Terms local service owners actually use.

All terms

• Missed-call text back

  Missed-call text back is an automatic text sent to someone who called and did not reach a person. The call rings out, goes to voicemail, or is declined, and a short message leaves from the business number a moment later. The point is not a marketing blast. The point is to catch the person before they dial the next company on the list.

• Speed to lead

  Speed to lead is the time between a new inquiry arriving and the first real response from the business. The inquiry might be a phone call, a form on the website, a text, or a referral that a neighbor passed along. The clock starts when the lead exists, not when someone happens to notice it.

• AI receptionist

  An AI receptionist is software that answers the phone, speaks with the caller, and writes down what they need. It is not a recording that says "leave a message." It asks questions, answers from the hours, services, and notes you gave it, and hands you a summary. A person still decides what to do with the job.

• Lead response time

  Lead response time is the measured gap between a lead arriving and the first reply the business sends. Speed to lead is the idea. Response time is the number: minutes, or hours, or "we got to it the next morning." If you cannot point at the number, you are remembering the calls you felt good about and forgetting the ones that sat.

• Service CRM

  A service CRM is a customer and lead record built for companies that sell visits, not seats of software. The contacts are homeowners, property managers, and the occasional general contractor. The "deal" is a job that starts with a call or a form and ends when the work is done or the quote goes quiet. A CRM written for a sales floor, with quotas and territories, fights that shape.

• Estimate follow-up

  Estimate follow-up is the planned set of messages after you send the estimate and before the customer says yes or no. It is not nagging, and it is not a plea. It is a date you chose in advance, a specific job named in the message, and one easy question. Most estimates go quiet because the customer got busy, not because they chose someone else and sent a letter.

• Call tracking

  Call tracking assigns a phone number, or a tag on your main number, so you can tell which ad, page, or directory produced the call. Without it, every ring looks the same. The owner remembers the job that closed and forgets whether it started on Google, a yard sign, or a paid listing. The next month's spending is then a guess.

• After-hours answering

  After-hours answering is what happens when a customer calls outside the hours a person will pick up. Evenings, weekends, and the lunch you actually take are when systems fail and people finally have time to phone. A small shop cannot staff that window. The choice is voicemail, a text, an answering service, or software that picks up.