AI agency · NYC Metro · Auto Repair Shops
Ascero AI is a founder-led AI agency in Waltham, Massachusetts that builds custom AI receptionists and workflow automation for auto repair shops in the NYC Metro metro. Pricing is a flat Foundation tier at $4,000/month plus a one-time $2,500 setup, with the agent live in two to four weeks. There is no annual contract and no per-call fee.
Ascero AI builds custom voice agents and workflow automation for auto repair shops operating in the NYC Metro metro (2,300,000 residents, roughly 78,000 small businesses, ACS-derived median household income around $73,000). Founder-led, flat-fee Foundation tier at $4,000/month, BAA executed where required, live in two to four weeks depending on vertical.
Independent auto repair shops abandon an estimated 28 to 42% of inbound calls, per ASA / RatchetX 2025 benchmarks. The service writer is on a phone tree with a parts wholesaler, the front counter is checking in a tow, and the phone keeps ringing. The customer who got voicemail is calling the next shop on Google. Every missed call is roughly $180 to $1,400 in service revenue — diagnosis, brakes, alignment, transmission, electrical. The Ascero AI receptionist for auto repair shops answers 24/7, triages tow-in vs. service vs. estimate vs. status check, books service slots against the bay schedule, captures VIN and symptoms, and writes structured ROs into Shop-Ware / Tekmetric / Mitchell 1 / R.O. Writer / NAPA TRACS.
what Queens auto repair shops are leaving on the table
The NYC Metro metro has roughly 78,000 small businesses, a figure derived from US Census County Business Patterns and Business Dynamics Statistics at the MSA level. The dollar figures below are an illustrative worked example, not a measured Queens statistic — they exist to make the math concrete, and every input is stated so you can swap in your own numbers.
Illustrative estimate — assumptions shown, not a measured figure
The agent does not need to be perfect — it needs to be better than voicemail. The per-business figures we actually stand behind, with sources, are below.
A 6-bay independent shop doing $1.8M annual revenue, missing 35% of inbound calls, with a $480 average RO and 55 inbound calls per day: roughly 19 missed calls daily, of which 40% would have booked = $3,650/day or roughly $1.3M annually in recoverable service revenue. Plus 1.5 to 3 service-writer hours per day reclaimed from status-check calls. Even at a 25% recovery rate, $325K back to the P&L on a $48K subscription.
the Queens context
Queens is the most linguistically diverse county in the United States — 160+ languages spoken at home. Voice agents that can't handle Spanish, Mandarin, Bengali, and Russian are leaving real money on the table here. The borough's auto repair and trades density is also unusually high.
Ascero AI is founder-led from Waltham, Massachusetts. Both co-founders (Kadin Nestler and Jaiden Lawlor) build into customer calls directly — the discovery, prompt design, and tuning loop is run by the same people who close the deal. For Queens auto repair shops that is meaningful because the phone-handling tuning that wins is vertical-and-region specific (a Queens auto repair shops's ideal triage is not the same as a generic national template), and we ship those refinements monthly. US-based, no offshoring, no contract receptionist resellers — the people you talk to are the people building the agent.
Pricing is flat: Foundation tier at $4,000/month with a one-time $2,500 setup fee, unlimited inbound minutes, monthly tuning included, and 30-day cancellation. No annual contract, no per-call fees. Call recording disclosed per state two-party-consent law. Diagnostic and repair recommendations always require licensed tech sign-off — the agent never approves repairs or quotes binding pricing without writer / tech review. No PCI scope (payments via Stripe / shop POS link sent via SMS). Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act disclosures preserved on warranty-related calls. If you are a member of the local chamber (www.queenschamber.org), ask about the chamber-member referral discount.
frequently asked — auto repair shops in Queens
Shop-Ware, Tekmetric, Mitchell 1 SE, R.O. Writer, NAPA TRACS, AutoVitals, and Identifix are native integrations. The agent writes structured ROs and reads live ticket status directly from the shop management system.
Captures customer location, vehicle make/model/year, breakdown symptoms, dispatches a configurable tow company (the shop's preferred tow partner), books the next-available bay slot, and writes the intake into the SMS. The customer gets a confirmation with the ETA.
No — the agent never quotes binding repair pricing or approves repairs. It schedules a diagnostic, captures symptoms, and books bay time. Pricing always requires writer / tech sign-off.
The agent can check parts on hand from the inventory module if integrated. For parts ordering and ETA, it routes to the parts manager with structured RO context — it does not place orders.
Reads the live RO status from the shop management system. "Where are we on this Honda?" gets an accurate, current-state answer without pulling the service writer off another call.
keep exploring
Fifteen-minute scoping call. Foundation tier $4,000/month, $2,500 setup, live in two to four weeks. No annual contract, no per-call fees, reversible in five minutes if you want to roll back.