Deferred Work Win-Back lives under the Deferred work tab of the AI Re-engagement page — reachable from Growth & Marketing → AI Tools → Re-engagement, or from the "Draft Win-Back Texts" button on the Reports page, which drops you straight onto that tab. You give it a lookback window and a maximum number of customers; it scans your shop's past inspection checklists for items that were flagged as an issue but never followed up on, and hands back a short drafted text-message per customer — up to three flagged items bundled into a single message. Nothing goes out on its own: every draft sits in a review list until you copy it or push it into a Blast yourself.
How it decides who to nudge
The scan starts from your inspection checklists — specifically, items marked as an issue during a past visit that weren't part of that visit's own job (a scuff called out at pickup, a chip noticed at intake, that kind of thing). It only looks at items older than the lookback window you set (1–365 days, default 14), and it drops anything that looks already handled: if the customer has come back in since — a later appointment that wasn't canceled or a no-show, or any invoice that wasn't voided — the flagged item is treated as addressed and left out. That check runs at the customer level rather than per-vehicle, so a return visit for a different car in a multi-vehicle household can also quietly suppress a nudge on an unrelated flagged item — a known simplification, not a bug.
On top of that, it skips anyone who's opted out of SMS or marketing messages outright, and anyone your shop has already reached out to recently, so re-running the scan doesn't keep resurfacing the same names. Whatever's left after all of that is capped at the "max customers" number you set (1–25, default 10) — that's a cost-and-readability limit on the run, not a sign there's nothing else out there.
Reviewing and sending a draft
Each customer who survives the filters gets exactly one drafted text, even when they have several flagged items — up to three get bundled into that single message rather than sending one text per item. Every draft shows the customer's name, their vehicle when it's known, the message itself, and a short "why" line explaining what prompted it. From there you can copy the text or push it straight into a pre-filled Blast (customer and channel already set) to review and send. Drafts are kept deliberately low-key: a plain, factual nudge about what your team already noted, never dressed up as a diagnosis or a safety warning, and never inventing a discount or urgency that wasn't there — all in a single short message rather than a long pitch.
Things to know
- Plan: Professional or above. This tool is part of SalesThumb's AI-assist suite, which is gated at the Professional tier and up.
- Stub mode: if the workspace doesn't have an AI key configured, the tab shows a "stub mode" banner and every run returns a plain templated message built from the customer's name, vehicle, and flagged item labels — not real AI-personalized copy. Which customers and items surface is unaffected either way; only the wording is a placeholder.
- Customer-level "already covered" check: a flagged item counts as handled the moment the customer has any newer non-canceled appointment or non-void invoice, even one for a different vehicle. In a multi-car household this can suppress a legitimate follow-up on a car that hasn't actually been looked at.
- Bundling cap: a customer with more than three open flagged items only gets the most recent three folded into their drafted message, to keep it short and readable.
- Read-only: the scan only reads inspections, appointments, quotes, invoices, vehicles, customers, and shop info — it makes no changes to any of them. You decide whether and how each drafted message actually gets sent.
- No cost when there's nothing to say: if the scan turns up no open flagged items past your lookback window, it returns a plain summary saying so without calling the AI model at all.
- These are the same flagged inspection items that already show up in your shop's Deferred Work report — this tool just turns the open ones into ready-to-review outreach.
Frequently asked questions
Q: Does this send anything to my customers automatically?
A: No. It only drafts messages. Every draft is something you copy, push into a Blast, or send from the customer's own thread yourself — nothing goes out on its own.
Q: What counts as a "flagged" item?
A: An inspection checklist item marked as an issue during a past visit — something the shop noticed but that wasn't part of that visit's actual job, like a chip or scuff called out at intake or pickup. Once it's older than your lookback window, it's eligible for a follow-up.
Q: Will it keep nagging a customer I've already talked to?
A: No. It automatically skips customers who've opted out of SMS or marketing messages, and anyone your shop has already contacted recently, so re-running the scan won't keep resurfacing the same list.
Q: If a customer has several flagged items, do they get several texts?
A: No — one message per customer, bundling up to three of their open flagged items into that single text rather than sending one per item.
Q: What does "stub mode" mean here?
A: It means the workspace doesn't have a live AI key configured, so instead of AI-personalized copy you get a plain templated message built from the customer's name, vehicle, and item labels — a placeholder for testing, not a real AI read of your data. Which customers and items are found is not affected either way.
Q: What plan do I need for this?
A: Professional or above — it's part of SalesThumb's Professional-tier AI-assist suite.