How a service ticket opens, moves through Requested, Booked, In the shop, Ready for pickup and Done, and how to close, reopen or hand one to sales. Plus the Service inbox and To do, how fast a request must be answered, handing a sales customer to service, AutoBook Agent's follow-up on quiet requests, service numbers, the Service board, routing, PBS, the service line and the Service BDC add-on.
A service ticket is one customer's service request, worked by your Service desk. A ticket opens only for a real request: AutoBook Agent files one when a customer asks for service, booking a service visit opens one, or someone at the store asks Ask AI to open a service request and confirms the card it shows, or someone on the Service desk presses Start request on a PBS car on the Service board. Logging a note on a customer never opens a ticket.
A ticket is not the same as a service visit. The visit is the appointment (a date and time). The ticket is the whole job, and it stays open after the visit is booked and after the car arrives, until the car is paid for in PBS or someone on the desk presses Done.
The stages of a service ticket
| Stage | What it means | What moves it here |
|---|
Requested | The customer asked for service; no visit is booked yet. | A new request. A no-show also puts the ticket back here so it can be rebooked. A time you offered shows as a Time offered tag. |
Booked | A visit is booked. | Book (on your AutoBook calendar, or straight into PBS at a store that writes to PBS), Booked (a visit already in PBS, or booked outside AutoBook), Confirm visit, AutoBook Agent booking it for the customer, or a PBS visit linked to the ticket. |
In the shop | The car is here. | A repair order opens in PBS, someone taps Arrived on the visit, or the visit is marked Showed. |
Ready for pickup | The work is finished and the car is waiting. | Someone taps Car ready, or PBS marks the repair order ready. |
Done | The job is finished. | The repair order is paid in PBS, or someone presses Done. |
Marking the visit Showed does not close the ticket
Arrived or Showed on a service visit moves the ticket to In the shop. It stays open while the car is being worked on. No-show puts it back to Requested for rebooking. Only a paid repair order or Done finishes it.
Where you work a service ticket
The same buttons appear in three places, on the web and in the app:
- the service card above the reply box in the customer's conversation (Inbox, Service tab);
- the service row on To do;
- the Service tab of the customer's record, which shows the ticket number (such as S-1042), its stage, the advisor and every action, including the ones in the ⋯ menu.
The buttons change with the stage: Assign to me on an unassigned ticket, Book or Booked before a visit is set, Log call until someone has reached the customer, Car ready while the car is in the shop, Tell customer once it is ready, and Done and Hand to sales throughout. Nothing on the card reaches the customer unless the button says it texts them.
Finding your service work: the Service inbox and To do
On the Inbox Service tab, a row of Yours, Unassigned and All picks whose conversations you see:
- Yours: customers whose ticket or hand-over is yours.
- Unassigned: requests nobody has taken yet.
- All: the whole Service desk.
It opens on Yours when you have any, else All. The state chips under it count inside your pick, so each number matches the list it opens. The sort control works here too (Newest, Needs action first, Longest waiting, Oldest), a manager can filter by advisor (All advisors or a name).
To do lists your service rows beside everything else. Besides new requests and hand-overs, it shows a car that has been ready for a day or more after the customer was told and still isn't paid for, and a request whose customer stayed quiet after AutoBook Agent's follow-ups. Both clear with Done or a paid repair order. A missed call, a waiting customer, a booking promise or a failed delivery on a Service conversation goes to the ticket's advisor, then the customer's usual advisor, then the Service desk, never to the customer's sales rep.
How fast a new request must be answered
When AutoBook Agent takes a request it answers the customer straight away. The advisor a request goes to gets one notice and has 60 working minutes to respond (30 when the request is urgent or about safety). A reply to the customer or Log call counts.
Working minutes are that advisor's own working time: their schedule inside the desk's hours, else the desk's hours, else the store's hours. Days off, holidays and leave never count.
If nobody has responded in time, or the advisor is away (on leave, or not seen in AutoBook for a week), the request moves to whoever is working the Service desk. They get one notice, and if the customer is waiting, AutoBook Agent answers them with its best complete reply. There are no reminders about the same request and no pages to managers. A customer writing again on a ticket updates its row quietly; a plain thank-you adds nothing.
Taking a new service request (Assign to me)
1
Open the request
Open it from To do, the Inbox Service tab, or the Service board (Requested column).
