Customer notifications when a repair is ready
A ready email and Telegram message, an estimate for approval as a link, in the customer's language — plus a portal where they check the status themselves.
"Any news on my phone?" calls are the most expensive thing in a repair service: they pull a technician away from the bench and add nothing. ServiceCenterSoft closes them three ways — a ready email, a Telegram message, and a portal where the customer checks their own repair.
What those calls actually cost
Do the sum for your own shop. Thirty devices in progress, every third customer calls at least once, and a call with looking up the job takes three minutes. That is half an hour a day, fifteen hours a month. Not on repairs — on "not yet".
Worse, they do not call when it suits you. They call when a technician is holding an opened device and the front desk is booking somebody else in.
The ready email
When the repair is finished, a button on the job sheet sends the customer an email. It contains the job number, their name, which device, the amount due, and the branch name, address, phone and opening hours — everything needed to come and collect without calling back.
The email goes out on a button, not by itself when the status changes. That is deliberate. To a technician "ready" often means "assembled, still needs testing", and an automatic email at that moment brings the customer in an hour too early. The button gets pressed when the device can really be handed over.
A Telegram message: a QR code on the ticket
Not everyone reads email, but people open Telegram ten times a day. So the intake ticket carries a QR code captioned "Get a Telegram message when it is ready". The customer points their phone camera at it, taps "Start", and the bot replies that they are now subscribed to repair number such-and-such.
From then on it works like the email: when the device is ready, you press the same button on the job sheet. If the customer has an email address, the email goes; if they subscribed in Telegram, the message goes; if both, both. The message has your service name, the job number, the device, the amount due, and the branch address, phone and opening hours.
Worth knowing up front. Messages come from the shared ServiceCenterSoft bot, not from a bot named after your service — your name is in the message text. There is nothing to set up: the QR code appears on the ticket by itself. The bot cannot message a customer first — that is how Telegram works — so without the QR code and the "Start" tap there will be no messages. The bot reports that the device is ready and sends the estimate for approval, but it does not write about every status change.
The estimate for approval — the second message
There is a moment when you need to write to the customer before the device is ready: diagnostics showed the repair costs more than was quoted at intake. Usually that means a phone call, "how much?", "for what exactly?" — and a week later nobody remembers what exactly was agreed.
On the job, under the estimate, there is a "Send for approval" button. The customer gets an email with the lines as a table and the total, or a Telegram message with the total and a link; if they have both email and a subscription, both. The link opens a page with your service's name and logo: what will be done, what each line costs and the total. The customer presses "I agree" or "I decline" and can add a comment. They do not need to log in for that.
The answer appears on the job and in its history: agreed or declined, when, for what amount and what they wrote. What gets approved is exactly the estimate you sent: if something changed after sending, the job warns you that the customer saw a different amount, and the estimate can be sent again.
The job status does not change by itself. Approval is a signal for you, not a command to the software: a person decides when to set "in repair".
The customer's language, not yours
The language of documents and emails is a separate setting, unrelated to the language your staff work in. A service opened by Ukrainians abroad keeps records in Ukrainian and writes to the customer in German. Four languages are ready: Ukrainian, Russian, English and German.
You edit the wording yourself, to match your tone and your collection terms.
You can resend — but not twice in one day
A customer may have missed the email, and sending it again is reasonable. But the software will not send the same email twice on the same day: protection against a double click and against two employees "reminding" the same customer in turn. Tomorrow it will go.
The mail log: what went out and what did not
Every email is kept: to whom, when, for which job, with what text, and how it ended — sent or failed. If it failed, the reason is right there: a typo in the customer's address, the server did not answer, the mail settings are empty.
That matters more than it sounds. The worst notification is the one you believe was sent but never was: the device sits there, the customer says nothing, and both sides are sure they are waiting for the other.
Honestly: the software does not know whether the customer opened the email. There is no read receipt.
The customer portal: they look whenever they want
The repair customer has their own login. They see only their own repairs and read-only: no sections of the software, no other people's jobs, nothing they can change. They see the status, the device, the estimate line by line, how much has been paid and how much is still due.
For long repairs this works better than any email: people check for themselves when they get anxious, instead of ringing.
You hand out the access: a login and password are set on the customer's record. Not to everyone — usually to those who bring devices in regularly: partner shops, landlords, neighbouring services. Password guessing is rate-limited the same way it is for your own staff.
Who has been told but has not come
Notifying is half the job. The other half: the device is ready, the email went out, and nobody has collected it for three weeks while it takes up shelf space.
The job list has a quick filter for "ready for pickup": everything finished but not yet handed over. One click and you see who to ring today, and how much of your shelf is other people's hardware. Under the intake date you can see how many days each device has been waiting for pickup; once the free storage period from the settings runs out, the counter turns red, and those devices gather in a separate "past free storage" filter.
The "ready" flag is not set by the software but by you: in the status list you mark which of your own statuses means "the customer can be called". The other special one is "closed": it fills in the handover date by itself once the device is finally collected.
The supplier email is a notification too
The same mechanism works in the other direction. A parts request can be emailed to the supplier from inside the software: you see the text and can edit it before sending, and the software records when it went (about parts requests).
Why there is no SMS
Plainly: the software does not send SMS and will not. SMS cost money per message, while email and Telegram are free. Instead of SMS we built Telegram: people open it more readily than a text from an unknown number.
