Mechanical Workshops
Your phone rings while you're elbow-deep in an engine bay. Zatersio answers it, books the service, and chases the rego renewal.
An AI voice receptionist trained on Victorian workshop workflows. It fields the overflow, lunch-rush and after-hours calls, captures rego and VIN, ballparks the common jobs (logbook services, brakes, tyres, RWC), and drops the booking straight into Workshop Software or MechanicDesk.
Keeps the tools you already run
- Workshop Software
- MechanicDesk
- Workshop Mate
- 5iQ
- Mechanic Manager
Watch the core agent work a live call
books into MechanicDeskInbound call
Hi, my rego's due next month and the car needs a roadworthy for the sale. Can you fit me in?
Agent qualifies
I can do that. Can I grab the rego? Got it as 1ABC234. That's a 2018 hatch on file. RWC plus a logbook service runs roughly $290 to $360 depending on what we find.
Books the job
Booked you in for the RWC and service Tuesday 8am into MechanicDesk.
SMS handoff
Confirmed by SMS: Tuesday 8am, please bring the rego papers. Reply here if anything changes.
Why now
mechanical workshops in Australia, roughly 80% owner-operated independents
Zatersio Mechanical Workshops Blueprint · May 2026
national technician shortfall; federal apprenticeship incentives halved in January 2026
AAAA 2025 Critical Issues Report / Zatersio Mechanical Workshops Blueprint · 2025-2026
inbound calls to a busy workshop go missed, and 85% of those callers never ring back
Industry data / Zatersio Mechanical Workshops Blueprint · May 2026
of already-diagnosed declined/deferred work the average shop leaves unbilled per week
Industry studies / Zatersio Mechanical Workshops Blueprint · May 2026
of independents are EV-ready as EV/hybrid and Chinese-make uptake rises
Zatersio Mechanical Workshops Blueprint · May 2026
Where the money leaks today
The admin that quietly costs you jobs
Missed calls during bay-time
The phone goes to voicemail while you're under a car, and the caller rings the next shop. 30%+ go unanswered industry-wide.
Declined work that's never followed up
Already-diagnosed repairs the customer deferred just sit on the job card.
$14k-$42k/week unbilled · Industry studies / Zatersio Mechanical Workshops Blueprint · May 2026
Generic single-send reminders
One templated SMS that gets ignored, instead of a multi-touch sequence tied to rego and RWC dates.
Reviews never asked for
Google reviews never requested at invoice time, and bad reviews never answered.
Customers unsure what they paid for
People walk out not understanding the work, eroding trust on bigger future jobs.
Front-of-house admin after hours
Owner doing reminders, follow-ups and comms on nights and weekends instead of automating them.
After-hours emergency triage
Urgent calls go to voicemail and the job is lost to the next available shop.
~$72,800/year
Just 2 missed jobs/week walked next door / Zatersio Mechanical Workshops Blueprint · May 2026
The solution stack
One core agent, four compounding add-ons
AI Voice Receptionist (Victorian-trained)
A 24/7 voice agent answers your phone in a natural Australian voice, books services into your Workshop Software / MechanicDesk calendar, gives ballpark quotes on common jobs (services, brakes, tyres, RWC), captures rego and VIN, asks the right intake questions, and escalates anything urgent straight to your mobile via SMS.
Aware of VicRoads rego rules, RWC validity windows and Victorian workshop intake patterns. Every other automation amplifies value, but the voice receptionist is the one that recovers revenue from day one.
Rego, RWC & Log-Book Reminder Sequencer
Pulls upcoming rego dates and last service dates from your shop software and sends a multi-touch SMS and email sequence at 6 weeks / 3 weeks / 1 week before expiry, with a one-tap booking link. Aware of VicRoads RWC rules (30-day validity, 14-day re-inspection window).
Declined-Work Recapture Bot
Every time a customer declines or defers a recommended repair, the bot logs it from the job card and fires a personalised SMS at 14, 30 and 90 days, referencing the original photo, quote and safety note. Owner approves the message template once; the bot does the rest.
AI Review Request & Reply Drafter
Automatically requests a Google review by SMS the moment an invoice is marked paid, and drafts a tailored reply for the owner to approve in one tap, including de-escalation language for negative reviews.