2
Press Assign to me
The ticket is yours. Once a ticket is assigned, only that advisor or a manager can move it along; everyone else sees the buttons greyed out with Only they or a manager can update this request.
3
Managers: Assign… or Unassign
On the record's Service tab a manager can press Assign… to give the ticket to any advisor, or Unassign to put it back on the desk.
4
Log call
If you reached the customer by phone, press Log call (with an optional note). It stops the first-response clock. Nothing is sent to the customer. With no open ticket, the customer's Service tab still offers Log call: use it for a call like "called to book, no answer", not Add declined work.
Booking the service visit
- Book: when your store books service on the AutoBook calendar, this opens the booking form already filled in from the ticket. At a store that writes to PBS it opens Book in PBS: pick an open time and AutoBook books the visit in PBS for you. The customer gets a confirmation by text and email; tick Don't text the customer to send the email only.
- Booked: for a visit that is already in PBS (someone booked it there) or a store that books outside AutoBook. Pick the PBS visit from the list (or enter the time if it is not in PBS yet). The sheet can text the customer a confirmation; tick Don't text the customer to skip it. The ticket moves to Booked and stays open.
- When AutoBook Agent books a visit for a customer (in chat, by text, by email or on a call), the customer gets the same confirmation and the ticket moves to Booked.
- On the record's Service tab, an assigned ticket also offers Propose time (offers the customer a time by text) and Confirm visit (records the agreed time and texts a confirmation). Both let you check the text first or skip it.
- Change time moves a booked visit. At a PBS store the new time goes to PBS first and the visit only moves here once PBS takes it. Change PBS visit (in ⋯) relinks the ticket to a different PBS visit.
When a visit is booked straight in PBS for a customer with one open ticket, AutoBook links them for you.
Visits booked in PBS by hand. On the record's Service tab, Booked in PBS lists visits someone booked in PBS that no ticket holds. At a store that writes to PBS, a visit you may change shows Change time (pick the new time; it goes to PBS and the visit moves once PBS takes it) and, in ⋯, Cancel visit (the visit comes off the PBS schedule; the customer is not texted, so tell them yourself if they need to know). A visit AutoBook cannot change (writes are off at the store, or the visit is no longer open) says Change it in PBS., and a visit whose car is already checked in shows no buttons.
Marking a car ready
1
Press Car ready
On a ticket that is In the shop, press Car ready. The ticket moves to Ready for pickup (toast: Marked ready for pickup.).
2
Tell the customer
The Car ready sheet opens with a pre-filled text you can edit. Press Text customer to send it (from the service line when the store has one), or Call and then Already told them. If their repair order says they prefer a phone call, Call comes first. Cancel closes the sheet without telling them.
3
Told later
A ready car whose customer was never told shows Tell customer on the ticket and Not told yet on the Service board. Press it to open the same sheet.
Why Car ready is a tap
PBS often does not record when the work is finished, so a person marks the car ready and a person tells the customer. AutoBook never sends the first ready text on its own. If the customer was told and still hasn't picked the car up one open day later, AutoBook Agent sends one reminder (see When a service customer goes quiet).
Closing (resolving) a service ticket
Most tickets close by themselves: when the repair order is paid (cashiered) in PBS, the ticket goes to Done. To close one by hand:
1
Press Done
On the service card, the To do row or the record's Service tab, press Done.
2
Pick what happened
The Done with this request? sheet asks What happened?: Handled, Customer went elsewhere, or Duplicate. Add a note if it helps.
3
Confirm
Press Done. The ticket finishes for the whole team (toast: Request done.). Nothing is sent to the customer. Cancel backs out.
Who can press Done: the advisor on the ticket, anyone on the Service desk while it is unassigned, a manager, or the customer's own sales rep if they also work the Service desk. On the Service board, a card in Done today tagged Paid in PBS, close? means PBS shows the job paid but the ticket is still open: open it and press Done. If you close a ticket whose visit is booked in PBS, cancel the visit in PBS too.
When PBS closes or changes a ticket for you
At a PBS store the ticket follows its PBS visit. Nothing here is sent to the customer:
- Paid in PBS: the repair order is cashiered, so the ticket goes to Done.
- Moved in PBS: the ticket's visit time follows the new time. The advisor gets a push if the old or new time is within 48 hours.
