Getting Started for Service Advisors
You are the customer’s side of BayWise. You take the vehicle in, you set the promise, and you are the person who has to answer when they ring at 3pm.
Two things make that job easier than it used to be: the vehicle is placed on the floor the moment you check it in, and you can see where it is without finding the controller.
Who can do this: Service Advisors, Workshop Controllers, Location Managers, Org Admins and Account Owners.
Before you start
- Your workshop’s bays, technicians and service catalogue are set up
- You know where the board is — it is the home screen
Check the vehicle in
Use New Vehicle in the toolbar. Enter the plate, the vehicle, the customer, and the services agreed.
If the vehicle has been to your workshop before, it will be found as you type — its history comes with it.
Set the promise time
The promise is when the customer can collect. It is the most important thing you enter.
Promise the customer, not the workshop: if you need half an hour to wash and invoice, that time is inside the promise, not after it.
Resist promising 5pm for everything. A shop where every vehicle is promised for closing time has told BayWise that nothing is urgent, and lost the ability to tell a waiting customer from a Friday collection.
Watch it land
Within moments the vehicle appears on the board, in a bay, with a technician and a countdown. You did not assign it and you do not need to.
If it does not land — if it appears in the action centre under Could not schedule — the day genuinely could not fit it, and the reason is stated. That is the moment to talk to the controller and, if necessary, to the customer, while there is still a day left to fix it.
Answer customers from the board
The commonest question you get is “will it be ready?”. You can answer it in seconds.
Search the plate in the toolbar. The card shows where the vehicle is, what stage it has reached, its countdown, and its promise. The promise chip tells you what you actually need:
- On track — no flag. Say yes.
- At risk — expected to finish after the promise, but the promise has not passed. Say so now, not later. This is the call that keeps a customer.
- Breached — the promise has passed. The card says by how long.
Tapping the card opens the full stage-by-stage detail, including any reported delays and their reasons — which is what turns “it’s running late” into “the parts came in at eleven and it is being fitted now”.
Move a promise when the customer agrees one
If a customer agrees to collect later, update the promise. This does two things: it stops the vehicle showing as a problem all afternoon, and it records that the change was agreed rather than forgotten.
A promise renegotiated on the phone and not updated in BayWise is the fastest way to teach your team to ignore the colours on the board.
Hand the vehicle over
When the work is done, the vehicle is still occupying a bay until somebody hands it over. Finished vehicles appear in the action centre under Unblock.
Hand over from the board. The bay frees immediately for the next vehicle.
What you should see after a check-in
- The vehicle on a bay card within moments, with a technician and a countdown
- A promise chip showing the time you set
- The vehicle findable by plate in the toolbar search
Finding a vehicle that is not on the floor
The toolbar search finds any vehicle that has ever been through your workshop, including ones already handed over. That covers the two awkward calls:
- “I was in three weeks ago and the noise is back” — find the vehicle, read what was done
- “What was done last time?” — the vehicle’s repair orders are listed with their status
→ Find a vehicle and its history
Common questions
A customer wants a specific technician. Can I ask for that? Ask the controller to assign it. Requests like this are a human decision, and BayWise will not override an assignment a person makes.
Can I check a vehicle in for next week? Yes. Choose the date. The full plan applies to future days.
I checked a vehicle in and nothing appeared. Look in the action centre under Could not schedule. If it is there, the reason is stated. If it is not, check that you are looking at the right day.
Can I check a vehicle in when the day is frozen? Yes. Checking a vehicle in and clocking on are never blocked, even when scheduling is stopped because a day has not been closed.
A customer is adding work while the car is here. Add the services to the existing job rather than creating a second one. The extra stages join the vehicle’s plan.