Phone repair shop chatbot and AI receptionist

Someone drops their phone on the pavement at 9.40 pm on a Friday. By 9.45 they've messaged four repair shops on Instagram and filled in two website chat boxes, all with the same question: "how much for an iPhone 14 Pro screen and can you do it tomorrow?" The shop that answers first, with a price and a time, usually gets the repair. The others reply on Saturday morning to someone who has already booked.

A phone repair shop chatbot exists for that moment. It answers price and availability questions on your website, WhatsApp and Instagram straight away, looks up the exact model in the price list you've given it, explains whether to walk in or book, and takes the booking. When something needs a technician's eye, such as water damage, data recovery or a phone that won't turn on, it collects the details and passes the conversation to your team.

This page is written for independent phone, tablet and laptop repair shops in the UK, from single-counter shops in a shopping centre to small chains of two or three branches run by the same owner. It covers the enquiries you get and when, how to make model lookups accurate, walk-ins versus booked repairs, what the chatbot should never handle, the data-protection advice your customers need, three sample conversations, setup and costs. It also says plainly what the product doesn't do: it doesn't send texts, take deposits or transfer a phone call to your bench.

Why repair shops lose enquiries

Phone repair is a price-compared, impulse purchase. Most customers have a broken phone they need working today, a rough idea of what it should cost, and three or four shops within reach. They message all of them, and they book with whoever answers clearly first.

Meanwhile, in a typical shop, the person who should answer is behind the counter with a customer, or at the bench with a heat mat and a suction cup halfway through separating a screen. A reply that waits until the end of the repair is 40 minutes late. A reply that waits until the morning is usually too late.

The enquiries that slip away are mostly:

Price checks for a specific model and repair: "iPhone 13 screen", "Samsung S22 battery", "iPad 9th gen glass".
Availability: "Can you do it today?", "Do you have the part in?", "How long does it take?"
Walk-in questions: "Do I need to book or can I just come in?"
Harder jobs: water damage, no power, data recovery, charging ports, back glass, cameras.
Status checks: "Is my phone ready?"

The first three are where a chatbot earns its keep. They're repetitive, the answers come from your price list and policies, and speed matters more than anything else.

What a phone repair shop chatbot handles

Klugon's assistant runs on the chat widget on your website, on WhatsApp, on Instagram and Facebook Messenger, and, if you want it, on your shop's phone line. On each channel it can:

answer from your price list and knowledge base: repair prices by model, part options, turnaround times, warranty terms, payment methods, opening hours and directions;
search the products you've added, if you list repairs as products;
check free slots and book a repair appointment, and in chat and messaging, reschedule or cancel one;
take a customer's name, number and the details of the problem as a lead;
flag a conversation for your team when it needs a person.

On phone calls, it can answer in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Japanese or Arabic, depending on the language you set for the assistant.

The questions it answers all day

Most repair shop chats are variations on a short list:

"How much is a screen for an iPhone 12?"
"Is that an original screen?"
"How long does a battery take?"
"Do I need an appointment?"
"Do you fix Samsung back glass?"
"Will I lose my photos?"
"What warranty do you give?"
"Do you need my passcode?"
"Can you fix a phone that's been in water?"
"Do you buy broken phones?" or "Do you sell refurbished?"

Each of these can be answered from information you write once. The ones about passcodes, data and water damage need especially careful answers, covered below.

Screen and battery repair quotes

Screens and batteries are the bulk of most repair shops' work, and the bulk of the questions. Getting quotes right comes down to two things: identifying the exact model, and being clear about part options.

Getting the exact model

"iPhone 13" isn't a model for repair purposes. The 13, 13 mini, 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max all have different screens and prices. Samsung's ranges are worse, with S, A, Note, Z Flip and Z Fold lines and multiple variants in each.

Tell the chatbot to always confirm the full model name before giving a price, and to explain how to find it if the customer isn't sure. On an iPhone, it's in Settings, then General, then About. On a Samsung Galaxy, it's in Settings, then About phone. If the phone won't turn on, the customer can usually describe the number of rear cameras or the original box. A good instruction is: "If the model is ambiguous, ask which exact model before quoting. Never give a price for a model family."