"What We Did & Why" Customer Explainer
Reads the job card line items at invoicing time and generates a plain-English SMS (and PDF if needed) explaining what was done, why it was needed and what to watch for next service, with photos attached where the tech took them. Especially valuable for EV, hybrid and unfamiliar Chinese-make jobs.
Investment
Setup and monthly, per component
| Component | Setup | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| AI Voice Receptionist (Victorian-trained)1 | $499 | $350 / mo |
| + Rego, RWC & Log-Book Reminder Sequencer2 | $250 | + $150 / mo |
| + Declined-Work Recapture Bot3 | $250 | + $150 / mo |
| + AI Review Request & Reply Drafter4 | $200 | + $120 / mo |
| + "What We Did & Why" Customer Explainer5 | $200 | + $120 / mo |
Full stack ~$1,399 setup + ~$890/mo for Core plus all four add-ons. Two recovered jobs per week ($1,400) pays the full stack every six business days. Start with Core, then bolt on each add-on at your own pace.
1 Includes 200 voice minutes/mo. Trained on Victorian workshop workflows.
2 Multi-touch SMS/email tied to VicRoads dates.
3 14 / 30 / 90-day follow-up on deferred work.
4 Auto review requests + drafted replies.
5 Plain-English SMS summary from job card.
ROI snapshot
What recovery looks like
Estimate your recovery
- Monthly upside
- $6,062
- Full-stack cost
- $890/mo
- Net per month
- $5,172
Indicative only, based on your inputs and the per-component monthly pricing in the table above. Assumes ~4.33 weeks per month.
How we work together
From first call to live in six weeks
Week 1
Discovery
Two 60-minute sessions with the owner and the service advisor. We pull a week of missed-call data, map how a booking and a job card move through Workshop Software or MechanicDesk, and confirm your common-job price guides before we lock scope.
Weeks 2-4
Build
We train the voice agent on your ballpark pricing and VicRoads rego and RWC rules, wire the rego/RWC reminder sequence to your shop-software dates, and connect booking and job-card sync. You hear test calls each week before go-live.
Week 5
Pilot
We route overflow and after-hours calls to the agent for one mechanic. We check it captures rego and VIN, quotes the common jobs correctly, and books into the right bay slot, then tune in flight.
Week 6 onward
Retainer
The agent covers the whole workshop. The monthly retainer kicks in: we own uptime, watch the booking and recapture logs, retune the reminder cadences each rego cycle, and add the next automation as the shop grows.
Day-60 guarantee
If the Core Voice Receptionist doesn't produce at least 1 additional booking per week by day 60, we waive the month-3 retainer on the Core.
Compliance and data residency
Built to keep your data onshore and yours
On your own servers
Run the full stack on-premise, inside your own network. Nothing leaves your building.
Australian-resident cloud
Or host on Australian-resident cloud (AWS Sydney). Your data stays onshore.
Either way, your data is never used to train third-party models.
Regulatory coverage
- Privacy Act 1988
- Consumer Affairs Victoria record-keeping requirements for motor-vehicle repairers
What we guarantee on data
- Each add-on must show measurable activity (reminders sent, declined work recaptured, reviews requested) within 30 days of go-live, or we rebuild it at no charge.
- Your customer data stays in Australian-resident infrastructure (AWS Sydney by default), or run it on your own servers. Your choice.
- Voice recordings are stored only as long as needed for QA and never used to train third-party models.
- Compliant with the Privacy Act 1988 and Consumer Affairs Victoria's record-keeping requirements for motor-vehicle repairers.
Integrate, never replace
We sit on top of the tools you already run
Workshop Software, MechanicDesk, Workshop Mate, 5iQ and Mechanic Manager already handle bookings, job cards, invoicing, parts and Xero/MYOB sync. We sit on top and do the things they don't, answer the phone when you're under a car, run the rego/RWC sequence, recapture declined work, and never replace what's working.
- 5iQ
See what Zatersio recovers for your mechanical workshops business
Book a 30-minute scoping call. We map your current process, audit your existing software, and show you exactly where the money is leaking.
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