Blog
How we think about the agentic web, the trades, and getting service businesses booked by AI.
August 22, 2026
Yelp math: you're buying clicks, not leads
Yelp is the one big home-services platform that doesn't charge per lead. It charges per click, which moves the risk to a number most contractors never measure.
August 22, 2026
What is an AI front desk?
What an AI front desk is, what it does and costs, how it differs from an AI receptionist or answering service, and three questions to ask any demo.
August 22, 2026
What contractor leads cost: Angi, HomeAdvisor, Thumbtack, Yelp, and Bark
Angi and HomeAdvisor set your cost per lead. On Thumbtack you set it, and Yelp auctions clicks. Here's why cost per booked job is the only fair comparison.
August 18, 2026
Thumbtack math: the price you set and the price you pay
Your Thumbtack lead price is exactly what you're charged, and it doubles as your bid for visibility. The formula that turns it into a real cost per booked job.
August 13, 2026
Your website says you serve 43 towns. You drive to 6.
A worked example: our crawl finds an SEO page claiming 43 towns, the owner confirms the real ones, and the agent stops making promises the truck can't keep.
August 11, 2026
Eight voicemails, one callback
A homeowner calls down the Maps list into voicemail after voicemail. The roofer she needs is thirty feet up and can't pick up. Same weekend, two sides.
August 6, 2026
Should you tell customers it's AI answering them?
Yes. The study everyone cites for hiding it, the two state laws that already require honesty, and the script that makes disclosure read as competence.
August 4, 2026
How to pick an AI front desk for a trades business
Seven questions to put to any AI answering vendor, the one test that disqualifies most of them, and an honest scorecard of where ServiceFront passes and fails.
July 30, 2026
Who ServiceFront is not for (yet)
A straight list of the buyers ServiceFront doesn't fit today, and the one operator it fits exactly.
July 28, 2026
AI front desk, AI receptionist, answering service: what each one actually does
A spec-level comparison of the three ways to stop missing customers: who picks up the phone, who works after hours, what each one knows, and what they cost.
July 23, 2026
Angi math: what a booked job actually costs you
A lead fee means nothing until you divide it by your contact rate and your close rate. The formula, the ranges, and the ownership question underneath it.
July 21, 2026
"I need to be the one who answers"
The strongest objection to front-desk help is that only the owner knows the answers; the honest fix writes that knowledge down, verifies it, and never guesses.
July 16, 2026
Google removed request-a-quote. Put a front desk behind the link
The quote-request lane on Google Business Profiles died with chat in July 2024, and Q&A followed: here's what to put behind the links you still control.
July 14, 2026
What an answering service really costs a plumber, and the question it can't answer
Ruby, Smith.ai, and AnswerConnect priced in plain numbers, plus the customer question a message-taker can't answer.
July 9, 2026
Your contact form is a dead drop
Your website's form is a one-way box nobody checks in time, so homeowners fill out three and hire whoever answers first: the fix is a surface that answers back.
July 7, 2026
Google's AI is calling shops. Plumbers pick up 66% of the time.
Google's Ask for Me phones local shops to check pricing for homeowners, and plumbers answer less than almost anyone. What's confirmed, and the one move to make.
June 25, 2026
The web is being rebuilt for agents
People already run their day through ChatGPT, and payments are moving into chat. That changes what a website is for and what a business puts on the other end.