BODY SHOPS · COLLISION · TOWING & STORAGE

Your website has your phone number on it. That's about all it does.

Somebody gets rear-ended on a Tuesday. They want to send you a picture of the bumper and find out roughly what it runs. They can't — so they call. And so do the four people whose cars are already in your shop, asking if they're done yet. We build the site that handles all of that, and we run it for you.

$200a monthBuilding it costs nothing extra · No setup fee
We're not trying to fill your bays Probably cheaper than what you pay now You own it, and you can log in

Two minutes, on your phone

Pull up your own website and read it.

We looked at body shops all over Central New York before writing any of this. Here's what we kept finding.

REAL, RIGHT NOW

Some of these sites are showing customers raw computer code

One shop near Syracuse has this sitting on its homepage where words should be: This is a placeholder for the Yext Knowledge Tags. Another one's menu says [GEOTITLE] instead of “Syracuse.” A shop up in Lewis County has a copyright that stops at 2021. Nobody at the company that sold them the site has looked at it in years — and neither has anybody at the shop, because why would you.

REAL, RIGHT NOW

You're probably already paying for that

Most of these sites came from a big national outfit that sells them over the phone as a monthly package — a few hundred a month, six months minimum, and good luck getting somebody on the line. Here's the part that gets people: it isn't even your website. You can't log in and fix your own hours. We're not asking you for new money. We're asking you to stop paying them.

What we're not going to tell you STRAIGHT

  • We're not promising to get you to the top of Google. Nobody can, and anybody who says they can is lying.
  • We're not telling you your site looks bad on a phone unless we've looked and it does. Plenty of them are fine.
  • We're not trying to fill your bays. If you're six weeks out, more calls is the last thing you need. What you need is the phone ringing less for dumb reasons, and the right kind of job when it does ring.

What we build

Six things built for a body shop.

Not a five-page brochure with a phone number on it. These are the things your customers are trying to do — and right now every one of them turns into a phone call you have to take.

They send you photos of the damage THE BIG ONE

  • Six photos off their phone, their plate number, and three questions: can you drive it, did the airbags go off, is anything leaking?
  • They get a ballpark range and a time you'll call them back
  • It lands on your phone as a text with the pictures attached

We opened six body shop websites around here. Not one of them lets a customer send a photo. Somebody standing in a parking lot looking at a caved-in door has the same one option on every single site: call, and hope somebody picks up.

“You can pick your own shop” THE ONLY QUESTION THEY HAVE

  • A plain page telling them what most people don't know: the insurance company can suggest a shop, but they can't make you use it.
  • Your DMV shop number, right there, so they know you're legitimate
  • And the sentence that closes it: we deal with the adjuster and the paperwork, you don't

This is the one thing every collision customer wonders and nobody answers. Not one shop site in the region has written it down. It also brings you people searching for exactly that.

They check on their car without calling KILLS THE CALLS

  • They put in their last name and plate and see where it's at: torn down, waiting on parts, in paint, going back together, ready
  • With a date, and a couple of real pictures you texted in from the floor
  • That's four “is it done yet” calls a car your front desk doesn't have to take

Owners light up when they see this one. It doesn't bring you a single new customer. It just gives your office person their day back.

Before and afters, added by text YOUR BEST SALESMAN

  • You text two photos to a number. They show up on the site. That's the whole job.
  • No logging in. No password. No uploading anything.

A quarter panel on a Silverado, before and after, sells harder than every word on your website put together. The reason most shops don't have a gallery isn't that they don't have photos — it's that adding them is a pain. So we made it a text message.

What you're certified in, up top WHY YOU, NOT THEM

  • I-CAR, your manufacturer certifications, years in business, your written warranty
  • Whether you do the camera and sensor calibration in house — more cars need it every year, and if you do it and the shop down the road farms it out, that's worth saying out loud

Most shops have real credentials sitting in a drawer and nothing about them anywhere a customer can see.

