Cody's Automotive — RO Label Flow, Communication Plan & Role SOP

The RO label flow

Two doors in — booked online or booked directly. Phone Quote sits beside the flow until a car is on the lot. On the lot: 1 Check-in and 2 Dispatch (Estimates). WIP begins at 3 Diag / inspection.

Phone Quote Check-in Dispatch Diag / inspection Waiting on advisor Waiting on advisor QC Authorization Waiting on parts Waiting on sublet Balance due

Booked onlineCustomer via Filoauto.com

Customer picks a time in the Tekmetric booking widget on the site — no shop action needed to create it.
Advisor checks the online-booking queue at least twice a day (opening and midday).
Confirm vehicle, concern, and time are complete. Call the customer if anything's missing.
Day-of: when the car arrives, this becomes step 1, Check-in.

Common mistake: a booking sits unconfirmed and unnoticed because nobody's checking the queue on a schedule.

T Appointment confirmation (Tekmetric automatic) Phase 2

V VSL 1 — Welcome, rides with the confirmation Phase 2

Booked directlyService advisor

Customer calls or walks in without booking online.
Advisor gets vehicle, concern, and preferred time, then manually creates the appointment in Tekmetric — never a verbal-only booking.
Confirm the appointment out loud before hanging up or ending the counter conversation.
Day-of: converts to step 1, Check-in, exactly like an online booking.

Common mistake: booking it "in your head" or on a sticky note instead of in Tekmetric — no-shows go untracked and nobody can see the day's real schedule.

T Confirmation text, sent by hand Phase 2

V VSL 1 — Welcome, attached to the confirmation Phase 2

Phone QuoteService advisor · no car on site

Use this label only when the customer wants a price and the vehicle is not on the lot — phone, text, or email.
Log the concern in their words. Give a range or next-step (come in for DVI / diag), not a fake diagnosis.
Do not tag keys, do not mark Arrived, do not dispatch, do not start a DVI. There is no car to inspect.
When they book a drop-off from that quote, create the appointment in Tekmetric. Day-of arrival converts this to step 1, Check-in.
If they roll in without a booking, close Phone Quote and start Check-in the same visit.

Common mistake: the car is on the lot and the RO is still Phone Quote. The second the vehicle is here, it is Check-in — green drop-off or red waiter — then Dispatch, then Diag / inspection.

1 · Check-inService advisor

Greet the customer at the vehicle or the counter.
After the greeting, mark the appointment Arrived in Tekmetric (checkmark). Then set the board color: green for drop-off, red for waiter.
Open the RO in Tekmetric — pull the existing appointment if there is one, or start fresh for a walk-in.
Tag the keys before they leave your hand. One side of the key tag: customer name and the last two digits of the VIN. Other side: make, model, and the last two digits of the VIN again.
Log the customer's stated concern in their own words — don't paraphrase it into a diagnosis yet.
Confirm the vehicle is queued for dispatch per the day's order.

Common mistake: using Phone Quote once a car is physically on site. Phone Quote is only for a price given with no car in front of you — the moment the car is on the lot, it's Check-in.

T Check-in confirmation text Phase 2

V VSL 1 — Welcome, only if not already sent at booking Phase 2

2 · DispatchTechnician

Advisor assigns the RO to an available tech, following Rick's dispatch order.
Label moves to Dispatch. Check-in and Dispatch are the on-the-lot / Estimates side. WIP has not started yet.
Tech physically begins the inspection.

Common mistake: a checked-in RO sits without being dispatched to a tech — nobody's clock starts on the inspection.

3 · Diag / inspectionTechnician · WIP begins here

Work-in-Progress starts at this label. After dispatch, the tech owns the inspection — full DVI to Rick's standard.
Photo every finding: green, yellow, and red. No photo means it is not on the estimate.
When the inspection is complete, flip the label immediately to Waiting on advisor. Do not leave it parked on Diag / inspection.

Common mistake: an RO sits on Diag / inspection with no work happening, or findings go to the advisor with no photos.

4 · Waiting on advisorService advisor

Tech has finished the DVI and moved the label — the RO is now the advisor's.
Advisor builds and prices the estimate from what the tech documented. Do not start pricing until every finding has a photo.

Common mistake: treating this like QC. Step 4 is estimate not built yet. After labor use Waiting on advisor QC (pink) — different name, different color.