We say this on the notifications page on purpose. Discovering a missing feature after paying is worse than reading about it beforehand.
What to set up once
- Mail. You do not need a mail server — emails go through ours. In the settings you set the sender name and the address where customer replies should arrive, and a "test email" button shows it works before a live customer finds out it does not.
- The customer's address. If there is neither an email on the record nor a Telegram subscription, the software says so when you try to send: "nowhere to notify".
- The wording. The default works out of the box, but it is better rewritten in your own words.
- Telegram. Nothing: the QR code prints on the ticket by itself. Just ask the customer to scan it while they are still at the counter.
What you get
- A ready email with the amount, the branch address and opening hours — no call-back needed.
- A Telegram message on the same button — the customer subscribes by scanning the QR code on the ticket.
- An email and message in the customer's language even if your staff work in another.
- An estimate for approval as a link: the customer answers with a button and the answer lands on the job.
- Protection against a repeat email on the same day.
- A log that shows what failed to send, and why.
- A portal where the customer sees their own repair, read-only.
- An honest view of the limits: no SMS, no automatic sending, no read receipts, and the bot does not write about every status change.
I tried the ServiceCenterSoft demo and came away with a good impression. The program is simple and easy to understand, yet it has everything you need for the job: customers, repairs, devices, spare parts, statuses and statistics.
I especially liked the dark theme and the responsive design — working from a phone is perfectly comfortable. Another plus is the instant search that works as you type, so you don't have to press a separate "Search" button every time.
You can tell the program was built specifically for service centers rather than being a generic CRM adapted for the repair business. The interface has no unnecessary frills; everything is logical and to the point.
A good, practical tool for the day-to-day work of a service center.
I liked that you get a free 14-day trial and that they are willing to handle my special requests — setting things up exactly the way I need them.
I also liked how payment works. You can simply pay the monthly fee by card online — basically the same as a regular Spotify subscription or any other service. No separate contracts to sign and no invoices to pay manually.
And there's no feeling of strict limits on the number of employees. One service center is one account, and inside it you can organize the work of your technicians and run several branches.
For me this is far more convenient than plans where you have to pay for every single user or keep counting how many employees are working today.
My business is fairly specific, so the program's standard features weren't enough — I needed my own custom fields, my own sorting options and search by additional parameters. The work completion certificate and the printed repair receipt also needed some changes to fit the way we work.
I contacted technical support. To be honest, I expected changes like these to take a long time, but everything was done within a single day. The team quickly understood exactly what we needed, suggested the right solution and did everything properly.
I'd especially like to mention the support: they get straight to the point, with no unnecessary bureaucracy, and they genuinely help instead of just sending you off to read the documentation.
For me this is a big advantage of the program: it isn't just sold "as is" — it can be adapted to how you actually work. Thanks to the team for the quick response and for treating the customer right.
Highly recommended!
What it costs
Notifications are part of the subscription. There is nothing extra to pay for emails or Telegram messages.
Monthly
Paid every month, cancel whenever you like.
Yearly
Cheaper than paying monthly. Invoice or card payment.
Custom work
Changes tailored to the way you work — hourly, by agreement.
You can see how it looks in the demo. Related pages: repair workflow and the repair intake form.
Frequently asked questions
Does the software send SMS?
No, and it will not: SMS cost money per message. Instead there are a free ready email and a free Telegram message, plus the portal where the customer checks the status themselves.
How does the customer get a Telegram message?
The intake ticket carries a QR code. The customer scans it with their phone camera and taps "Start" in the bot — that subscribes them to their repair. When the device is ready, you press the same button as for the email, and they get a message with the job number, the amount due and the branch address. It comes from the shared ServiceCenterSoft bot, with your service name in the text. Nothing to set up. The bot also sends the estimate for approval, with the amount and a link; it does not write about every status change.
Is the email sent automatically when the status changes?
No, it is sent by a button on the job sheet — deliberately. To a technician "ready" often means "assembled, still to be tested", and an automatic email would bring the customer in too early. The button is pressed when the device can really be handed over.
What exactly is in the email?
The job number, the customer's name, which device, the amount due, and the branch name, address, phone and opening hours — so they can come and collect without calling back. You edit the wording yourself.
Can I send the email a second time?
Yes, but not twice on the same day: that protects against a double click and against two employees reminding the same customer in turn. The next day it will go.
How do I know an email did not arrive?
The mail log shows every message: to whom, when, for which job, and how it ended — sent or failed, with the reason. The worst notification is the one you believe went out but did not. Whether the customer opened it, the software does not know: there is no read receipt.
What does the customer see in their portal?
Only their own repairs, read-only: the status, the device, the estimate line by line, what has been paid and what is still due. No sections of the software, no other people's jobs, nothing they can change. For long repairs it removes calls better than emails do.
See also
Reports and statistics
Each technician's earnings with a breakdown, payouts, repairs with their estimates, branch statistics and the service's profit. CSV export.
Read moreSeveral branches and access rights
Each location with its own address, stock and statistics; permissions as checkboxes rather than fixed roles.
Read moreCRM for a repair service centre
A customer database with the history of every repair, labels, companies and partners, a ready-for-collection email and a customer portal. Without a sales pipeline, which a workshop does not need.
Read moreSee how it works
The demo is open — go in and try it. Ask us anything by email, Telegram or the form on this site.