Tuesday, ten past eight. A message comes into the garage WhatsApp: the reg, then 'MOT and a service please, anything this week?'. The person who sees it is under a Golf with a torch in their mouth. They mean to reply. The next message pushes it up the screen and it is gone.
The reg goes to DVLA first. That gives make, model, fuel type and the current MOT expiry, so you know whether this is urgent before anyone types a word. The diary is Google Calendar in most garages, or a paper book on the counter, which is harder. From the calendar it finds the first two slots that fit an MOT plus a service and sends them back on the same thread. The customer picks one. The slot is booked under the reg and the name, with the phone number on the event.
Confirmation goes out straight away. The reminder goes out the day before at six in the evening, because that is when people are home and looking at their phone. If the message mentioned a courtesy car, that gets picked up, a note goes on the booking, and the courtesy car's own calendar gets blocked so it is not promised to two people.
Nobody in the workshop touches any of this unless the customer asks something odd. Then it stops and hands the thread to a person, with the reg and the offered slots already written out.
This is the kind of thing we build. It runs on your own WhatsApp number and your own calendar. How many of those Tuesday messages went unanswered last month?