- Arrived in PBS: when the visit is checked in at PBS, the ticket moves to In the shop.
- Missed in PBS: the ticket goes back to Requested so it can be rebooked.
- Cancelled in PBS: when a visit is voided in PBS, AutoBook waits for one more schedule refresh (about 45 to 90 minutes). If the customer was rebooked for the same car, the ticket follows the new visit (Rebooked in PBS). If not, the ticket closes with the line Cancelled in PBS, as if staff had closed it.
Reopening a ticket
1
Open the customer's record
2
Press Reopen
A ticket closed as Cancelled in PBS in the last 14 days shows Reopen. Press it; you have about 5 seconds to Undo. The ticket is back to work, and the cancelled PBS visit is unlinked so it cannot close the ticket again.
Only tickets closed by a PBS cancellation can be reopened, and not if the customer already has another open ticket (work on that one). A ticket someone finished with Done, or one older than 14 days, stays closed: open a new request instead by asking Ask AI to open a service request for the customer and confirming the card.
Handing a service customer to sales
1
Press Hand to sales
On the service card or the record's Service tab. The sheet asks Hand this customer to sales?
2
Add a note (optional)
Note for the sales rep says what they are shopping for.
3
Confirm
Press Hand to sales. The customer's sales rep gets one item to follow up on, and the service ticket stays open with the Service desk (toast: Handed to sales. The request stays with service.). Nothing is sent to the customer.
Before a visit is booked, the sheet also offers Only a sales question: finish this request. Tick it only when there is no service work to do; the ticket then finishes too. Once a ticket is handed over, Hand to sales is not offered again while that hand-over is open; it shows under Team handoffs on the record. If the sales rep hasn't acted on it within 60 working minutes, the hand-over moves to whoever is working the Sales desk; the customer's owner stays the same.
Handing a sales customer to service (Hand to service)
1
Find the button
On the customer's record, open the deal's ⋯ menu and choose Hand to service, then say what they need.
2
Who gets it
The advisor on the customer's open ticket, else their usual advisor, else the Service desk.
3
What happens
Nothing is sent to the customer, and the deal stays open. The Service desk gets a service request for what they need, added to the customer's open request if they have one. The deal history gets a Handed to service note.
Hand to service is hidden while a hand-over to service is already open, and pressing it again tells you it is already with service. Like any hand-over, it moves to whoever is working the Service desk if the advisor hasn't acted on it within 60 working minutes.
The Service board
Service board in the left menu (in the app, its own tab, labelled Service in the bottom bar) is the shop's day at a glance. It is shown to the Service desk and to managers; sales reps do not see it, and advisors who don't sell don't see Sales pipeline, Deals or the app's Sales tab. Five columns, one per stage:
- Requested: asked for service, no visit booked yet.
- Booked: grouped Today, Upcoming and Needs a date. PBS-only bookings for today show a PBS tag.
- In the shop: repair order open in PBS. Walk-ins with no ticket sit under Walk-ins, no ticket.
- Ready for pickup: tagged Told or Not told yet.
- Done today: paid or closed today.
Cards also show Needs a reply (the customer is waiting), Waiting in the lounge and Promised times. Search with the search box (Search name, car or RO; it finds S-numbers too) and narrow the board under Filters: Advisor (All advisors, Unassigned, You, or a name; a PBS car with no AutoBook advisor counts as Unassigned, and its card shows its PBS advisor code, for example PBS 095) and Cars (All, With a ticket, PBS only). What's on shows as a tag under the bar; Clear all removes it. Click a card to open the customer's Service tab, where the buttons are. A PBS card (a walk-in repair order, or today's visit booked in PBS) has no ticket yet; for the Service desk it offers Start request: AutoBook opens a service request for that car (making the customer from their PBS record if they are not in AutoBook yet), tied to the PBS visit or repair order, and the card becomes a normal ticket. You have about 5 seconds to Undo. If that car already has an open request that is booked or tied elsewhere, it says so: open that one instead. On a PBS visit for a customer AutoBook knows, ⋯ also offers Change time and Cancel visit wherever PBS allows the change (otherwise it says Change it in PBS.). Start request and Cancel visit text nobody; Change time can text the customer, as it does on the record.
