The short answer
You need two things for this to work: a phone line we can forward unanswered calls from, and somewhere for a booking to land. Everything else is optional and makes the result better rather than making it possible.
If you run no software at all beyond a phone and a paper diary, we can still help you. See what if you use none of these below.
Phone systems
This is the part that decides whether a build is easy or fiddly, so it is the first thing we check on the audit call. We do not replace your phone system. We add conditional forwarding, so calls nobody answers reach us.
| What you have | How it goes |
|---|---|
| Hosted VoIP (RingCentral, 8x8, Dialpad, Vonage, GoTo and similar) | Straightforward. Forwarding is a setting, and we can usually walk you through it in ten minutes. |
| Mobile number as the business line | Straightforward. Carriers support conditional forwarding with a short code you dial once. |
| Google Voice | Works. Slightly fewer forwarding options, so we check the exact behaviour first. |
| On-site PBX | Usually fine, but it depends on the box. We ask to speak to whoever maintains it. |
| Analogue landline from the phone company | Works, though the forwarding options are basic. Occasionally the simplest fix is a new number that rings alongside your old one. |
| A call centre already answering everything | Then you probably do not need us, and we will say so. |
Sending the messages
We provision a messaging number registered to your business and send from it, with your business name in the first message so it does not read as spam from a stranger. On Growth and VIP we handle the carrier registration for you. On Launch you connect your own messaging account and do that registration yourself.
Registration is a legal requirement for business texting in the US, and it is the slowest part of any build, so we start it on day one. There is more on this in compliance.
Calendars
We read your real availability and write real bookings. No parallel calendar to keep in sync, because two calendars always drift.
- Google Calendar and Microsoft 365 / Outlook, connected directly.
- Cal.com, Calendly, Acuity and similar booking tools.
- Industry booking systems such as salon, clinic, dental and workshop software. Many have an API we can use. If yours does not, we fall back to writing into the calendar it syncs with, which usually gets you the same outcome.
We respect opening hours, appointment lengths, buffer time between jobs, which staff member can do what, and how far ahead you allow bookings. Those come from the intake form.
CRMs and where contacts land
Every conversation produces a contact record with the transcript, the source and the outcome attached, so you can look back later and see exactly what was said.
- GoHighLevel, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zoho, Salesforce and most mainstream CRMs.
- Industry-specific systems through their API where one exists.
- A spreadsheet, if that is genuinely what you use. It works fine and we will not try to talk you out of it.
Deposits and payments
Optional, and worth turning on. A booking with money attached shows up far more reliably than one without. We use Stripe by default and can work with Square or whatever already takes your card payments. The money goes directly to you. We never sit in the middle of your customer payments.
Telling your team
When something needs a human, somebody has to actually find out. We can send that to Slack, Microsoft Teams, email, or a plain text message to whoever is on duty. Text tends to win, because it is the one everybody reads.
What if you use none of these
Then you are in the majority of small businesses, and it is completely fine. The minimum viable setup is a phone line and a Google Calendar, both free. We have built working systems on exactly that.
What you would be giving up is reporting depth. Without a CRM we can still tell you how many calls were caught and how many became bookings, but tying that to revenue months later gets harder. Most people start simple and add a CRM once the bookings justify it, which is the right order to do it in.
Anything else
Growth includes two custom integrations. VIP includes as many as you need. If your system has an API, we can almost certainly connect to it. If it has no API at all, we will tell you straight away rather than quoting for something that turns into a six-week project.
One thing we will push back on: if your existing system is the reason customers are being missed, connecting us to it does not fix that. We would rather say so on the audit call than take your money and watch it disappoint you.