5 · AuthorizationService advisor · customer's yes, not the shop's

Advisor prices every line item — parts and labor, nothing estimated on the fly.
Advisors send their own estimates. Do not wait on Adam or Jordan. Authorization means the customer, not a manager sign-off.
Anything over $2,500: call the customer before the estimate is sent. Walk it through on the phone — line by line — then send it.
Under $2,500: send the estimate, then call the customer within 30 minutes.
Stay on this label only while you are waiting on a decision. Note the time the estimate went out. Follow up if there is no response (target: within 4 hours).
If they say yes on the phone (or in the text), mark those lines approved in Tekmetric the same visit. Authorization is done — do not leave it sitting here after a yes.
Approved work moves off this label to Waiting on parts, Waiting on sublet, or Tech completing. Tekmetric also auto-moves to Work-in-Progress when a line is approved.
A yes on a Phone Quote (no car on site) is only a yes to come in. That books the appointment. It is not approved repair work until Check-in, Dispatch, Diag, and a real estimate.

Common mistake: holding a finished estimate for Adam or Jordan, texting $2,500+ with no call, or letting a sent estimate go stale with no follow-up.

T Estimate-ready text Phase 2

V VSL 2 — Before the plan (first-time / multi-system / $2,500+) Phase 2

★ First job approved

WIP already started at step 3. This stamp means a line was approved. If the system drops the card back on Diag / inspection, that is extra diag only — flip to Waiting on parts or Tech completing the same day if repair can start.

Waiting on partsWhoever orders the part

Job is approved; the part isn't in hand yet.
Order the part, log the expected ETA on the RO.
Set the label to Waiting on Parts.
The moment the part physically arrives, move off this label — same day, not "whenever."

Common mistake: the part arrives but the label doesn't get flipped, so the RO looks stalled to everyone glancing at the board.

Waiting on subletWhoever sent the work out

Approved work is going to a vendor — alignment rack we don't have, machine shop, glass, programming, body, transmission, etc.
Book the sublet, write the vendor and promised date on the RO, and flip the label to Waiting on sublet. Do not leave it on Waiting on parts or Tech completing.
Track it like a part: if the date slips, update the RO and the customer the same day.
When the vehicle or the work is back in our hands, move off this label the same day — to Tech completing if we still have labor, or to Waiting on advisor QC if the sublet finished the approved work.

Common mistake: the car is at a vendor and the board still says Tech completing or Waiting on parts, so nobody knows it isn't in the bay.

6 · Tech completingTechnician

Parts confirmed in hand — repair work begins.
Perform only what was approved. Anything additional gets noted as a recommendation, not done on the spot.
When labor is finished, move the label to Waiting on advisor QC (step 7) — not the red estimate label.

Common mistake: doing "one more thing" that wasn't approved — that breaks the approve-from-the-phone promise the whole process is built on.

T Parts-in update, delay only Phase 2

7 · Waiting on advisor QCService advisor / Rick

Labor is done. This is QC — not estimate-building. Pink label so it never looks like step 4 (Waiting on advisor).
Confirm every approved job is actually complete — not "close enough." Look at the car, not only the RO.
Price check: invoice lines match what was approved. No extra labor or parts that were never authorized.
Apply credits that are due — diagnostic / testing fees when they convert to the repair, inspection credit, menu specials, coupons. If the customer already paid a test fee toward this work, it comes off the invoice here, not at the window.
Tax, shop supplies, and sublets look right. Declined lines are not billed.
Review leftover or declined recommendations. Decide whether they warrant a follow-up call. Write them on the RO.
Clear QC, then hand off for invoicing / Balance due.
In Tekmetric: add a custom label named Waiting on advisor QC if it is not there yet. Until then, flip the card and type QC on the RO note so the board is unambiguous.

Common mistake: sending the car to Balance due with work unfinished, a wrong price, or the diag/test fee still sitting on the invoice after the repair was sold.

★ Complete work

No manual action — Tekmetric auto-moves the card to Completed and stamps the Balance Due default.

8 · Balance dueService advisor

Work is done and invoiced — payment not yet collected.
Finalize the invoice, confirm it matches the approved estimate.
Contact the customer: vehicle is ready.
Collect payment.

Common mistake: the car sits finished with the customer never told it's ready — dead time nobody's tracking because the label doesn't move on its own.

T Ready-for-pickup + balance text Phase 2

V VSL 3 — Thank you, once the card clears Phase 2

9 · Ready to postService advisor

Payment collected and confirmed in Tekmetric.
Click Post — this is what makes the RO count in reports and bonus tracking.
Release the vehicle and keys to the customer.

Common mistake: forgetting to post. The RO looks finished to everyone, but it won't show up in reports or bonus numbers until it's actually posted — that's how pay disputes start.

Appointment intake — same flow, two doors in. (1) Online: customer books on Filoauto.com, Tekmetric confirms automatically, VSL 1 goes out with that confirmation. (2) Direct: customer calls or walks in, advisor books it in Tekmetric by hand and sends VSL 1 with their own confirmation text. Either way the appointment becomes an RO at Check-in — whoever checks the car in confirms VSL 1 already went out before sending it again.

Waiting states (WIP branch). Waiting on parts, waiting on sublet, and waiting on customer all sit off the main line during Work-in-progress. Whoever moves an RO into one of these owns getting it back out — that's the rule that usually breaks down.

