We are on Route 50 and the phone gets missed at teatime. Is that a software problem?
Partly. It is really a coverage problem, but software is the cheap half of the fix. An after-hours line that gives real answers — hours, price range, next free slot — and books what it can, then hands you a clean queue in the morning, usually pays for itself in a month here. We measure it: enquiries outside opening hours that turned into money.
The village owns the mall now. Does that change anything for a small business here?
Not directly, and we would not sell you anything on the back of it. What it means practically is uncertainty about where foot traffic sits in three years, which is an argument for owning your own customer list and your own booking channel rather than depending on where a landlord puts the doors. That is worth doing regardless of what happens at Northfield Square.
We run four locations under a franchise agreement. Will you break brand rules?
No. We work inside whatever the agreement allows, and we read it first. Usually there is room for accurate local hours, local staff, and genuine local content while the required wording and imagery stay untouched. Where the agreement forbids something, that is the end of it — we will find the gain somewhere else, usually in the weekly reporting.
Our shop quotes off drawings. Can a computer really price that?
It can do the counting, not the pricing. Reading dimensions, materials and quantities off a drawing and laying them out against your rate card saves an estimator most of an hour. Deciding what the job is really worth, whether that customer is a headache, and how busy you are that week stays with your estimator, and the quote does not leave until they release it.
What does a first project cost and how do you decide the price?
We map your process before quoting, then give you a fixed price against a written scope that says plainly what is excluded. No hourly meter, no discovery of extra cost halfway through. If the mapping session shows that a $60-a-month tool covers you, we will tell you that and invoice for the mapping alone.
Where does our customer data live, and can we take it away?
It lives in your system, it belongs to you, and it exports in a plain format whenever you ask — bookings, customer history, quotes, the lot. We are not building a moat out of your own contact list. That commitment is in the contract before any money moves.
How much of this needs AI at all?
Less than a salesperson would tell you. Reading a drawing, sorting an incoming message, drafting a follow-up — those genuinely benefit. A booking calendar, a rota, a price list do not, and putting a model in front of them just adds cost and a way to be wrong. We build the boring parts boring on purpose.
Do you handle the hosting and keep it running afterwards?
Yes, and we would rather you asked now than later. Support and hosting are a named line in the quote, not a surprise. If you would prefer to take it in-house or hand it to your own IT people at some point, the system is built so that is possible — we do not weld the doors shut.