Setting up Yesoma for an auto repair shop

Yesoma's auto repair playbook pre-fills your workspace with services, pricing anchors, policies, and reply templates tuned for a shop environment — transparent diagnostic pricing, warranty language customers actually trust, and a follow-up cadence that asks for reviews at the right moment. This article walks through what the playbook sets up and how to make it yours.

1. Apply the auto repair playbook during onboarding

When you create your Yesoma workspace, the onboarding wizard asks you to pick your industry. Select Auto repair shop. The wizard applies the auto repair base playbook in one step — your workspace is pre-loaded with:

• 8 services (diagnostic, oil change, brakes, tires, AC, timing belt, transmission, and a custom-job service for larger quoted work)
• 8 policies covering diagnostic fees, parts and labor warranties, customer-supplied parts, deposits, payment terms, and storage fees
• 8 FAQs covering the questions your shop answers every week
• 8 reply templates for the most common customer interactions
• A follow-up cadence tuned to the auto repair timeline
• A review request that fires the day after vehicle pickup

After onboarding, every piece of this is editable from Settings → Business Brain and Settings → Templates. The playbook is a strong default, not a locked-in configuration.

If you have already completed onboarding without applying the playbook, go to Settings → Business Brain → Load playbook and select the auto repair industry to apply it to an existing workspace.

2. Diagnostic fee applied to the repair: how it works in Yesoma

One of the most trust-building policies in auto repair is the diagnostic-applied-to-repair model — customers pay a diagnostic fee, but that fee is credited toward the repair if they accept the quote. The playbook is built around this from the ground up.

The Diagnostic / check-engine scan service is set to starting_from at $120. The service description and the Pricing reply — diagnostic required template both explain the credit clearly and without prompting the customer to commit to anything. The language is deliberate: we tell the customer how the fee works before they ask, which is the fastest way to earn trust.

Here is the flow as Yesoma supports it:

1. Customer inquires. The First reply template fires (or you send it manually) asking for year, make, model, symptom, and preferred drop-off time.
2. You confirm the diagnostic appointment. The Pricing reply — diagnostic required template explains the $120 fee and the credit.
3. Vehicle comes in, you diagnose, you call the customer with findings.
4. You send the Quote sent after diagnostic template. It has a line for the -$120 diagnostic credit so the math is visible.
5. Customer approves. Work proceeds with the credit baked in.

Edit the $120 figure in Settings → Services → Diagnostic to match your actual diagnostic rate. The template will not update automatically — update the pricing reference in the template body separately if you change the service price.

3. Parts and labor warranty messaging

Customers who fear auto shops fear this above almost everything: paying for a repair that fails a month later and being told it is not covered. The playbook addresses this directly in two places.

The Parts warranty: 12 months or 12,000 miles policy and the Labor warranty: 90 days policy are both loaded into your workspace automatically. The language is specific — "whichever comes first," "under normal use," "documented on the invoice" — because vague warranty promises do not reassure anyone.

Your reply templates carry this through:

• The Quote sent after diagnostic template includes a parts warranty field and states the 90-day labor warranty explicitly before the customer approves the work.
• The Day-after pickup thank you template reminds the customer of both warranties by name so they know exactly what is covered if something comes up.

To update your actual warranty terms, edit the two warranty policies in Settings → Policies. Then update the references in the Quote sent and Day-after pickup templates to match. Both are in Settings → Templates.

4. Customer-supplied parts policy

The playbook includes a dedicated Customer-supplied parts policy and a matching reply template. This exists because the situation comes up constantly, it carries real liability nuance, and handling it inconsistently creates disputes.

The policy is clear: you will install customer-supplied parts in most cases, but you will not warranty parts you did not source. If the part fails, the diagnostic and labor to address it are a new charge.

The Customer-supplied parts acknowledgment template sets this expectation before the job starts, not after a problem occurs. Use it any time a customer mentions they have their own parts ready:

1. Customer says they are bringing their own [part].
2. Send the Customer-supplied parts acknowledgment template. It confirms you will install it, states the no-warranty caveat, and asks the customer to confirm before you schedule the work.
3. Log their confirmation in the case thread. If a dispute arises later, the record is there.

