Software First. Then Marketing. Leads Last.
That order is not a sales ladder, it is what actually works. Marketing sends more calls to a shop that is already losing the ones it gets. Fix the desk, then turn up the volume.
Shop Desk, the software
Quotes, approvals, scheduling, the tech board, digital inspections, invoices and payments. Free forever for 100 customers, no card. Pro is $149 a month. See what is in each plan →
The front of the shop
A managed website and Google Business Profile are included with Pro. Citations, review handling and the answer line sit on top. This is the page you are reading about.
Dispatched work
We can send you jobs. We put it last on purpose, and the section near the bottom of this page explains why buying calls is usually the worst of the three.
Four Things, Done Properly
No dashboards full of numbers nobody acts on. These are the four that move work into bays.
Your website
A real site on your own domain, built to be found for the repairs you actually want and the towns you actually cover. Not a template with your logo dropped in. Managed website is part of Shop Desk Pro.
Google Business Profile
The map pack is where most "mechanic near me" clicks go, and it is won on the profile, not the website. Categories, services, hours, photos from real jobs, and questions answered before a customer has to ask. Included with Pro.
Citations and listings
Your name, address and phone, identical everywhere it is published. Boring, unglamorous, and the thing most shops have wrong in a dozen places at once.
An answer line that answers
Missed-call textback, after-hours replies and a front desk that keeps talking when yours has gone home. A call you never returned is the most expensive marketing you will ever buy.
Three Ways To Pay. They Never Stack.
You pick one. We will tell you which one we think fits, and it is usually not the biggest one.
Software only
$149/month
Shop Desk Pro. Managed website and Google Business Profile included. You run your own marketing. Free plan available with no card.
We build the market
20% of labor
Microsites, profiles, citations, ads, tracking numbers, our people answering your phone, after-hours texting, appointments set on your calendar, Shop Desk, weekly reporting. A marketing, admin and consulting fee. Parts carry no fee, ever.
Qualified leads only
10% of labor
We hand you the lead, you book it and run it yourself. Nothing per call. Parts carry no fee.
Labor means hourly, flat rate, diagnostic and inspection, call-out and trip, mobile service and after-hours premiums. It excludes parts, markup, fluids, shop supplies, sublet, third-party towing, tax, tips and refunds.
Why We Put Buying Calls Last
We sell it, and we will still talk you out of it most of the time.
A sixty-second qualified call, worked properly in your own shop, is worth about $65.80. We checked every published payout in our trades against that number. Roofing pays a median of $42 a call. Appliance repair pays under $14. Residential locksmith runs $7 to $70. Towing is $15 to $40 on the buyer side.
So the call you buy is almost always worth less than the call you already had and did not answer. That is why the answer line comes before the lead bill, and why the software comes before both.
If you still want dispatched work
$10 a raw call. Over sixty seconds of talk time, on a tracking number, first call from that number in ninety days, for a service you offer inside your area. Billable whether or not the work follows. No intake, no booking.
$75 a managed job. Full intake, booked on your real calendar, confirmed with the customer, written into Shop Desk and carried to your invoice. Shop Desk Pro members only, because there is nowhere else to put it.
The two never stack. Two managed jobs cover the $149.
Two Things We Will Not Oversell
Both are on the Pro feature list, which makes both easy to oversell. We would rather you heard it here than found out later.
ProDemand and ALLDATA are deep links
They are portals a person logs into, not a feed we can pipe in. You need your own subscription. What we add is the AI suggesting a labor time your advisor accepts or edits, and it is only ever asked for hours, never for a price.
You cannot take cards on day one
Getting a shop onto its own payment gateway is a conversation, not a checkbox. Everything else in Pro works the day you sign up. This part takes a few days and some paperwork.
Fair Questions, Straight Answers
| If this is you | Start here |
|---|---|
| One or two bays, paperwork is the bottleneck | Shop Desk Free. No card. Move up when the 100 customers run out. |
| Busy enough, but calls go to voicemail after five | Pro, for the answer line and the textback. The website comes with it. |
| Good shop, invisible on Google | Pro first, then the profile and citations work on top. |
| You want someone else to run the whole front of the business | The 20% plan. That is what it is for. |
| You just want the phone to ring and you will handle the rest | The 10% plan, or pay per call. Read the section above first. |
Open It Tonight. Quote On It Tomorrow.
Start on the free plan and see the desk with your own jobs in it. No card, no call with a salesperson, no demo you have to sit through.