For a towing company or repair shop, the first setup question is which phone rings when a new customer calls. Towing outfits often have a dispatch number that a driver carries in the truck. Repair shops usually have a front-counter line that rings in the office and maybe on a cordless phone out in the bays.
Dispatch line or shop line?
Cover the number listed on your trucks, your signs and your Google Business Profile. If you run both towing and repair under one roof with separate numbers, decide whether each needs its own texts, since stranded drivers and repair customers need different messages.
Setup list
- Tell us which lines to cover.
- Set your hours. For a towing company running nights, that might be around the clock; for a shop, your counter hours.
- Write the daytime and after-hours texts. For towing, ask for location and vehicle in both.
- Decide where replies go. A Client Hub inbox on a phone, a text to whoever is dispatching, email, or a mix. For towing, that usually means the phone of whoever is dispatching that shift.
- Get the texting line ready. We set up the text-back line for you, so there's nothing to install on your end.
- Turn on forwarding for unanswered calls. A short dial code on a cell phone, or a setting in your office phone provider's portal. Setup covers the steps for your line.
- Run a test call. From a different phone, call the business number and let it ring out, then check the text and confirm your reply arrives where you picked.
What it looks like in practice
The phone rings as it always has. A driver who's mid-hookup or a tech under a car lets it go, and after it rings out the call forwards and the caller gets your text a few seconds later.
For a tow operator, a reply might read "dead battery, Meijer parking lot on Gratiot, silver Equinox." For a shop, "brakes grinding on my Silverado, can I bring it tomorrow?" Either one is a far easier callback than an unknown number with no voicemail.
Handing off between shifts
If dispatch changes hands at night, make sure the replies go to whoever is on. Some companies send replies to a shared inbox so nothing gets stuck on a phone that went home with the day driver.
Turning it off
Forwarding can be switched off at any time with a dial code or the portal setting, and your line goes back to normal. The service is month to month with no contract.
All the setup details are on the Missed-Call Text-Back page.
Related reading
Missed-Call Text-Back is a text-back tool: it replies to the calls you can't pick up, and it doesn't answer calls for you. It's $89/mo list, or $49/mo at the founding rate while founding spots last, billed monthly with no contract. If it sounds like a fit, see how Missed-Call Text-Back works.