Part options

Most shops offer more than one part quality for screens, such as a genuine or original-quality part and a cheaper compatible one. The chatbot should present both, with the price difference and the honest trade-offs you describe: brightness, colour accuracy, touch response, warranty length, and on recent iPhones, the fact that the phone may show a message in Settings about a non-genuine part. Write this in your knowledge base in your own words. It's a frequent question and a frequent source of complaints when nobody explained it up front.

Batteries are simpler, but customers often ask whether they actually need one. If your policy is to suggest a replacement when battery health shows below a certain percentage, put that in the knowledge base and the chatbot can explain how to check it: on an iPhone, Settings, then Battery, then Battery Health.

Model lookups from your price list

The chatbot can only quote what you've given it. There are two ways to give it your prices:

A price list in the knowledge base. Upload a CSV, PDF or Word file with one row per model and repair, for example "iPhone 13 Pro, screen, original-quality, £189, 1 hour". This is the most practical way for a shop with hundreds of model and repair combinations, because it's one file to update. File uploads are included on the WhatsApp and Instagram product and on phone answering at every tier, and on the website chat product from the Business plan. On the chat Starter plan you can paste your price list in as text instead.
Repairs as products. You can add each repair to Klugon's product catalogue with a name, price and description, and the AI searches them. Products are entered by hand, so this suits shops with a short menu of popular repairs rather than a full price matrix.

Whichever you choose, update it when your parts prices change. If a price in the knowledge base is out of date, the chatbot will quote the out-of-date price. A short line at the top of the file, such as "Prices checked 14 October 2026", helps you keep track.

It's also worth telling the chatbot what to do when a model isn't on the list: "If a model or repair isn't in the price list, say we'll check and get back to them, and take their name and number." That stops it guessing.

Walk-in or booked?

Every shop has its own rule, and customers ask about it constantly. Common patterns:

Walk-ins welcome for screens and batteries, with a rough wait time, and bookings recommended on Saturdays.
Book for everything, with walk-ins served only if the bench is free.
Drop off and collect later for anything longer than an hour, such as charging ports, back glass or anything needing diagnosis.

Write your rule down, including the busy times when walk-ins wait longest. The chatbot can't see your bench or the queue in the shop, so it shouldn't promise a live wait time. "Walk-ins are usually seen within an hour on weekdays; Saturdays are busier, so we recommend booking" is honest and useful.

For booked repairs, set each repair type up as a service with a realistic duration: a battery might be 30 minutes, a screen 45 or 60, a charging port 90. Add your technicians as staff if more than one person repairs, so the diary checks clashes per person. Set minimum notice so nobody books a screen 10 minutes from now when you'd need to order the part, and add closed dates for bank holidays.

Parts in stock

The chatbot can't see your parts drawer or your stock system. If customers often ask "do you have the part in?", give it a rule: "We stock screens and batteries for most iPhone models from the last five years and the most common Samsung Galaxy S and A models. For anything else, we'll check and confirm." For unusual models, it takes details and flags the conversation so someone can check stock and reply.

The customer gets a booking reference in the conversation. Klugon doesn't send booking confirmations, reminders or "your phone is ready" messages afterwards.

Tablets, laptops, consoles and refurbished sales

Most phone repair shops do more than phones, and the chatbot needs to know where your limits are.

Tablets. iPad and Galaxy Tab glass is often a separate repair from the display underneath, and the price difference is large. Put both in your price list with a plain explanation, so the chatbot can ask "is the picture still fine underneath the crack?" before quoting. Older iPads with separate glass are cheaper to repair than laminated models, and customers rarely know which they have, so give the chatbot the model numbers to ask about.

Laptops. Screens, keyboards, batteries and charging ports are quotable if you've priced them by model. Liquid spills, no power and slow machines are diagnosis jobs. MacBook models are identified by year and screen size, which the customer can find in the Apple menu under About This Mac; tell the chatbot to ask for that.