Two advisor-wait labels — do not reuse one. Step 4 is red Waiting on advisor (estimate not built). Step 7 is pink Waiting on advisor QC (labor done, QC / recs). Same owner family, opposite ends of the job. Add the QC label in Tekmetric so the board matches this page.

Our friction trick is approve-from-the-phone. Not card-on-file at the door. Keep it that way.

Board hygiene — no RO sits forever

The board is supposed to move daily. When it doesn't, ROs quietly age for weeks or months without anyone noticing — and every one of them is either owed money, owed a decision, or owed a close-out.

Real example from the board: a 2002 INFINITI QX4, RO created 6 months ago, sitting in Diag/Inspection, $1,256.33, marked Partially Paid. Six months in a label that's supposed to move within hours of drop-off.

Real example from the board: a 2009 Toyota Corolla, RO#39403, sitting as Phone Quote for 2 months, $91.04, no further activity. Either the customer decided against it, or this never got followed up — either way it shouldn't still be an open card.

The rule

Daily: a quick scan of Estimates and Work-in-Progress for anything with zero activity in the last 24–48 hours during open hours.
Weekly: a full audit — sort every column by Created, oldest first, and open every RO older than 2 weeks.
Hard cap: nothing lives past 30 days without a documented reason attached to it (customer still deciding with a logged follow-up date, part on backorder with a logged ETA, and so on). No reason logged means it gets dispositioned this week, not next.

Disposition — what to do with a stale one

What you find	What to do
Customer still deciding, no recent contact	One more attempt at contact. Log it with a date. If no response by the next weekly audit, treat as gone dark.
Customer gone dark on an estimate	Formally close or decline the RO — don't leave it open as Phone Quote or Authorization indefinitely.
Work done, payment not collected	Transfer to Accounts Receivable and start the collections process. Don't leave it parked as Balance Due past 30 days.
Label doesn't match reality	Correct it on the spot — that's how a real 6-month-old job ends up mislabeled as Diag/Inspection instead of whatever it actually is.
Car never came back / job's dead	Close or void the RO in Tekmetric. A dead RO left open just adds noise to every future audit.

Who runs this. Market manager runs the weekly full audit and flags every RO past 30 days with no reason logged. Whoever owns that RO — advisor for Estimates/billing stages, tech for WIP — clears the flag within the week. A flag that's still open at the next audit goes to Adam or Jordan.

Customer communication plan

One appointment touch at booking (whichever channel), then texts through the visit, three VSLs total — one at booking or check-in, one before the estimate, one after paid. VSL 1 only ever plays once per customer.

Trigger	Channel	Owner	Purpose	Sample / hook
Booked online	Text	Tekmetric (automatic)	Appointment confirmation.	Tekmetric's own booking confirmation — verify it isn't also firing a separate check-in text later for the same visit.
Booked online	VSL 1 — Welcome	Jordan, Haley, or Cody on camera	Fires at the real "when they book" moment. 75–90 sec.	Same script as the check-in placement — rides with the automatic confirmation instead of waiting for the car to arrive.
Booked directly	Text	Service advisor	Appointment confirmation, sent by hand.	"You're set for [date/time] at Cody's Automotive. Reply if you need to move it."
Booked directly	VSL 1 — Welcome	Jordan, Haley, or Cody on camera	Advisor attaches the same link when confirming by phone or at the counter.	Same script, same link — one video total per customer, not one per channel.
Check-in	Text	Haley / writer	Confirm the car is on site and being looked at.	"Hey [Name], this is Cody's Automotive — your [Vehicle] is checked in and on the lift. We'll reach out once we know what's going on."
Check-in (only if not sent at booking)	VSL 1 — Welcome	Jordan, Haley, or Cody on camera	Fallback for walk-ins with no appointment at all. 75–90 sec.	Hook: "You just handed us the keys. Most shops go quiet until five, or text you twelve times about nothing. We do neither." Covers the 4-step process, old way vs our way, common objections, one CTA — watch for the next text.
Authorization	Text	Service advisor	Estimate share — get eyes on it fast.	"Your estimate is ready to review: [link]. Reply or call with any questions — nothing happens until you approve it."
Authorization	VSL 2 — Before the plan	Writer of the day, or Jordan/Cody on camera	Rides with the estimate share. First-time, multi-system, or $2,500+ only. 60–75 sec.	Hook: "Before you look at the numbers, here is how to read what we sent so this doesn't feel like a sales meeting." Green/yellow/red, no photo = not on the list, decline is allowed, $2,500+ gets a phone walkthrough before the estimate is sent.
Tech completing (delay only)	Text	Service advisor	Parts ETA / parts-in update — only if it affects the promised time.	"Quick update — we're waiting on a part for your [Vehicle], expected [timeframe]. We'll keep you posted." / "Good news — your part's in and your tech is back on it."
Balance due	Text	Service advisor	Ready for pickup.	"Your [Vehicle] is ready! Total due is $[amount]. Let us know when you're headed our way."
Balance due — once paid	VSL 3 — Thank you	Haley	Review flywheel + next-visit offer. Never fires before payment clears. 45–55 sec.	Hook: "Your car is done and paid. Thank you." Asks for a Google review if the visit felt clean; if something felt off, reply to the text instead of posting. Closes with the offer below.