If you tow: the impound page FOR COMBINED SHOPS

  • Their car got towed. Where is it, what are the gate hours, what's the daily charge
  • Exactly what to bring — registration, ID, insurance card — and what you take for payment
  • Plus a one-tap tow request that sends your driver a map pin

This is the busiest phone call in the towing business and nobody around here has put it on a page. If you run trucks and a lot, this one alone is worth the money.

Pricing

Building it costs you nothing extra.

No setup fee. You sign up for a year, or three years for a cheaper monthly rate. Compare it to what the phone-sales outfit is charging you now.

Presence

A good, fast website that says who you are and what you're certified in. For a smaller shop.

$200a month

$170 a month if you sign for three years

  • A 5-page website, built for you
  • Your certifications and your warranty up front
  • The “you can pick your own shop” page
  • We keep it online, safe and backed up
  • 2 hours a month of changes
MOST SHOPS WANT THIS ONE

Growth

Everything above, plus the photo estimates, the car tracker and the gallery you feed by text.

$400a month

$340 a month if you sign for three years

  • Everything in Presence
  • They send photos of the damage and get a ballpark
  • They check on their car without calling you
  • Before-and-afters you add by text message
  • Something on your site that answers questions at 9 at night
  • We keep your Google listing right — hours, photos, phone
  • We ask your customers for a review after pickup
  • 5 hours a month of changes

Commerce

Only if you want to take money online. Most body shops don't — the insurance company pays, or they pay at pickup.

$700a month

$595 a month if you sign for three years

  • Everything in Growth
  • Take deposits or payment online
  • List up to 100 services
  • 10 hours a month of changes

Those hours are a real limit and they don't carry over. If you want something bigger done, we price it separately — your monthly bill doesn't move on you. And if the cheap one is all you need, we'll tell you that.

Questions

The things you're actually thinking

I'm booked six weeks out. Why do I need this?
You don't need more cars. What you might need is better cars — customer-pay work instead of whatever the insurance company sends. And you definitely don't need your front desk taking four calls a car about whether it's done. That's what this is for. If your bays are full and your phone is quiet, don't buy this.
Most of my work comes from the insurance company anyway.
For now. Ask yourself what percentage of your work is customer-pay today versus two years ago. If that number is going the wrong way, you've got maybe a year before you find out nobody outside that pipeline can find you. Shops that are getting out from under the insurance programs are the ones who need this first.
I already pay somebody for a website.
Probably one of the big phone-sales companies, a few hundred a month, six-month minimum. Tell us what you pay and when it's up. If ours costs less and does more, switch when your term ends — we'll build yours first and flip it the day the old one dies. Worth checking whether you can even log into the one you have now. Most shops can't.
Can you really give somebody a price off a photo?
No, and we'd never build it that way. A photo gets them a range and a callback time — nothing more, and the page says exactly that. You still write the real estimate after you put hands on the car. What it does is stop somebody with a wrecked car from calling four shops and going with whoever answered first.
Who keeps it up to date? I don't have time.
We do. The gallery you feed by texting photos — that's it, that's the whole job on your end. Everything else is ours: keeping it online, keeping it safe, putting something new on it, keeping your Google listing right.
Can you get me to the top of Google?
No. Anybody who promises you that is lying. What we do is build a site that loads fast, that Google can actually read, with your towns and your certifications spelled out, and put something new on it every month. If you're starting from a Facebook page or a dead site, that alone makes a real difference.
I do towing and storage too. Does this cover that?
Yes, and it's one of the better reasons to do it. The tow request goes straight to your driver's phone with a map pin, and the impound page answers the busiest call you take — where's my car, what do I owe, what do I bring. Nobody around here has that page.
What if I want out?
The site comes down, we hand you your content and your domain name, and that's that. We don't hold anything hostage — which is more than you can say for how you probably got your current one.

Let's see what yours would look like.

Tell us about your shop. We'll come back with a straight answer about whether this is worth it for you — including if it isn't. Usually within one business day.

Goes to jp@ainovations.net. Prefer email? Email us directly.