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Build your own AI call center that books appointments and flags upset collision customers for a person

who Jonathon Best, CEO of Better Collision Centers (about a dozen locations in South Carolina), interviewed by Autobody News about the shop's house-made BetterX AI system

The problem

A regional collision MSO did not trust off-the-shelf AI templates for intake, and paying for a third-party AI call center (roughly $10,000 setup plus about half that every month, per Best) still felt like a boilerplate fit.

What happened

Per Autobody News, the company spent about $250,000 in a year to build the system (costs continue). Best says they have "successfully built our own AI call center which is far more robust and realistic," and "advanced reporting … cuts several hours of work weekly." In testing they cloned his voice; his wife called and "didn't know it wasn't me." Legal, regulatory and AI-estimatics licensing were still being worked out at the time of the article. No capture-rate or revenue figures are published.

Quoted in the source: Jonathon Best, CEO, Better Collision Centers. Source: Autobody News: Better Collision Centers Deploys House-Made AI for CSR, Parts, Process (Jonathon Best) (2025-08-27) · Added 2026-10-15.

How to set it up yourself

1. What Better Collision Centers built: its own BetterX AI overlay with a call/text/chat concierge that books appointments and red-flags upset callers, plus a shop-floor "collision buddy" for parts, estimates and OEM procedures. Cost about $250,000 in year one.
2. DIY adaptation (not what Better Collision used; they built in-house): start with missed and after-hours calls only. Sign up for Smith.ai's AI Receptionist free tier (25 calls/mo) or Pro ($150/mo), and forward unanswered and after-hours calls to it.
3. Paste the prompt below as its instructions with your hours, services and booking rules. Have it collect name, phone, vehicle, insurance carrier if known, whether the car is drivable, and whether the caller is OK / upset, then text you a recap and offer open slots from your calendar.
4. Test it yourself with five scenarios (after-hours tow, insurance assignment, upset customer after a delay, joke-y caller, parts-status question). Confirm the red-flag path emails or texts a manager within a minute.
5. For shop-floor research (DIY, not their BetterX buddy): put free ChatGPT or Claude Plus ($20/mo) in a project named "OEM and parts," upload only public OEM procedure PDFs and your preferred-vendor list (no customer names), and ask techs to paste the VIN and the repair step they are stuck on. A human still writes the estimate.

Copy-paste prompt

You are the after-hours and overflow phone concierge for {SHOP NAME}, a collision repair shop in {CITY}. Collect: caller name, phone, vehicle year/make/model, whether it is drivable, insurance carrier if they know it, and a short description of the damage in their words. Ask once, gently, if they are OK after the accident. Offer an appointment from {OPEN SLOTS} or a drop-off with key box ({KEY DROP RULES}). Answer only from: hours {HOURS}, services {SERVICES}, rental-car partners {RENTAL}. Never quote a repair price. If the caller sounds upset, angry or hurt, or asks for a manager, say a person will call them back within {CALLBACK WINDOW} and end with FLAG FOR MANAGER. Text the advisor this summary: name | phone | vehicle | drivable | insurance | concern | sentiment | appointment.

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