Game consoles. HDMI ports, stick drift on controllers and overheating are common and seasonal, with a bump after Christmas. If you don't repair consoles, say so, so the chatbot doesn't book one in.

Buying and selling. If you sell refurbished phones, list a few current examples as products with prices and condition grades, and tell the chatbot that stock changes daily and to check with the team before promising a specific handset. If you buy broken phones, say how you price them ("we'll give you a quote in the shop after checking the phone") so the chatbot doesn't guess a trade-in value.

Data protection advice for devices

People hand you devices that hold their whole lives: photos, messages, banking apps, email, health data. Many customers are anxious about this, and some are anxious enough not to book. A clear answer from the chatbot about protecting their data is one of the most useful things it can give.

What the chatbot should tell customers before a repair

Your knowledge base should give simple, accurate steps, linking to the manufacturers' own guidance:

Back up first. Always the first step, because some repairs carry a small risk of data loss and a few need the phone reset.
iPhone and iPad. Apple's guide to preparing an iPhone or iPad for a service appointment lists backing up, removing cards from Wallet, and turning off Find My (or, on the newest software, turning on Ready for Repair). Apple's own advice is never to share your Apple Account password or device passcode. If your shop doesn't need the passcode for a given repair, say so; if it does need it to test the phone after a repair, explain why and what you do to protect it.
Samsung Galaxy. Samsung's Maintenance mode guide explains a feature that creates a separate account on the phone, with photos, messages and accounts hidden, so a technician can test it without seeing personal data. It's turned on from Settings, then Battery and device care.
Remove SIM and memory cards if the repair doesn't need them.

Passcodes in the chat

Tell the chatbot never to ask for a passcode, PIN or account password in a chat, and to tell customers not to send one. If your shop needs a passcode to test a repaired phone, handle it in person at the counter, according to your own policy. A chat transcript is the wrong place for it.

Your own obligations

Your shop is responsible for the personal data it handles, both the customer details you collect and, while you hold a device, the data on it. Under UK GDPR that means a privacy notice, a sensible policy on when technicians may open apps or photos (ideally only with permission and only to test), and secure handling of devices left overnight. The ICO's advice for small organisations is written for businesses your size.

For the chatbot itself:

Your privacy notice should say that chats and calls are answered by an AI assistant and logged.
Klugon doesn't record phone calls. Calls appear in your inbox as conversations.
You can export leads, customers and conversations as CSV and delete individual records. Full erasure from Klugon is by email request.
Klugon is operated by a German company under the GDPR, with transfers covered by standard contractual clauses as listed in its privacy policy.

What the chatbot must hand over

Some jobs need a technician's judgement, and some conversations need a manager. In Klugon, handing over means the chatbot flags the conversation for your team. It's marked "Needs a person" in your inbox and posted to Slack or Zapier if you've connected them. On WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger, your team can then reply directly from the inbox within Meta's 24-hour window. Website chat can't be replied to from the inbox, so on the website the chatbot collects a phone number or email first.

The chatbot doesn't go silent after flagging. If the customer keeps writing, it keeps replying, so make sure its instructions tell it what to say while the customer waits.

Hand these over:

Water damage. Every case is different. The chatbot should give your standard first advice (switch it off, don't charge it, bring it in soon) and flag it. It shouldn't estimate a price or a success rate.
No power, no display, boot loops. These need diagnosis. The chatbot can quote your diagnostic fee if you charge one.
Data recovery. Usually high-value, uncertain and emotional. Always a person.
Board-level repairs and microsoldering.
Locked or blocked devices. If someone wants a network lock removed or an activation lock bypassed, the chatbot should explain your policy (for instance, that you need proof of ownership) and flag it. It should never give instructions on bypassing locks.
Warranty claims on your previous repairs. Ask for the receipt number and flag it.
Complaints. Always a person.
Insurance claim reports and business or bulk repairs for schools, companies or fleets.

On the phone

If you also put the shop's phone line through Klugon, the same rules apply, with one difference. The AI can't transfer a call to the counter. For anything it should hand over, it saves the caller's name, number and the details as a lead, which posts to Slack or Zapier, and someone calls back. The AI phone receptionist page explains the phone side in more detail.

