read and write. We check yours during the free audit and say plainly whether you are getting a real integration or a one-tap status update from a tablet in the bay.
What happens when the AI cannot handle a call?
It takes the details, flags the call to the shop immediately and offers the caller a callback slot. The agent is instructed to refuse anything outside its scope rather than improvise, and the shop decides what it handles and what it escalates to a person.
We already have a Yelp page. Is that enough?
It gets a shop found in one place, on terms set by someone else. A site you own carries your hours, your diagnostic policy and your booking form, and it is what search engines and AI assistants read when deciding which Sacramento shop to name.
How much owner time does the setup take?
Roughly two to four hours in total: one call to walk through how a job moves in the shop, one session to record how the phone should be handled, and a review before launch. IG Digital Lab does the configuration, testing and connection work.
Can we start with just the phone?
That is the usual starting point, because it is the leak you can measure fastest. Status texts and the website follow once you see what unanswered calls were costing every week.
Hear it for yourself. Then decide.
Call the demo line and walk through a real service call, or book a free walkthrough and we'll show you exactly what your shop would look like running on this system.
Ready to transform your business?
Tell us what you need. We reply the same business day.