Workshop notes
Useful reading for
garage owners.
Short, practical write-ups on the parts of running an independent garage that sit outside the bay: the phone, the diary, pricing rules and customer records. Where we use a figure, it comes from a named published source — DVSA, GOV.UK, the ICO or the IMI.
Why independent garages miss calls — and what it actually costs you
A practical breakdown of when garage phones go unanswered, why it happens, and how to work out your own missed-call cost without relying on made-up industry averages.
Capacity planning for a small workshop: how many cars a day is right?
How to set a realistic daily car capacity for your bays, why over-booking costs more than it earns, and how a capacity limit lets you automate booking safely.
Should you quote prices over the phone? A framework for garages
When quoting on the call wins the job, when it loses you money, and how to set price ranges that let someone else answer the phone without undercutting your margin.
Who owns your garage's customer data — and why it matters
Notebooks, voicemail and memory are not a customer database. What UK GDPR expects from a small garage, and what to check before letting any software hold your customer records.
AI receptionist vs traditional answering service: what changes for a garage
Per-minute call answering, message-taking and diary booking are three different products. A clear look at the differences that matter for a workshop.
What the MOT data actually says about the work coming through your bay
DVSA publishes every MOT failure by defect category. We read the latest figures to show which repairs are most likely to be waiting on the other end of your phone.
MOT fees: what you can charge, and what you cannot
The statutory maximum test fees, when a retest must be free, and how to turn all of it into a phone script anyone in the workshop can follow.
The garage phone problem is really a staffing problem
Why independent workshops cannot simply hire someone to answer the phone, what the national labour market data shows, and the options that are left.