Customers who can see where their car is call you less. The status page shows the repair in seven stages, the photos and videos you choose to share with your technician's notes, the estimate they can answer on the page, the invoice with a pay button, and your pick-up hours, address and phone. It carries your name, logo and colours and opens in any customer language you have switched on.
Before you start #
- You need the owner, manager, advisor or technician role.
- Save your public base address in settings, so the link opens from outside your office.
- To email the link, fill in your office mail settings. Without them the email stays held and the link is shown on screen for you to send yourself.
- Customer languages other than English appear once the owner switches them on (see customer-languages).
Steps #
- Open the repair order and find the card Status page for the customer.
- Choose Send status link to email the customer, or Make a link to copy to send it yourself by text or in person. The link works for 60 days. Making another link keeps the earlier ones working.
- The customer opens the link on their phone. The tracker marks the current stage with a filled circle and a word, so it reads without colour. The stages are Checked in, Inspecting, Waiting for your approval, Parts ordered, In repair, Quality check and Ready for pick-up.
- Move the order along as you do today. The stage on the page follows the order on its own, so there is nothing extra to enter.
- When an estimate has lines waiting, the customer approves or declines each one on the same page, types their name and ticks the box. Their answer is saved exactly like an answer on the approval link, with the signature record and the order history.
- When the invoice has a payment link, the page shows the balance and a Pay now button that opens your payment page.
- To stop sharing, ask to stop the open status links for the order. The page then shows the not-found message and your phone number is the next step for the customer.
How each stage is chosen #
| What the order shows | Stage on the page |
|---|---|
| New estimate | Checked in |
| Estimate with an inspection under way | Inspecting |
| Estimate sent for approval | Waiting for your approval |
| Approved with parts needed or ordered, or waiting for parts | Parts ordered |
| Approved with nothing to wait for, or in progress | In repair |
| Quality check | Quality check |
| Ready, invoiced or closed | Ready for pick-up |
Technical details
- Staff routes (Shop group):
POST /shop/orders/:id/status-link(addsend_email, optionallyto_email),GETfor the links with their view counts,DELETEto stop open links. - Customer routes, no sign-in:
GET /status/:token,POST /status/:token/approve,GET /status/:token/files/:file. The token is 32 hexadecimal characters and only its hash is stored. A link works for 60 days. - The page shows only the order's own lines, invoice, shared files and notes. Files appear when staff mark them for the customer.
- The page uses no script and works at phone width with large touch targets.
If something goes wrong #
- "Set the public base address in settings first": the email would carry a link that opens only inside the office. Save the address, then send again.
- The email shows as held: the office mail host has no value yet. Save it, then send the link again.
- The customer sees "We cannot find this link": the link was stopped or is older than 60 days. Make a new one.
- The stage looks behind: change the order's stage, or set parts to ordered, and refresh the page.