Busy hours and seasons

Repair shops follow a pattern most owners will recognise:

Saturdays are the busiest day for walk-ins and the busiest day for messages, many sent the night before.
Lunchtimes and after work, when people can get to the shop, and after school, when parents bring in children's phones.
Late evenings and Sunday nights, when people drop their phones and message without expecting a reply. These are the enquiries a chatbot wins.
January, after Christmas, when new phones get their first cracks and older handed-down phones need batteries.
September and October, around new phone launches, with trade-in questions and people repairing old phones to sell or hand down.
Summer holidays: water damage from pools and beaches, and cracked screens from days out.
Back to school and university, in late August and September, for laptops and tablets.

Three sample conversations

These samples show the setup in practice. The shops and customers are made up, nothing here is a real conversation or recording, and the AI voice on Klugon's site is AI-generated.

Sample: a screen quote on Instagram

A sample Instagram DM. The shop is made up: Fix & Fettle Phones, Manchester.

Customer: how much for iphone 14 screen

AI: Hi. Is it the iPhone 14, 14 Plus, 14 Pro or 14 Pro Max? You can check in Settings, then General, then About.

Customer: 14 pro

AI: Thanks. For an iPhone 14 Pro screen we have two options:

Original-quality screen: £249, with a 12-month warranty.
Compatible screen: £159, with a 6-month warranty. It's slightly less bright, and your iPhone may show a message in Settings that the display isn't a genuine Apple part.

Both take about an hour. Is it just the glass that's cracked, or is the display showing lines or not responding to touch?

Customer: cracked but works. can u do it tomorrow

AI: We're open tomorrow, Saturday, from 9:30 to 17:30. Saturdays are busy, so we recommend booking. Free slots for screen repairs are 10:00, 11:30 and 15:00. Which suits you?

Customer: 11:30 original screen

AI: Could I have your name and a phone number?

Customer: Leah Walsh 07700 900111

AI: Booked: iPhone 14 Pro screen replacement (original-quality, £249), Saturday at 11:30. Your reference is FF-3390. Before you come in, please back up your phone. You won't need to give us your passcode in this chat. See you tomorrow.

The prices and warranty terms came from the shop's price list. The Instagram integration needs Meta's app review before members of the public can message through it, which is part of the setup.

Sample: a battery and a walk-in on the website chat

A sample website chat. The shop is made up: Quayside Tech Repairs, Newcastle.

Visitor: My Samsung battery dies by lunchtime. Can I just walk in?

AI: Yes, we take walk-ins for battery replacements. On weekdays you're usually seen within an hour; Saturdays are busier. Which Galaxy model is it? You'll find it in Settings, then About phone.

Visitor: S21 FE.

AI: A battery for the Galaxy S21 FE is £69 and takes about 40 minutes, with a 6-month warranty. We usually have S21 FE batteries in stock, but if you'd like to be sure, I can book you a time instead.

Visitor: Will you need to see my stuff on the phone?

AI: No. Our technicians only check the phone works after the repair. If you'd like extra peace of mind, Samsung phones have a Maintenance mode that hides your photos, messages and accounts while it's being repaired. You turn it on in Settings, then Battery and device care, then Maintenance mode. Please back up your phone first either way.

Visitor: Ok I'll walk in tomorrow lunchtime.

AI: Great. We're at 4 Quayside Arcade, open 9:00 to 18:00. Bring the phone with Maintenance mode on, or we can help you turn it on at the counter.

No booking was needed, but the visitor got a price, a realistic wait and a clear answer about their data.

Sample: a data recovery call handed to the team

A sample phone call. The shop is made up: Northgate Device Repairs, Chester.

AI: Hello, Northgate Device Repairs, you're speaking to our AI assistant. How can I help?

Caller: My daughter's phone went in the bath and now it won't turn on. It's got all her university work on it. Can you get the files off?

