Auto service
Turn service enquiries into organized appointment requests.
Marlin answers the phone while the ramps are busy, collects the vehicle, the service wanted and the preferred day, and logs it as one clean request. A member of your staff approves the slot. Marlin does not confirm a workshop booking.
What exists when the call ends
- Workshop
- Harbourline Auto Service (Sample)
- Vehicle
- 2019 Volkswagen Golf
- Odometer, as stated by caller
- 78,000 km
- Service type requested
- Interim service
- Requested day
- Thursday, 10:00
- Approval status
- Awaiting staff approval
- Reference
- SMP-8123
Take a service enquiry yourself
Describe a vehicle, ask for a day, then move it. Then try the call every workshop dreads: ask whether the car is safe to drive. Watch what the agent refuses to do.
Every slot in this scenario is a request awaiting staff approval. The sandbox has no path that produces a confirmed workshop appointment, because the product does not have one.
From “it needs a service” to a request your service desk can action
Three inputs, one record, and an approval step that stays with a person. The service types Marlin is allowed to accept are a list you supply; anything outside it becomes a callback.
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Vehicle details
Make, model, year, and the odometer reading as the caller states it. Registration or VIN if your workflow asks for them. Marlin records what it was told and marks it as caller-stated, not verified.
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Service type
Matched against the list of services you have authorised — interim service, full service, roadworthiness test, brake inspection, tyre change. If the caller describes a fault instead of a service, that is a callback, not a guess.
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Preferred time, then a request
Marlin reads the diary, offers days that are open for requests, and logs one request with a reference. Your service desk approves it, moves it, or calls the customer.
Caller said
“A 2019 Volkswagen Golf, about 78,000 kilometres. It is due its interim service.”
“Wednesday morning if you have it.” … “Could you move it to Thursday instead?”
Service request record
- Vehicle
- 2019 Volkswagen Golf
- Odometer, caller-stated
- 78,000 km
- Service type
- Interim service
- Requested day
- Thursday, 10:00
- Reference
- SMP-8123
- Revision
- 2
Awaiting staff approval Sample record
What it may do on a service call, and where it stops
Read the right-hand column first. On a workshop phone line, the things the agent refuses to say matter more than the things it can.
| Situation on the call | What Marlin does | Record produced | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Routine service wanted, slot open | Records vehicle, odometer and service type, reads the whole thing back, then logs a request for the day and time the caller chose. It states out loud that a person still has to approve it. | Service request with vehicle, service type, requested day and time, and a reference | Request — staff approve |
| Requested day is full | Offers the days that are open for requests. It does not squeeze a car onto a ramp and does not promise a same-day look. | Request on the alternative day, or no record if none suited | Alternative requested |
| Caller moves the day | Re-checks the diary and amends the request that already exists. Reference unchanged, revision moves, approval status stays pending — your desk sees one request, not two. | The same request, updated | Amended, still pending |
| Caller describes a fault or a noise | Records the caller’s words as a caller-reported symptom and says clearly that it cannot say what is wrong. No diagnosis, no likely cause, no reassurance. | Callback request carrying the symptom in the caller’s words, marked as not a diagnosis | Handed to a person |
| Caller asks the price or how long it takes | Declines and offers a callback. A service price depends on what the technician finds, and a duration depends on the ramp. Marlin has neither answer and is not allowed to estimate one. | Callback request with the question recorded | Handed to a person |
| Caller asks whether the car is safe to drive | Refuses, and says why: that needs a person who can look at the vehicle. It offers the callback queue and creates nothing that looks like clearance to drive. | Callback request — no appointment, no advice given | Refused by design |
Exceptions an auto-service business should expect
- A request is not an appointment. Marlin cannot confirm a workshop slot. It logs a request with a reference and an approval status, and a member of staff turns it into a booking. Every screen on this site says so in the same words.
- No diagnosis. A grinding noise, a warning light or a smell is recorded verbatim as caller-reported. Marlin does not name a cause, a part or a repair.
- No price and no duration. Not a range, not a “usually about”, not a starting-from. Both depend on what the technician finds.
- No safety advice. Marlin will not tell anyone whether it is safe to drive, tow or keep using a vehicle, and it will not imply it by choosing a later slot.
- No write, no tick. If the diary does not confirm the request was logged, the log shows an not confirmed and asks for it to be checked. It does not report a request it cannot prove, and it does not silently retry.
- The caller can always ask for a person. Handover is available at any point and is recorded in the record of what Marlin did.
What an auto-service deployment needs connected
The conversation works without any of this. Logging a request into your diary does not. Each connection is published with a type and a status, and Planned connections are not selectable.
| Connection | Why a service call needs it | Integration type | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Workshop diary or job-booking system | Read which days are open for requests, create a request, amend it, and carry the approval status your desk works from. | Via connector | Requires verification |
| Email follow-up | Draft the caller’s request summary, and send the callback request to the service desk. | Native | Supported |
| Vehicle and customer records | Recognise a returning vehicle, attach the call note to the right record, and keep the service history where the technician will see it. | Custom | Requires verification |
| Calendar | Keep collection, courtesy-car and technician availability out of the ramp diary when they are held separately. | Via connector | Requires verification |
| Live transfer to the service desk | Move a fault, a price question or a safety question to a person while the caller is still on the line, rather than into a callback queue. | Planned | Not yet available |
A service enquiry at a sample workshop, start to finish
Harbourline Auto Service is a fixture, not a customer. Call Marlin has no published workshop references yet, and no testimonial, logo or throughput figure appears on this site until a named business has approved one.
- Call answeredAgent names the workshop, states this is a sandbox demonstration, and states up front that it does not diagnose, price or estimate
- Vehicle recorded2019 Volkswagen Golf, 78,000 km as stated by the caller, interim service
- Diary checkedWednesday 09:00 open — as a request only
- Request loggedWritten after an explicit yes, with a reference and the approval status shown on screen
- Amendment handledCaller moves to Thursday 10:00 — the same request updated, reference retained, still awaiting approval
- Follow-upSummary prepared and placed in the demo inbox — prepared, not delivered
What an auto-service pilot is scoped and quoted on
There is no published price list. A pilot is quoted against the enquiry workflow you actually run, so an independent workshop is not paying for a multi-site service-centre shape.
The variables that move the quote
- How many service types are in scope. A single interim-service intake is a smaller workflow than a list covering tests, tyres and brakes.
- Where the approval step lives. Reading a diary to offer open days is setup work; writing a request into it depends on the connector being verified.
- How fault calls are routed. A callback queue, a staff channel, or both — and who is on the other end of it.
- Conversation time. Usage is charged on time spent on calls, with the unit and any included allowance stated in the agreement.
- Telephony. Carrier and number costs, listed separately from the agent itself.
Tell us what your service desk spends the day answering.
Which enquiries never reach the ramps, what your diary system is, and which questions must always reach a person. We come back with a scoped pilot and what it would take to run it.