Service numbers: Insights, Ask AI and the morning email
- Insights has a ready-made Service board with four tiles: requests opened, requests closed, first replies (on time, late or no reply), and the shop right now (in the shop, ready and told, ready and waiting more than a day, overdue). Bookings made from chat can be split by desk. An advisor sees their own numbers.
- Ask AI answers the same questions, for example "how many service requests did we close last week?"
- The managers' morning email has a Service block: yesterday's requests in, replies on time, unanswered and booked, and right now, cars waiting for pickup and overdue requests. Advisors get a Your service yesterday line inside a morning email they are already getting.
Who receives a request: the Service desk
A new request goes to the Service desk of the store it is for, and lists on the Inbox Service tab. Who works service requests is each person's Service desk row under Staff & Roles → Stores & desks: Takes new work, Backup, or By name only. How new requests are shared out is the Service desk's Distribution on Settings → Routing: Longest waiting goes next, Take turns, Everyone at once, Fewest open customers, or Shared pool (first to take it). With a shared pool, the first advisor to press Assign to me owns the request.
Usual advisor first. Service work for a customer that nobody owns (a task, a callback, a hand-over from sales) goes first to the advisor on their open ticket, then to their usual advisor: whoever handled their last finished service request at this store in the past 12 months (cancelled ones don't count). Either one must still work the Service desk and be available; otherwise the work goes to the Service desk as above.
Which desk a conversation belongs to
Sales and Service are equal desks. A text or call belongs to the desk of the number the customer used. A website chat or a new email belongs to the desk of its first real topic (a greeting or a question about hours is not one), so a chat that starts with an oil change is a Service conversation from the start. A conversation never moves desks.
When the customer raises the other desk's topic, AutoBook Agent handles it in place and hands over openly: the conversation it left reads Handed to Sales (or Handed to Service), the other desk opens its own conversation, which reads From the Service conversation (or From the Sales conversation), and the customer is told which number follows up.
You can read the other desk's conversations but not act on them, unless you also work that desk. When a Service conversation carries sales work, the sales rep can start their own text with the customer from the sales number, and the Service desk can do the same from the service number on a Sales conversation that carries service work.
Where service requests go: email, the app, or both
Every store tracks service tickets in the app from the day it is created; there is no switch for it. The Service requests row of Settings → Routing decides who is told about a new one: Email only (emailed to your Service Department inbox, nobody alerted in the app), Team queue (your service team is alerted in the app, no email), or Both (the default). Requests your own staff open (the booking form, or Ask AI) alert the service team in the app and are not emailed, unless the row is Email only or nobody on the desk can be alerted. A request is never lost in any mode: it is captured, confirmed to the customer and tracked.
Connecting PBS (your dealer system)
Connect a dealership to PBS and AutoBook reads its customers, vehicles, visits and service history. That powers the Service board, tickets that follow their PBS visit, closing on a paid repair order, and service follow-ups. PBS is connected on Settings → Connections, in the Dealer system (PBS) section: enter the Store username and Store password (the store's PartnerHub email; write-only, never shown back). The PBS serial number is set by AutoBook and shown read-only (Set by AutoBook); contact AutoBook support to change it. Then turn on Sync customer records to start reading, and use Verify connection to check PBS answers. Writing into PBS is switched on only by AutoBook, store by store. At a store that writes, AutoBook books, moves and cancels service visits in PBS, and sends a proven new cell number or email and the customer's opt-outs and opt-ins, for that store's own customers only. It never changes a name, address or note, and deals stay read-only (see Connections and routing).
Once connected, three more switches open:
- Inventory from PBS (same card): your lot comes from PBS instead of your website.
- Quote service prices (top of Knowledge Base → Service pricing): AutoBook Agent quotes the services you allow from your PBS rate book.
- Propose live service times (top of Booking → Service menu): AutoBook Agent offers real open times. At a store that writes to PBS it books the time the customer picks; otherwise your service team confirms the final time.
When a service customer goes quiet
AutoBook Agent follows up by itself on an open request, by text from the Service desk:
- Before a visit is booked: when we spoke last and the customer has been silent for 1 open day, then again after 3 more open days. Two touches at most.
- Car ready, not picked up: one reminder 1 open day after the customer was told.
