Strategy Lab · Car dealers & workshops

You brake at the lights. Something squeals. Hear That? A car workshop campaign that matches your car's noise on your phone

Mechanic, back to camera, inspecting the underside of a raised car with a work lamp in a small neighbourhood garage

60 sec · microphone optional

Keys 1–6: play a noise · M: microphone · Esc: stop

A first clue, not a diagnosis.

The demo didn't load. The description below tells you what you'd have seen.

The demo in words: six car noises, from brake pads to suspension, generated in the browser as reference sounds. If you allow it, the microphone records five seconds, the browser builds a spectrogram and compares it with the six references. You see the closest noise, a similarity score and what to do next. Without a microphone, you pick one of three cars with a fault. Nothing is uploaded to a server.

At a glanceCar dealers & workshops

How can a car workshop use sound to win bookings?

Hear That? is a car workshop mechanism: a web tool records a car's noise on the phone, compares its spectrogram with reference noises from the workshop's mechanics, and names the closest match, a first clue rather than a diagnosis. One button books a slot. Typical range: 3–8% of completions book. Mechanism Sprint: 10 working days, from €1,500 plus production.

A Mechanism Sprint is how Netex builds one marketing mechanism like this: designed for your sector, produced and measured in 10 working days, with the automated replies to the messages it brings set up before launch.

Netex — digital engineering studio in Heraklion and the Almyros industrial area.

A workshop records twelve car noises its mechanics know by heart. A tool on your phone listens to your noise, compares it with the twelve and tells you which one it sounds most like. Then a button books a slot.

Here the six reference noises are generated in your browser; when it runs for a workshop, they are recordings made with its own mechanics. The comparison, the spectrogram and the microphone work exactly the same.

Sector: Car dealers & workshops
Mechanics
Demo engine: Sensor (microphone)
Complexity
Production cost

Decode

How it got you

Hear That?Play → Decode → Deploy

Mechanism: Sn · Sensor magic + Wr · Data mirror. The phone hears something you were only worried about, and hands it back as an answer with a name.
Psychology: A worrying noise only persuades when the next step comes with it. Here the worry and the fix share one screen: "brake pads, book a check". Witte, 1992, Communication Monographs · academic research
Platform signal: Comments with numbers on the Reel ("mine's number 3"), sends between family members ("Dad, this is the noise your car makes") and a monthly "Mystery Noise" Reel built from sounds viewers send in.
Honest range: 3–8% of people who complete the tool book a slot. Typical range for a pilot in a Greek SME · Netex estimate

I want one of these for my brand

Deploy

How it runs, step by step

A Reel with five car noises in 15 seconds: "Which one's yours? Comment the number."
A web tool records the car's noise on the device and compares its spectrogram with twelve noises recorded by the workshop's own mechanics.
"Closest match: worn brake pads · safety item" → one button books a slot, via Viber or the workshop's calendar.
Every month, a "Mystery Noise" Reel: a mechanic listens to a sound a viewer sent in and says what it is.

Channels and tech

Channels: Reels · the tool on the workshop's site · a Viber booking bot
Tech: Web Audio API · spectrogram · MFCC similarity or a small TF.js classifier, all on the device · reference recordings by the mechanics

Complexity 3 of 5

Production cost €€ · excluding media

What to expect, honestly

We don't promise viral. We promise a mechanism you can measure.

Tool completions that book a slot 3–8%
Comments and viewer-sent sounds We count them from week one; we don't forecast them.

most likely on a first run · A first run usually lands in the lower half of the range.

Control: bookings from the tool against bookings from the contact form, over the same period.

Guardrails

"A first clue, not a diagnosis", on every result.
The microphone opens only after an explicit tap. Sound is analysed on the device and never stored.
Never record while driving. The tool says so before the mic opens.
Brakes and other safety items always point to a check, whatever the similarity score. No scaremongering to win a booking.
Viewer sounds for "Mystery Noise" are used only with written consent, with no voices or number plates.
Commenting a number is a game, not a condition for entering a draw.

Why it works

An unknown noise in the car is a small worry that lasts for days. The tool turns it into a name and a next step. Worry persuades only when the fix sits right beside it. Witte, 1992 · academic research

An information gap wants closing. "What is that sound?" is a question a driver wants answered today, not at the next service. Loewenstein, 1994 · academic research

Usefulness builds trust before the sale. The workshop gives something before it asks for anything, and its mechanics become the voices the driver remembers.

And the sounds viewers send in become the next Reel. The series feeds itself.

Who did it before us

Third-party results are mostly self-reported, from award entries and vendors. They show a mechanic can work, not what it will do for you.

Year	Who	What they did	Result
2023	Specsavers, "The Misheard Version" (UK)	Hearing as the medium itself: a song with "misheard" lyrics as a prompt to get your hearing checked.	+19% call-centre volume against forecast. self-reported source (opens in a new tab)
2025	Spotify Wrapped	Your own data, handed back as a story you want to send.	About 200 million engaged users in roughly 24 hours. self-reported source (opens in a new tab)
—	Netex, "Human vs Vision AI"	The same "the machine perceives what you'd miss" moment, with an image instead of sound.	Play it in the Strategy Lab. Netex · Strategy Lab

The other hemisphere

A squealing brake and a wearing bearing both sound wrong before they fail.

At the workshop, the phone listens once. In a plant, sensors listen to machine vibration all the time and raise the alarm before the Friday-night breakdown, so the stop happens on schedule.

69% of Greek SMEs say they need predictive maintenance; only 3–4% use it. AI Readiness Index 2025 (ENTERSOFTONE and AUEB ELTRUN) via powergame.gr · survey, vendor co-authored

Vibration sensor on the motor
Anomaly on Wednesday
Alert to the maintenance lead
Planned stop, Thursday 06:00

Questions about Hear That?

Is the result a diagnosis?

No. Every result says "a first clue, not a diagnosis": the closest match points to what to check, and a mechanic makes the diagnosis. Brakes and other safety items always point to a check, whatever the similarity score, and there's no scaremongering to win a booking.

Is the recording sent anywhere?

No. The microphone opens only after an explicit tap, and the sound is analysed on the device and never stored or uploaded. Before the microphone opens, the tool warns never to record while driving. Without a microphone, you pick one of three cars with a fault and see the same comparison.

Where do the reference noises come from?

When it runs for a workshop, they're recordings of twelve noises made with its own mechanics, from brake pads to suspension. On this page, six reference noises are generated in your browser; the comparison, the spectrogram and the microphone work exactly the same. Viewer sounds for the monthly "Mystery Noise" Reel need written consent.

What results can a workshop expect?

We don't promise viral. The typical range, a Netex estimate, is 3–8% of people who complete the tool booking a slot. Comments and viewer-sent sounds we count from week one rather than forecast. The control: bookings from the tool against bookings from the contact form over the same period.

How long does it take, and what does it cost?

As a Mechanism Sprint it is designed, produced and measured in 10 working days, from €1,500 plus production. Production is in the €€ tier, €2,000 to €6,000 by Netex estimate, excluding media, with the reference noises recorded with your mechanics. Complexity is 3 of 5.

Mechanism Sprint

Which noise does your workshop know by heart?

We record the noises with your mechanics, build the tool on your site and connect it to your bookings.

In 10 working days we design, produce and measure one mechanism for your sector, and set up the automated DM replies. From €1,500 plus production.

I want one of these for my brand The whole Strategy Lab

We reply within one working day.

The scenario you just played goes straight into the form.