Workflow automation
The lead that came in at 11pm is already answered.
Everything else on this site works on getting your phone to ring. This is the part that makes sure the ringing turns into work, while you are asleep, on a roof, or under somebody's sink.
What a missed lead costs
You already paid for that phone call.
This is the one thing on this site that does not bring anybody in, and it is still the cheapest problem you have. Every lead you get cost money to produce, in ad spend, in a retainer, or in the months it took to earn the ranking. A lead nobody answered until Tuesday cost exactly the same as one you won, and returned nothing.
Nobody sends an invoice for it, which is why it goes on for years. There is no line in your accounts for the roof you did not quote because the message arrived on a Friday night and got buried by Monday. It just quietly looks like a slow month.
What gets automated
Boring on purpose. That is where the money is.
None of this is clever. It is the handful of things every service business does the same way every time, done by software so they happen whether or not anyone remembered.
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Lead follow-up
A form comes in and gets answered before you have read it. Text, email, CRM entry, and a reminder sitting on your list in the morning. The one at 11pm on a Friday is the one this pays for.
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Review requests
A message after every finished job asking for a review, sent automatically instead of when you remember. Reviews are one of the biggest inputs to map pack position, so this quietly buys rankings while it saves you the hour.
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Appointment reminders
Confirmation, then a reminder a day out, then one an hour out. Fewer no-shows, and nobody on your team spending a morning on the phone confirming people.
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Invoices and payment
Job marked complete, invoice out the same day, receipt issued, books updated. Not Sunday night at the kitchen table.
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Nothing typed twice
Details from a form, an email or a call land in your CRM with the right tags and stage already set. No copy-paste, and no records that only exist in somebody's head.
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The weekly number
Leads, jobs and revenue summarized and sent to you on a schedule, so knowing where you stand does not require anyone to build a report.
The review one is worth singling out. Reviews are one of the biggest inputs to where you sit in the map pack, so the automation that saves you an hour a week is also, quietly, buying you local rankings.
What to expect
Nothing gets built until we know it is worth building.
You do the first two of these with me and then it is off your plate. The whole thing is usually one conversation, a quote, and then a walkthrough when it is working.
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01
We work out what is actually costing you
Not a list of everything that could be automated. The two or three things you or your team repeat every week that eat hours and occasionally get dropped. Most owners already know what these are, they have just never had a reason to say them out loud.
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02
We decide what should happen instead
What the ideal version looks like start to finish: what sets it off, who needs to know, what happens if nobody replies, when it should stop. This is the part that takes a conversation rather than software, and it decides everything after it.
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03
I find out whether it can be done
Whether the tools you already use will talk to each other, what it would cost to run, and how long it would take. Sometimes part of it cannot be automated cleanly, and you hear that here rather than after you have paid for it.
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04
I build it, then try to break it
Most of the work is the awkward cases: somebody submits the form twice, a phone number arrives in a format your system refuses, the job gets marked done by accident. Then a walkthrough in plain English so you know what it does and when it does it.
You get a fixed price after step three, not before it. Quoting a number before anyone has checked whether your software can do the thing is how automation projects end up costing double.
Pricing
One price, agreed before anything starts.
Scoped and fixed-priced per project, including whatever it costs to keep running. There is no monthly retainer attached to this and nothing stops working if you never speak to me again. A single trigger with one or two actions is a small job. A workflow with branching, several integrations and the edge cases handled is not, and the price reflects which one you are asking for.
Most of the build time is testing the situations nobody thinks about, like somebody submitting the form twice or a phone number arriving in a format your CRM refuses. That is the part that decides whether a workflow you trust or a workflow you check.
Start smaller than you think
One workflow, usually lead follow-up, is enough to find out whether this is worth doing for you. It is the shortest path to a result and it costs the least to be wrong about.
Questions
The ones I actually get asked.
What does automation actually mean for a small business?
Taking the things you do the same way every time, following up with a lead, sending a reminder, asking for a review, raising an invoice, and having software do them the moment something triggers it. Nobody has to remember, and nothing waits for somebody to get back to their desk.
Is this Zapier?
Sometimes, and you do not have to care either way. Zapier is the quickest route when your tools are already on it and the job is simple. For anything more involved I run it on software I host myself, which does not charge more the busier you get, unlike most of the alternatives. Either way I tell you which one you are on and what it costs to keep running.
How much does it cost?
Scoped and fixed-priced per project, including whatever it costs to keep running. A single trigger with one or two actions is a small job. A multi-branch workflow with conditions, several integrations and edge cases handled is not. You get a fixed number before anything starts.
How long does it take?
A simple automation is usually three to five working days. A multi-step workflow with branching and proper testing is one to two weeks including handover. Most of that is testing the cases nobody thinks about, like what happens when somebody submits the form twice.
Do I need to be technical to run it afterwards?
No. Everything is handed over with a plain-English walkthrough, and most workflows run for months without anyone touching them. If something breaks or you want to add to it, I am here, but there is no compulsory retainer attached to keep it working.
What if I do not have a CRM?
Then say so early, because that changes the answer. Plenty of these workflows run perfectly well into a shared inbox, a spreadsheet or a calendar, and buying software you do not need in order to automate a process you do not have yet is the wrong order to do this in.
How does this connect to the SEO and ads work?
Directly. Everything else I do is spent getting the phone to ring, and this is the only part that makes sure the ringing turns into work. If you are paying for Local SEO and leads are sitting unanswered overnight, fixing that is worth more than another month of traffic.
Free audit
Start with where leads are leaking.
The audit looks at your site, your Google Business Profile and how somebody actually gets hold of you, which is usually where the first automation belongs. It runs automatically and lands in your inbox in about three minutes.
If you are not getting enough leads for this to be the problem yet, I will say so. Automating an empty pipeline is an expensive way to feel organized.