Paintless dent repair is a category where customers expect a price by text. They've seen the YouTube videos, they know it's faster and cheaper than body shop work, and they want to know if a single door ding costs 95 USD or 195 USD before they invest 30 minutes driving over. A chatbot that asks for photos and a phone number with no immediate range loses customers to the next PDR tech who texted back fast.

SleekAI reads your PDR price ranges from WordPress: small dents under a quarter at 95-145 USD, medium dents up to a credit card at 175-275 USD, large dents requiring panel access at 350-550 USD, and full hail packages by panel count or claim flat-rate. The bot quotes the range based on the customer's description, then offers photo upload for a firm number. Customers feel they're getting a real answer instead of a runaround.

Hail repair is the high-value category, and it has its own conversation flow. A customer with a hail-damaged vehicle and a claim already filed gets routed to the insurance-supplement process; a customer paying out of pocket gets the dent-count walkaround flow. Either way, the bot captures the structured intake and books the right appointment type: in-shop bay for full repairs, mobile service for single dings, or a longer estimate slot for hail claim filings.

PDR is the most text-friendly auto service category there is. Customers expect to send a photo and get a number back, and the techs that win the work are the ones who reply in minutes with a real range. The shops losing this category are the ones whose chatbot asks for a phone number before saying anything useful, because by the time the callback happens the customer has already booked with a competitor on Yelp.

SleekAI matters here because it does the thing customers want: quote a range on the first message based on description, then offer photos for a firm number. "A nickel-sized door ding on your Civic is usually 95-145 USD, lower if it's a front door panel" is the sentence that anchors the customer on your shop. They might still call a competitor, but they're not going to find a lower number unless somebody is undercharging.

Hail repair is the high-value sub-category where this earns its keep. Hail season floods every PDR shop with calls, and the shops that win are the ones that route claims separately from cash work. SleekAI does that automatically: customers with a filed claim go to the supplement flow; cash hail goes to the dent-count walkaround.

Each path has its own intake. Your team isn't fielding the same five questions all day; they're showing up to estimates with the file pre-loaded. The mobile-vs-in-shop split is the third reason this earns its keep.

A door ding inside your service area is a 90-minute mobile visit at the customer's office; outside the service area, it's an in-shop appointment. Generic chatbots can't make that distinction and either over-promise or under-deliver. SleekAI quotes the trip fee, books the right slot, and sets the right expectation.

Shops running this stop losing the easy door-ding tickets to whoever texted back first, and start winning the hail-claim work that turns into 3,000 USD invoices.