Websites · 5 min read

Garages and MOT centres: the bookings you never hear about

By Raja Wahab, Co-founder, Fixby Studios · Updated 13 August 2026

The phone is the bottleneck

When the office phone is engaged and the workshop is loud, the customer doesn't ring back. They ring the next garage. Out of hours it's worse: evenings and Sunday nights are when people notice the MOT is due, and that's exactly when nobody answers.

What to put on the site

• One page per major service: MOT, servicing, diagnostics, brakes, clutches, air-con, tyres.
• Indicative prices or 'from' prices. Customers filter on this and you'll get fewer time-wasting calls.
• An online booking request with registration, date preference and phone number.
• Whether you offer courtesy cars, collection or while-you-wait MOTs.
• Your MOT class and any manufacturer or trade approvals.

Reviews decide the map pack

For garages more than almost any other trade, the local map result is the whole game, and it's driven heavily by review volume and recency. A repeatable ask — a card in the car, a text after the invoice — is worth more than any redesign.

Reminders bring the work back

MOTs are annual and predictable. A simple reminder that goes out eleven months after the last one is the cheapest repeat business in the trade, and it can run automatically off the same system that takes the booking.