This video covers how to manage customer communication inside Need for Service — SMS, email, templates, and how to keep everything in one place instead of bouncing between apps.
Sending SMS from the invoice
You can send a message directly to a customer from any estimate or invoice. If their vehicle is ready, you can let them know right from that screen without switching to your phone or a separate app. The SMS is sent to them directly, and you don't have to copy-paste their number anywhere.
The built-in mail system
Need for Service includes a full inbox — you can manage your shop's email without leaving the software. Unread, read, flagged, sent — everything you'd expect from Gmail or iCloud, but inside the system you're already working in. You can also customize how your shop name appears in the customer's inbox so it looks professional, not like it's coming from a random address.
Email and SMS templates
In settings, you can build your own templates or use the preloaded ones. There are SMS templates for things like "estimate ready" and "vehicle ready for pickup," and email templates you can customize to match your shop's tone. This means sending a professional message to a customer takes a few seconds, not a few minutes of typing.
Two-way SMS
At the time of this video, SMS is one-way — you can message customers, but replies don't come back into the system. Two-way messaging was coming soon. Depending on when you're reading this, it may already be live. Two-way SMS would let you handle the full back-and-forth of customer communication from inside Need for Service.
Everything in one place
The goal with communication in Need for Service is that you don't have to bounce between tools. SMS, email, and approvals are all tied to the repair order and visible to your whole team — not sitting in one person's phone or a separate app.