Between the calls
What we would put to work in a trade business.
What each one will not do is written in. That is the part nobody selling this tells you.
Missed call answered by text
The call you could not take gets a reply in under a minute with a way to book or say what is wrong. What it will not do: it takes the details; it does not diagnose the problem or promise an arrival time you have not set.
Estimate follow up
Every open estimate gets a personal nudge on a schedule you set. What it will not do: it follows up; it does not negotiate.
Arrival windows and confirmations
Customers told the window the day before and when the van is on the way. This one needs the dispatch board living in a single system.
Maintenance reminders
Annual service, filter changes, seasonal checks, offered to past customers when they are due. It only works where the service history is in the record, which is often the first thing we fix.
Review requests and referral asks
Sent the day the job closes. What it will not do: ask twice.
The weekly read
Calls in, jobs booked, estimates open, invoices unpaid. It reports. You decide.
Skip these for now
- AI dispatching for a one or two van operation. The board is you, and a clean one is faster than a system guessing.
- AI that writes estimates from a description. The number is your margin; it should not come from a model.
- Replacing a working platform to get an AI feature. Housecall Pro, Jobber, and ServiceTitan are all adding them.
Where this business was losing money.
- People who want to hire you and never hear back. 168 calls from new numbers were missed and never returned, and 24 website inquiries were never answered. 238 replacement estimates were given and never marked won or lost. From your data
- Work that was done and not billed. 46 finished jobs worth $21,300 were never invoiced. 412 service invoices left off a part that the technician's notes say was used. 131 members dropped off the plan because a card failed and nobody called. From your data
- Hours paid that produce nothing. Each service truck spends 2.3 hours a day driving. 187 visits went back to fix an earlier job. Your office copies between programs by hand for about 9 hours a week. From your data
This is one section of the sample for Plumbing and Heating Business. Your own analysis is written from your own records. Read the whole sample
Two ways in
Everything runs fine, or something does not. Either way, the first step is the same.
One conversation, a review of your own data, and a written Business Analysis. Free.
Everything runs fine. I want AI working for me.
Everything runs, often because you keep it running, and you want to know what AI would do for your business now. The analysis opens with the opportunity review and checks what is underneath first.
Something is not working. I want to know what.
Something is not working and you want to know what. The analysis opens with the diagnosis, because AI on top of a broken system automates the problem.
The systems in the trades
The dispatch system has to be straight before any of this.
Housecall Pro, Jobber, ServiceTitan in the larger shops, or a calendar, QuickBooks and a phone. What they tend to need before AI is worth adding: one dispatch board, a customer record with the equipment and the service history, and estimates tracked after they go out. That review is the diagnosis, and it is inside the analysis.
Help for electricians, plumbers and HVAC in Santa Cruz County.
Most trade businesses here dispatch from Jobber, Housecall Pro or ServiceTitan and keep the books in QuickBooks. When the two disagree, the owner reconciles them at night. We get dispatch and the books agreeing first. Then the missed call and the quote nobody followed up go on automation.
Our area runs from Scotts Valley down to Watsonville, and we meet you in person anywhere in it.
Common questions
The four we hear most in the trades.
Our dispatch software raised its price. Is it worth moving?
Rarely on price alone. Owners compare the monthly figure and leave out the migration: the customer list, the equipment and service history, the retraining, and the weeks running both systems. Add those and a cheaper platform often costs more across two years. It is worth moving when the system cannot do something the shop needs. We will run that comparison on your numbers, including the case where the answer is to stay and negotiate at renewal.
Do we have to switch software to use any of this?
Sometimes, and the analysis shows you which. Housecall Pro, Jobber and the rest already carry estimate tracking, reminders and review requests, and most shops use a fraction of it, so turning those on comes first. Leaving a system that works only to get an AI feature is a bad trade. When your numbers show the system itself is costing you jobs or hours, we recommend the move, show you why, and handle it.
What do we do about the calls we miss while we are under a sink?
Less than the people selling missed call products suggest. Some missed calls are worth catching and some are a customer you did not want at a price you would not take. What works is a real answer within minutes, in your voice, with your actual availability. What does not work is an answering service that promises things on your behalf. If you are booked out months ahead, the honest answer may be that this is not your problem, and the analysis will say so.
Should we run QuickBooks or something built for the trades?
Almost always both, and the real question is the seam between them. QuickBooks holds the money, the invoicing and the taxes. The job software holds the schedule, the customers and the estimates. The trouble is the join: the same job typed into two places, and figures that never quite agree at month end. That join is usually where the first automation belongs, ahead of anything the customer sees.
More on what to do when your software raises its price
More on why Jobber, Housecall Pro and QuickBooks never show the same figures
Real engagements
The two engagements written up in full are practices. The analysis is made the same way from a trade business's own numbers.