AI: I'm sorry to hear that. For water damage, please keep the phone switched off, don't try to charge it, and don't put it in rice. Bringing it in as soon as possible gives the best chance. Data recovery depends on the damage, so one of our technicians needs to look at it before we can say what's possible or give a price. Can I take your name and number so they can call you today?

Caller: Margaret Doyle, 07700 900222.

AI: Thank you. What make and model is the phone?

Caller: It's a Google Pixel 7.

AI: And roughly how long was it in the water, and when did it happen?

Caller: A few seconds, last night.

AI: Thank you. I've passed this to our technicians as a data recovery enquiry: Pixel 7, water damage last night, a few seconds in the bath, won't power on, university files needed. They'll call you on 07700 900222. Our diagnostic check is £25, which comes off the repair if you go ahead.

The AI didn't estimate a success rate or a recovery price. It saved the details as a lead, which posted to the shop's Slack channel, and the call appears in the inbox.

Setting it up for a repair shop

Choose the products you need. Most shops start with the website chat widget and WhatsApp or Instagram, and add phone answering later. Each is a separate subscription with its own 7-day trial. A card is required and charged when each trial ends unless you cancel.
Business details. Name, address, opening hours and timezone, plus directions such as "inside the arcade, opposite the bakery".
Price list. Upload it as a CSV or PDF, paste it in, or add your most common repairs as products. Include model, repair, part option, price, time and warranty.
Knowledge base. Walk-in policy, typical wait times, warranty terms, what voids the warranty, payment methods, data advice with links to Apple's and Samsung's pages, water damage first aid, and what you don't repair.
Services and staff. Set up bookable repairs with durations and assign them to technicians.
Instructions. Always confirm the exact model; never ask for passcodes; never estimate water damage or data recovery; what to say when a model isn't on the list; when to flag.
Website widget. Paste the script tag into your site. It works on any site that lets you add a script, including WordPress, Shopify and Wix, by pasting one script tag. The AI chatbot for websites page has the details.
WhatsApp and Instagram. Connect your WhatsApp Business number and your Instagram professional account. Both need Meta setup, and Instagram needs Meta's app review before the public can message through it. The WhatsApp AI chatbot and Instagram DM automation pages explain the steps.
Notifications. Connect Slack or Zapier so flagged conversations, leads and bookings reach whoever's at the counter.
Test. Ask it awkward questions: a model that isn't on your list, a request to bypass an iCloud lock, a customer who sends a passcode, a complaint. Read the results in the inbox.

Repair management software

RepairDesk, RepairShopr and similar repair shop systems aren't connected to Klugon directly. Bookings go into Klugon's own diary, and new leads and bookings are posted to Slack or Zapier. If your repair system accepts data through Zapier, you can try creating tickets from those events. Otherwise, copy bookings across at the start of the day.

Costs, worked through

Prices are in US dollars, with all plans on the pricing page. For a repair shop, the relevant products are:

Website chat: Starter at $49 a month for 100 conversations, or Business at $149 for 400. File uploads (for a price list file) and appointment booking are listed from the Business plan; on Starter you can paste your price list as text.
WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger: Starter at $79 a month for 300 conversations, Business at $249 for 1,500, plus $19 a month when a WhatsApp number is connected.
Phone: Starter at $99 a month for 1,000 minutes, plus $9 a month for a number.

A conversation is one customer thread, so a customer who sends ten messages about one screen counts once.

Here's a worked example. Assume a single shop gets:

8 website chats a day, about 240 a month;
10 Instagram and WhatsApp threads a day, about 300 a month.

That's chat Business ($149) and social Starter ($79) plus WhatsApp ($19): $247 a month. If social conversations grow past the allowance, new conversations stop at 110% until the next period, so a shop at that level should watch the Analytics page and move up a tier before it hits the cap.

Now the value side. Say the average screen or battery repair is worth £90 to you in revenue. Say the shop currently replies to evening and Sunday enquiries the next morning, and loses 15 of those a week to faster competitors. If quick replies win back a third of them, that's 5 repairs a week, about £450 a week or roughly £1,950 a month in revenue. Use your own figures; even at a fraction of that, the chatbot pays for itself.

