Install photos are your shop's content engine. The shareable gallery you send AFTER the install is the difference between a 5-star review and an Instagram post that tags your shop.
What's in a great gallery
The 6-photo standard:
- Pre-install full vehicle (front 3/4)
- Tape-down or prep shot (shows craftsmanship)
- Mid-install (tech actively working)
- Detail panel close-up (shows the work)
- Post-install full vehicle (matches photo 1 for before/after impact)
- Customer with keys / hero shot (optional but high-conversion)
For PPF, add per-panel before/after pairs (hood, bumper, fenders, headlights, mirrors).
When to send
Within 4 hours of pickup. The customer's excitement is at peak right after they drive away. Wait until tomorrow and the moment is gone.
How to send
SMS link to a branded gallery page hosted on your shop's portal. Subject: "Your [vehicle] install gallery is ready 📸"
Why SMS + link rather than email + attachment:
- It lands on the phone the customer will view the photos on
- SalesThumb's gallery page has a Share with friends button (the phone's share sheet) and a Leave a review button
- Mobile-first format is how customers actually consume photos in 2026
The link landing page
Three things every gallery landing page needs:
- All photos in a clean grid (not a slow PDF download)
- A one-tap share button — SalesThumb's gallery uses the phone's own share sheet, so customers can post to whatever app they use
- A "loved your work?" CTA pointing to Google reviews
The CTA placement matters — make it the second-most-prominent thing on the page after the photos themselves.
About the gallery URL
The gallery link is a long random token (salesthumb.com/a/ followed by a long random token, then /photos), not a customizable slug — you can't set it to include the customer's name or vehicle. That's deliberate, not a gap: a guessable or name-based URL would let anyone who stumbles on one gallery link enumerate or guess their way into a stranger's photos and job details. If you want the share to feel personal, put that effort into the message text around the link instead — the SMS/email copy is yours to customize even though the URL itself isn't.
Auto-trigger via shop software
There's no standalone "send the gallery" automation in SalesThumb — the gallery link rides along with the automatic review request instead, which turns out to be the same message you'd want to send anyway: their photos, plus the ask, plus a one-tap link to rebook.
You configure it on the Review wall page (/app/reputation, a Growth feature), in the Auto review requests card. Auto-send is on by default and runs on Starter too; on Starter you just can't open this card to change it:
- Trigger — every appointment marked complete. Not adjustable.
- Delay after appointment — this is the lever that matters here. It defaults to 24 hours, which is tuned for the review ask rather than the photos. If the gallery is what you care about, drop it to 4 hours (or 2 for same-day) so it lands while the customer is still excited.
- Content — the default message leads with the photo gallery link, then the review ask. To reword it, edit the Follow-up template under Settings → Notifications → Message Templates and mark it Active; keep {{review_link}} in your copy, since that's the token that becomes the gallery link.
Set once, runs forever — just know you're picking one delay for both jobs the message is doing.
Tracking results
Gallery views, social shares, and post-gallery reviews aren't tracked by SalesThumb today — there's no dashboard for this flow. If you want to measure it, you'll need to build your own tracking via the link's UTM params or a URL shortener with click analytics. Treat this as a relationship-building touch rather than a measured funnel for now.