It holds off while the customer is waiting on us, while the customer is on Approve first on the Service desk (its texts are drafts for a person), while AutoBook Agent is paused, and when the request is past its reply deadline with nobody on it (that is the desk's job). Consent and PBS Unsubscribed apply as for every message AutoBook Agent starts. The ticket shows when the next one goes, for example AutoBook Agent follows up Thursday. If the touches run out and the customer is still quiet, the request lands on the advisor's To do.
The reason is Quiet service request follow-up on Settings → Follow-ups, on at every store to start.
The Service BDC add-on: outbound follow-up only
Capturing and routing service requests works at every store without an add-on. The Service BDC add-on decides whether AutoBook Agent may reach out first to service customers. It unlocks the Service desk reasons on Settings → Follow-ups:
- A customer is due for service and a lease is ending (both from your DMS).
- A new buyer needs a first-service intro.
- Recommended work was declined.
- A service booking was left unfinished.
- A new vehicle was just delivered.
- Routine maintenance is due and an ownership anniversary came up.
Each is its own switch. These messages always obey consent, quiet hours and the page's ceilings, and AutoBook sets the waits (first-service intro 60 days after delivery, declined-work check-in 14 days after the visit, routine maintenance every 6 months). Any reply from the customer ends the sequence. An advisor can record turned-down work with Add declined work on the record's Service tab so this follow-up can pick it up. Work that is no longer needed is cleared with Dismiss (in the row's ⋯, with Undo for a few seconds); declined or recommended work added from now on drops off by itself after 90 days with no change.
The service line (its own texting number)
Every dealership gets a service line, its own texting number, so sales and service each keep their own thread with the customer. The Account Owner buys it with the main number from the Store readiness checklist (Buy your numbers); anyone else can request it there or on the Service line row of Settings → Phone & texting. Once it is registered and active it is used automatically: service ticket texts, visit confirmations, reminders and ready texts go out from it, and service staff's own texts go from it too. Until then, service texts go out from the main line, so a customer never misses one, and they still belong to the Service desk. Every message goes from the desk it is about, so a customer can get two courtesy texts, one from each number, when both desks have news. The first text from the service number introduces it (It's <your store> Service.). AutoBook handles the carrier registration; if it seems slow, email support@auto-book.ca.
Service call transfers (who answers the phone)
When a caller needs a person about service, the call follows the Service desk's rotation on Settings → Routing and rings each service rep's AutoBook app, 15 seconds each. Service calls never transfer to the sales desk: if nobody answers, AutoBook Agent takes a message for the service team, and it reaches them in the app.
How do I resolve or close a service appointment?
Finishing the visit and finishing the ticket are two steps. On the visit (Appointments page or the record's Visits tab), tap Arrived when the car comes in, or set Showed or No-show after the visit time: that moves the ticket to In the shop (or back to Requested on a no-show). The ticket closes when the repair order is paid in PBS, or when someone on the Service desk presses Done and picks Handled, Customer went elsewhere or Duplicate.
I marked the visit Showed. Why is the ticket still open?
On purpose: the car is in the shop and the job is not finished. Press Car ready when the work is done; the ticket closes when the repair order is paid in PBS, or press Done.
A ticket closed and I didn't close it. What happened?
Either the repair order was paid in PBS, or the visit was cancelled in PBS and nobody rebooked it. A ticket closed as Cancelled in PBS can be reopened from the record's Service tab for 14 days with Reopen.
What happens if nobody answers a new service request?
If the advisor hasn't responded within 60 working minutes (30 for an urgent or safety request), or is away, the request moves to whoever is working the Service desk, who gets one notice. If the customer is still waiting, AutoBook Agent answers them with its best complete reply. Nobody is reminded and no manager is paged.
How does a sales rep send a customer to service?
Choose Hand to service in the deal's ⋯ menu on the record and say what they need. The Service desk gets a service request (added to the customer's open one if there is one), which goes to their usual advisor, else the Service desk. Nothing is sent to the customer.
Do I have to turn anything on for service?
No. AutoBook Agent captures every service request and the Service desk tracks it in the app from the day the dealership is created. The Service requests row on Settings → Routing only decides whether the inbox is emailed, the team is alerted in the app, or both.
What does the Service BDC add-on actually unlock?
Outbound follow-up only: declined-work nudges, maintenance-due reminders and first-service invitations. Capturing, routing and answering service questions don't need it, and outbound messages still respect consent, quiet hours and each channel's Starts conversations setting on AutoBook Agent Autonomy.