Compare that with staffing the chats yourself. A part-time assistant on 25 hours a week at the National Living Wage of £12.71 an hour from April 2026 costs about £318 a week in wages, before National Insurance, pension and holiday, and they'd still not be answering at 9.45 on a Friday night.

Consumer rights and your terms

Customers sometimes ask the chatbot about their rights if a repair goes wrong. The chatbot should explain your own warranty terms and then hand anything about a dispute to a person. For your own understanding, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 says that a service must be performed with reasonable care and skill. Your written warranty sits on top of that, not instead of it, so don't let the chatbot suggest otherwise. Keep its wording to "our repairs come with a 6-month warranty on the part and the work; if anything goes wrong, message us with your reference and we'll look at it."

How it compares with other options

Repair software booking widgets. Many repair management systems include an online booking form or price-check widget. They're good for customers who know what they want and are happy to fill in a form. They don't answer free-text questions about data, part quality or water damage, and they don't reply on WhatsApp or Instagram.

General website chatbots. Tools such as Tidio offer chat widgets with rule-based or AI answers. They're built for online shops in general. The comparison of Klugon as a Tidio alternative covers where each fits. Klugon's difference for a repair shop is that the same assistant answers your website, WhatsApp, Instagram and phone, books into a diary, and works from your own price list.

An FAQ page. It helps, but people asking "how much for an S23 Ultra back glass?" want an answer, not a page to search. The article on AI chatbots versus FAQ pages goes into when each makes sense.

Doing it yourself on your phone. Many owners answer DMs between repairs. It works until the shop gets busy, which is exactly when the messages pile up.

Is it working?

After a month, look at:

Conversations and bookings on the Analytics page, and which channel brought them. If Instagram brings most of your enquiries, that's where to keep your replies sharpest.
Busiest hours. If many conversations arrive after closing, the chatbot is covering a gap you couldn't before.
Questions without a good answer on the Insights page. Most will be models missing from your price list. Add them.
Hand-overs. Were water damage and data recovery jobs flagged quickly, and did someone follow up?
A few transcripts, read in full. Did it confirm the exact model every time? Did it ever quote a price for a model family?

More trades pages

This page sits under the AI receptionist for contractors hub. Related pages cover plumbers, electricians and heating engineers, garages and auto repair and gardeners and landscapers. If you want to see how the same AI receptionist handles phone calls for any small business, start at the home page.

Frequently asked questions

Can the phone repair shop chatbot quote from my own prices?

Yes. Upload your price list as a CSV, PDF or Word file, paste it in, or add common repairs as products. It quotes only what you've given it, so keep the list up to date.

What if a customer asks about a model that isn't on my list?

Tell it to say you'll check and get back to them, and to take their name and number. It flags the conversation so someone can reply.

Will it ask customers for their passcode?

Not if you set it up as this page suggests. Tell it never to ask for a passcode or password in a chat, and to tell customers not to send one.

Can it tell customers whether their phone is ready?

No. It can't see your repair system. It takes the reference and passes the request on. On WhatsApp and Instagram, your team can reply from the inbox.

Does it send "your repair is ready" texts?

No. Klugon doesn't send text messages, reminders or notifications to customers.

Can it take a deposit for parts?

No. Klugon doesn't take deposits for bookings. If you need a deposit for special-order parts, ask for it in the shop.

Can it work on Instagram straight away?

Instagram needs a professional account linked to a Facebook Page and some Meta setup. Meta's app review is required before members of the public can message the assistant through Instagram.

Does it handle water damage enquiries?

It gives your standard first-aid advice, such as keeping the phone off and not charging it, and then flags the conversation for a technician. It doesn't estimate prices or chances of success.

Can it answer the shop's phone too?

Yes, with the phone product. It answers calls using the same price list and rules, and it can't transfer calls to the counter. Anything that needs a person is saved with the caller's details for a callback.

Does it work on my website builder?

The chat widget is a script tag you paste into your site. It works on any site that lets you add a script, including WordPress, Shopify and Wix.

Most shops start with the website widget and Instagram, where price questions arrive at night, and add the phone line once they're happy with the answers.