AI phone assistant for body shops
Most body shop calls are insurance calls. Tel-Agent takes the claim reference and the accident date before anybody books an estimate.
- Claim reference
- Accident date
- Insurer or private
Why a body shop's phone is really an insurance queue
Most calls to a body shop are not about paint. They are about a claim - a reference number, an insurer, an accident date and a courtesy car - and a call taken without those is an estimate appointment that cannot actually be booked.
How the AI receptionist handles an accident repair call
It answers and asks whether this is going through insurance or is private.
For an insurance job it takes the claim reference and the insurer.
It takes the date of the accident, which deadlines and liability both run from.
It takes the registration, which panels are damaged, and whether the car is driveable.
It asks about a courtesy car, because on most claims it is part of the same conversation.
What the agent is told to ask
Written by you, in your own words, as the assistant’s instructions.
What a body shop phone assistant should and should not do
What it does
- Separates insurance work from private work first
- Takes the claim reference and the insurer
- Records the accident date on every claim call
- Establishes whether the car can be driven in
- Keeps claim data on the shop's own machine
What it never does
- Estimate a repair cost from a description
- Say whether a car is a write-off
- Advise on liability or on whether to claim
- Confirm that an insurer will authorise the work
- Send claim references to a third-party server
Questions
Why does it ask about insurance first?
Because it changes everything after it. An insurance job needs a claim reference, an insurer and an accident date before an estimate can be booked; a private job needs none of them.
Can it estimate a repair?
No. Damage cannot be costed from a description over a phone, and a number given early is a number the customer remembers when the real estimate is higher.
Does it say whether a car is a write-off?
Never. That is an insurer's decision on an assessor's report, and an assistant hinting at it is the worst possible way for somebody to hear it.
What about courtesy cars?
It is asked on the first call because on most claims it is part of the same authorisation, and finding out later turns one conversation into three.
Can it book the estimate appointment?
It proposes times and confirms, once the claim details are in hand. It does not write into a live diary.
Does the EU AI Act allow an AI to answer an estimate enquiry?
Yes, under Article 50 of Regulation 2024/1689, which asks that the caller be told they are speaking to a machine - that line belongs in the greeting you configure. Nothing about this work falls under Annex III, the list of high-risk uses. The distinction the Act draws is between assisting and deciding, and this agent assists: it never quotes a repair or judges whether a car is safe to drive. Austria's KI-Servicestelle at RTR publishes the same reading of the transparency duty.
Who is the data controller for what a caller to a body shop says on the phone?
You are. An estimate enquiry is ordinary personal data and vehicle records, and Tel-Agent is self-hosted with your own model keys, so the recording, the transcript and the record it writes stay on your server and never reach Dpro GmbH. There is no processor agreement to sign with us because we never receive the data, and the source is AGPL-3.0, so you can check that rather than take our word for it.
Can a body shop run this in the United States?
There is no single federal AI statute to comply with, but a phone line carries older rules. The TCPA governs automated outbound calls, and consent to record is set state by state. Consent to record is set state by state, and California and Illinois among others want every party to agree. Running the software yourself makes you the caller of record, so the disclosure and the recording switch are yours to set.
Not usable yet. The day it answers a real call will be a release, not a newsletter.
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