NEXT10 — next-visit offer (VSL 3)

10% off any service over $250, good for 90 days, one use, next visit only — code already in the text. Given as a surprise-then-ask, same as the review request: thank you first, offer second.

Film once. Same three links until Adam retires a script — writers don't shoot their own versions. Vertical for the text link, a horizontal pass for the lobby iPad, natural shop noise instead of a music bed. Public links live on a Cody's page, not behind an internal login.

What holds these scripts together. Faith shows up in how we work — photos before opinions, prices before wrenches — not a sermon in the video. Decline is always allowed; we'd rather a clear no than a confused yes. And we educate before the closer sits down, so the conversation is shorter and the customer already understands the process.

Role SOP

Who owns each step, and the suggested time target for it. Phase 2 tags mark anything tied to automated texts or VSLs — not active until the Tekmetric API key is connected. Everything else is live today.

Service advisor — Haley / writer

Phone Quote. No car on site — price or next-step only. Never dispatch or DVI from this label. Car arrives → Check-in the same visit.
Appointment intake. Monitor both the online-booking queue from Filoauto.com and anything scheduled by phone. For a direct booking, confirm by hand and log it in Tekmetric — don't book verbally only. Confirm within same business day VSL 1 send is Phase 2
Check-in. Greet, mark Arrived in Tekmetric, color the board green (drop-off) or red (waiter), open the RO, tag keys (name + last two of VIN on one side; make/model + last two of VIN on the other), log the concern, queue for dispatch. Same visit Text + VSL 1 are Phase 2
Waiting on advisor (step 4). Build and price the estimate from the tech's DVI — don't start pricing until every finding has a photo. Target: within 30–60 min of DVI complete
Authorization (step 5). Price and send — no manager approval. Over $2,500: phone walkthrough then send. Under $2,500: send, then call within 30 minutes. Follow up within 4 hours. A yes on the phone = mark approved and leave this label the same visit. Same day Text + VSL 2 are Phase 2
Waiting on advisor QC (step 7). All approved work done, price matches the authorization, diag/test credits applied, leftover recs noted. Pink label — not the red estimate wait. Same day as tech completing
Balance due. Finalize the invoice, contact the customer, collect payment. Text + VSL 3 are Phase 2
Ready to post. Confirm payment posted, click Post so bonus and reports capture it, release the vehicle.

Technician

Dispatch. Accept the assignment, begin the inspection to Rick's DVI standard.
Diag / inspection. Complete the full DVI with photos. Flip the label immediately once diag is done — don't let it sit as the default. Target: within 2 hrs of drop-off
Waiting on parts. Part ordered, not in hand. Flip off this label the day it arrives.
Waiting on sublet. Vendor has the work. Vendor and date on the RO. When it is back, Tech completing or QC the same day — never leave it looking like it is in our bay.
Tech completing. Perform the approved repair once parts are confirmed in hand. If parts or a sublet are delayed, flag it to the advisor. ETA text is Phase 2
Waiting on advisor QC (step 7). Hand off to advisor/Rick with the job marked done, parts and labor matching the approval, and any extra recommendations noted on the RO. Use the pink QC label, not red Waiting on advisor.

Market manager

Run the weekly board audit. Sort every column by Created, oldest first. Flag anything past 30 days with no logged reason. See Board Hygiene above for the full rule and disposition table.
Confirm Tekmetric has both labels. Red = Waiting on advisor (estimate). Pink = Waiting on advisor QC (after labor). If QC is still the same Tekmetric status, add the custom label this week.
Track appointment intake. Confirm direct bookings are actually being logged in Tekmetric, not just verbally agreed to. Track no-show rate on booked appointments.
Build the automation Phase 2 — once the API key is live Set up the triggers tied to each label — online/direct booking confirmations + VSL 1, check-in text, estimate text + VSL 2, parts ETA, ready for pickup, VSL 3.
Guard against over-communicating Phase 2 Audit that only the approved triggers fire — no texting on every label flip, no VSL 2 on a routine service.
Host, don't reshoot Phase 2 Keep VSL 1/2/3 as the same three links until Adam retires a script. Public links live on a Cody's page, not behind an internal login.
Track the offer Phase 2 Report NEXT10 redemption and review conversion.