A website chatbot for appliance repair businesses

An appliance repair business wins or loses a day on three pieces of information: the make, the model and what the machine is actually doing. Collected before the engineer sets off, they decide which part goes on the van. Collected on the doorstep, they cost a second visit. An Allinaa assistant on your website collects them, states your call-out fee, and books the job.

Make, model and the photo that beats typing

Customers rarely know their model number, and the rating plate is usually behind a door or under a drawer. The assistant asks for the make, asks for the model and tells the customer where to look on that type of appliance - wording you write once per appliance type and it repeats forever. On Premium the customer can photograph the rating plate instead of transcribing it, which removes the single most common source of wrong-part visits. See files customers send.

The fault, in the customer's words and in yours

Let the customer describe it however they like - "it fills then stops", "E24 on the display", "it's tripping the electrics", "the drum won't turn" - and keep that description on the job. What the assistant must not do is diagnose from it. Two machines with the same symptom need different parts, and a confident guess becomes a promise the engineer has to break. Configure it to collect and to say honestly that the engineer will diagnose on site.

There is one exception worth writing down: the handful of checks that are safe and that genuinely save a wasted visit - the door is properly shut, the filter is clear, the tap is on, the plug socket works with something else. Write those as a short list per appliance in your own words, and let the assistant offer them before booking. A customer who fixes it themselves in ninety seconds remembers who told them how.

The call-out fee, and the awkward truth about old machines

State your fee policy in the knowledge exactly as you want it quoted - what the visit costs, what it covers, whether it is absorbed into the repair, and what the out-of-hours position is. Then write the sentence most repairers avoid:

Saying that before the booking builds more trust than any claim about quality, and it reduces the arguments that happen when an engineer says it in a kitchen.

Warranty, insurance and manufacturer work

Appliance enquiries arrive carrying three different payers: the customer, a manufacturer's warranty and a home insurance or warranty policy. Each has its own process and its own paperwork, and the assistant should establish which one it is early, because it changes who books and who pays. If you do not take insurance-funded work, or only work on certain brands, say that plainly - it saves everybody a call. The assistant has no access to any manufacturer's or insurer's systems and cannot check whether a machine is in warranty; it should say so and ask for the proof of purchase date instead.

Parts, and what the assistant should never promise

"Can you get the part?" is unanswerable in a chat. Lead times move, and a discontinued part can end a repair. Write your general position - that you confirm part availability after the diagnosis, and what you do if a part is unavailable - and configure the assistant never to state a part price, a lead time or a repair cost. It should also never promise a same-day or next-day slot unless your knowledge says a particular service exists.

What the booking carries

The assistant offers the inquiry form when it has the address or postcode for your coverage area, the appliance type, the make and model, the symptom and who is paying. The customer confirms their own contact details and agrees to be contacted, you get an e-mail, and the job waits in your inbox with a status, private notes and CSV export. Jobs booked out of hours - which is most of them - are waiting when the office opens. See after-hours answers and the launch checklist.