Two-way SMS. Automated status updates. Targeted marketing campaigns. Text-to-pay. Review requests. Declined job follow-ups. Unlimited messages included free in Shop Commander. Tekmetric charges $439/mo for two-way SMS. We include it for $0.
Text messages have a 98% open rate. Emails? About 20%. Phone calls? Most go to voicemail. If you're not texting your customers, you're communicating through channels they're largely ignoring.
SMS isn't just for marketing blasts. In a modern auto repair shop, texting is how work gets done:
Every one of these messages builds trust, reduces phone calls, and keeps your customer in the loop without your service writer picking up the phone. And every one of them can be fully automated in Shop Commander.
Here's the kicker: most competitors charge serious money for this. Tekmetric locks two-way SMS behind their $439/mo Scale tier. Their Starter ($199/mo) and Growth ($349/mo) plans don't include it. Want marketing campaigns? That's an additional paid add-on. Standalone CRM tools like Steer and Shopgenie charge $200–700/month for automated texting and marketing.
Shop Commander includes two-way SMS, automated notifications, marketing campaigns, text-to-pay, review requests, and declined job follow-ups — all for $0/month.
View full SMS history per customer in a chat-style interface. Every text sent and received is in one thread, so any team member can pick up where the last conversation left off. No more "what did we tell this customer?"
Incoming messages appear instantly via WebSocket. No refreshing. No delay. When a customer replies to your estimate, your service writer sees it immediately — just like a regular text conversation.
Badge counts for unread messages across all conversations. Your team always knows when customers need a response. Nothing falls through the cracks between oil changes.
Send and receive images via MMS. Customers can text you photos of warning lights, unusual noises (via video), or damage they want repaired. You can send photos of the work completed. Visual communication builds trust.
Configure templates for every notification type with dynamic variables: {first_name}, {vehicle}, {shop_name}, {ro_number}, {link}, {phone}. Preview exactly what the customer will see before sending. Each shop can customize their own templates.
Queue messages for specific dates and times. Schedule a follow-up for next week, a reminder for tomorrow morning, or a campaign for Friday afternoon. Edit or cancel scheduled messages before they send.
The number one complaint customers have about auto repair shops is communication — or the lack of it. "What's happening with my car?" is the most common call your front desk gets. Each of those calls interrupts your service writer, slows down the workflow, and frustrates the customer.
Shop Commander eliminates these calls by sending automated SMS updates at every stage of the repair process:
Every one of these notifications is triggered by status changes in your workflow. Your team doesn't have to remember to send them. Just update the RO status, and the customer is notified. That's fewer phone calls, happier customers, and service writers who can focus on selling work instead of answering "is my car done?" for the 15th time today.
Your customer database is a goldmine. Every person who's ever visited your shop is a potential repeat customer — if you remind them you exist. Shop Commander's campaign system lets you reach the right customers with the right message at the right time.
Pre-built campaign types for the services that drive revenue throughout the year: rust proofing (September), winter tires (October–November), summer tires (March–April), AC service (May–June), battery check (October–November). Hit the right customers at the right season.
Target customers with precision: last visit date range, service type history, vehicle make/model/year, customer lifecycle state (new, active, overdue, inactive, lost), spending tier ($2,000+, $500–$2,000, under $500), outstanding declined work, and custom tags. Send messages to exactly who needs them.
One-click AI message generation based on campaign type and audience. The AI writes a compelling, professional message tailored to your campaign. Edit it or send it as-is. No more staring at a blank text box trying to figure out what to say.
Track everything: recipient count, delivery rate, responses, and revenue attribution. Shop Commander automatically checks if recipients booked within 30 days and attributes the revenue to the campaign. See actual ROI per campaign, not just vanity metrics.
Before you send a campaign, preview the target audience. See exactly which customers will receive the message and how many there are. No surprises. Adjust your filters until the audience is right, then send.
Build any campaign you want with flexible audience targeting. Promote a new service. Announce extended hours. Send a holiday greeting. Offer a seasonal discount. The campaign builder is designed to handle whatever you need.
This is the kind of marketing automation that standalone tools charge $200–700/month for. Steer, Shopgenie, BayIQ — they all charge subscription fees on top of your shop management software. With Shop Commander, the entire marketing engine is built in and free. No extra subscriptions. No per-message fees. For more strategies on driving revenue, check out our guide on how auto shops can make more money.
Every shop has declined work sitting in their system. Brake jobs the customer said "not yet" to. Suspension work they wanted to wait on. A transmission flush they declined because they were already at $800 for the current visit. That declined work represents real revenue you've already diagnosed and documented. Most shops never follow up on it.
Shop Commander's declined job recovery system follows up automatically:
Shops that implement systematic declined job follow-up typically recover 15–25% of declined work. On a shop doing $50,000/month with a 30% decline rate, that's $2,250–$3,750 in recovered revenue per month. Over a year, that's $27,000–$45,000 in work you already diagnosed that would have otherwise walked out the door forever.
This feature alone is worth more than what most competitors charge for their entire platform. And yes, it's free. For tips on training your service advisors to reduce declined work in the first place, read our service advisor training guide.
Shop Commander includes a complete CRM engine that automatically manages your customer relationships. This replaces standalone tools like Steer and Shopgenie that charge $200–700/month:
Every customer is automatically classified: New, Active, Due Soon, Overdue, Inactive, or Lost. No manual data entry. The system calculates each customer's visit frequency and flags them when they're due or overdue for service.
"How did we do?" survey sent automatically after every completed RO. Happy customers get routed to a Google review request. Unhappy customers get immediate attention with a callback request — before they leave a bad review.
3-attempt escalating series for inactive and lost customers. Friendly check-in first, value reminder two weeks later, last chance four weeks after that. Auto-stops after 3 attempts with no response. Smart enough to skip customers who've already returned.
Automatic SMS when customers are due or overdue based on their personal visit pattern. Not a generic "it's been 6 months" — the system knows each customer's actual frequency and reminds them at the right time.
Automated Google review requests sent to qualified customers (ROs over $100, approval rates above 75%). 90-day cooldown prevents over-soliciting. Click tracking shows when customers tap the review link. Direct redirect to your Google Business Profile.
Global frequency limit (max 1 automated message per customer every N days). Module-specific cooldowns. Negative feedback auto-pauses all outreach. Upcoming appointment suppression. Duplicate prevention. Your customers never feel spammed.
The fastest way to get paid is to make it as easy as possible for the customer. Shop Commander's text-to-pay sends a payment link via SMS. The customer taps the link, sees their invoice, and pays on their phone. No phone call. No coming into the shop. No "I'll pay you next week."
Combined with digital estimates and line-by-line authorization, the entire workflow from estimate to payment can happen via text message:
Five steps. Zero phone calls. Zero visits to the front counter. Your service writers save time, your customers get convenience, and you get paid faster. Everybody wins.
Every feature, unlimited users, $0/month forever. See why shops are switching from $300–500/mo platforms.
Photo/video markup, AI note cleanup, offline PWA, customer approval via SMS, and shareable inspection reports.
Online booking widget, drag-and-drop calendar, bay assignment, SMS confirmations, and customer self-service.
Digital estimates, customer approval links, auto-convert to invoice, text-to-pay, split payments, and PDF generation.
Two-way SMS, automated updates, marketing campaigns, text-to-pay, review requests, declined job follow-ups, and a full CRM engine — all free. Tekmetric charges $439/mo for two-way SMS alone. Shop Commander charges nothing.
Free setup. Free migration. No credit card.