Garage owners: get extra work decided
Client choices
Extra work, approved or postponed in writing
Worn discs found when the wheels come off: ask the question with the photo and the price. Your client chooses to replace now or at the next visit, and the answer is dated.
- Two to six options, with photos
- Dated answer, in the client’s name
- Visible to the whole workshop
Replaces: A “let's go with B” lost in an email · A call nobody wrote down
No more decisions found three weeks too late
To get extra work decided, a garage owner publishes a choice in Kolinea: one question with the photo of the part and the price, one option per possible answer, a deadline. The client answers from their phone; the answer carries their name and date, and stays tied to the question. You order from it, not from a message left on an answering machine.
Why does extra work get decided so badly over the phone?
The mechanic finds the worn part when the wheels come off, and the client cannot be reached: they are at work, or they call back while you are under another car. The car takes up a bay in the meantime. When the answer comes, it is spoken, with no record. On invoice day, the client says they never accepted the discs.
How do you ask the question with the photo and the price?
You attach the photo of the part, taken by the mechanic, then write the question with the price: "Front discs and pads: €286 incl. VAT extra. What do we do?" The message says what was measured: discs at 23 mm for a minimum of 24 mm.
Options are labels: "Replace now", "At the next visit", "Call me before I decide". Only one can be kept. The client ticks one, may comment, then confirms. Once confirmed, the choice stays put.
What does Kolinea do with that answer?
It appears in the folder, dated and in its author's name, visible to the whole workshop. Your mechanic knows whether to order the discs or refit the wheel. Nothing is done without the answer: the template text tells the client so, "nothing is done without your agreement".
Kolinea does not price: the price is the one you write in the question. If the amount must be approved as a quote in its own right, go through a sign-off.
How long does the client have to answer?
The "Extra work" template gives one day. The car is on the lift: the deadline is short, and Kolinea reminds the client while the answer is missing. If the client answers "Call me before I decide", you phone them, then publish a second choice once the decision is made.
Where does the choice sit in the repair?
After the quote approval, when taking the car apart reveals something else, and before putting it back together: extra work is decided before the handover.
For real, on the 308's brakes
In the example folder (in French only), Nadège Pottier had mentioned a noise when braking. Mathis Kerjean, the mechanic, measures the front discs with the wheels off and posts the photo. Ronan Prigent sends the question to the client: €286 incl. VAT extra for the discs and pads, with the three options. She has one day to answer, and the waiting view shows it until she decides.
Going back on the choice takes a second choice; the first stays in the folder as it was given.
Related reading
- Choices, the feature in detail
- Independent garage: quotes and extra work approved in writing, from drop-off to handover
- Garage owners: get a repair quote accepted, the step that comes before the question
Choices, in other lines of work
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