You can also add the customer-supplied parts caveat to the main service description for any service where it comes up frequently — brakes and oil are the most common.

5. Deposits on large parts orders

The playbook requires a 50% deposit before ordering parts on any job totaling $500 or more. This applies by default to the Timing belt / major service interval service and the Custom job service. The deposit policy is listed in your workspace under Settings → Policies → Deposits on parts orders ($500+ jobs).

In practice, the flow works like this:

1. You diagnose, prepare a written quote, and call the customer with findings.
2. Customer approves the quote.
3. You send the Parts deposit reminder template. It states the deposit amount, explains it comes off the final invoice, and tells the customer how to pay.
4. Deposit received. You order parts and confirm the drop-off or appointment date.
5. Work is completed. Customer pays the balance on pickup.

The deposit threshold ($500) and the deposit percentage (50%) are both in the policy description and referenced in the template. If your shop uses a different threshold, edit the policy content in Settings → Policies and update the relevant templates.

6. What your reply templates look like in action

The auto repair playbook ships 8 templates. Here is what each one is for and when it fires:

First reply — auto repair inquiry fires immediately when a new inquiry arrives (Day 0 in your follow-up cadence). It asks for year, make, model, symptom description, mileage, and preferred drop-off timing. All four pieces of information are necessary to quote and schedule correctly — the template is intentionally structured to collect them in one message rather than a three-round back-and-forth.

Pricing reply — diagnostic required is for any inquiry where the customer asks for a price before the vehicle has been seen. It explains the diagnostic fee, the credit model, and offers two scheduling slots.

Quote sent after diagnostic is the formal written quote template. It has line items for the diagnosis, the repair description, parts, labor, the diagnostic credit, and the total. Fill in the brackets, send, and the customer has everything they need to make a decision.

Parts deposit reminder goes out after the customer approves a large job. It states the deposit amount and confirms the deposit is applied to the final invoice — not an add-on.

Vehicle ready for pickup notifies the customer the car is done. It states the work completed, the total due (with deposit applied), and your hours. It also mentions the storage fee policy so the customer is not surprised if they need an extra day.

Day-after pickup thank you + review request goes out automatically one day after the job is marked complete. It restates the warranty coverage and asks for a Google review with a single tap via the {{review_link}} token. This is the highest-converting moment in the auto repair relationship — the car is fixed, the customer is relieved, and they are more likely to write a review than they will be at any point in the future.

Quote follow-up (3 days) fires automatically three days after a quote is sent if no approval has come in. It is low-pressure by design — it asks whether the customer has had a chance to look it over and offers to answer questions. It does not push.

No-availability reply offers two alternate slots when your schedule is full. It also includes a line for urgent or non-drivable situations so you can route genuinely urgent customers appropriately.

To edit any template, go to Settings → Templates, find the template by name, and edit the body. All {{token}} values are filled in automatically by Yesoma; all [bracket] placeholders are yours to fill in before sending.

Common questions

How do I change the $120 diagnostic fee to match my rate? Go to Settings → Services → Diagnostic / check-engine scan and update the price anchor. Then open Settings → Templates → Pricing reply — diagnostic required and update the $120 reference in the body.

Can I add a state inspection service? Yes — go to Settings → Services → Add service and create it. Copy the structure of an existing fixed-price service. It will not be part of the base playbook, but once you create it, it shows up in your Business Brain like any other service.

Should I use the same playbook templates for email and WhatsApp? All templates in the playbook are set to both channels by default. The templates are written to work in either context — no emoji, no markdown formatting that breaks in WhatsApp. If your shop primarily runs on one channel, you can adjust the channel setting per template in Settings → Templates.

Why does the follow-up cadence fire on Day 0? The first-reply template is set to fire on Day 0 so Yesoma can send or queue it the moment an inquiry comes in, within your response window. You can still send it manually if you prefer to review first. The Day 0 setting just ensures no inquiry goes unacknowledged.