42% of home services companies we scanned have flagged caller ID numbers
We have been checking the phone lines of home services companies across 15 metros — Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, Tampa, Atlanta, Miami, Orlando, Charlotte, Nashville, Denver and others. The result surprised us: 42 percent run their main business line on non-fixed VoIP. That is the same number category robocallers use, and it is the category carrier spam filters downgrade most aggressively on caller ID. What that means in practice: when your CSR calls back a lead you paid $80-300 for, there is a real chance the homeowner's phone shows "Suspected Spam" or just an unknown number. They do not pick up. You assume the lead went cold. Most owners have never checked this because there is no dashboard for it. The carriers do not notify you. If you want to know what your own line is registered as, comment or DM me and I will run the lookup. Takes two minutes, free, no strings. I will just tell you what category your number is in and what that means.
Can I test a few visual/ad ideas for home service businesses?
I’m new here and trying to learn more about how home service businesses get customers outside of referrals. A lot of the work I do is around visual content and lead generation: better job photos, before/after posts, ad creatives, short videos, simple landing pages, and lead lists. I’m not here to hard pitch anyone. I’d honestly rather test a few ideas and get feedback from people who are actually running service businesses. If anyone has a business where the work is solid but the online presentation or lead flow could be better, I’d be open to taking a look and making a few sample ideas. Could be a before/after post, a Meta ad concept, a better way to show job photos, or a small lead-gen angle. No pressure. I’m mostly trying to learn what would actually be useful instead of guessing from the outside.
Zapier vs Make… what’s been your experience?
I’ve been building out more automations around Jobber lately and ran into something interesting. A lot of setups I see are using Zapier, but once workflows get more complex, the cost starts climbing pretty fast. I switched a few of them over to Make.com just to test it, and it’s handled everything I’ve thrown at it so far. Feels like you get a bit more control over the logic, and it’s easier to actually see what’s going on in the workflow. Pricing hasn’t ramped up nearly as fast either. Curious if anyone else has tried it, or if most people are still sticking with Zapier?
Best way to handle inbound calls to company line?
Curious yalls thoughts. Looking to not just grow, looking to scale and improve / continue to implement systems. Currently have myself, 1 outside sales rep, and field labor crew (fence install company) current process: customer calls into company # (my cell phone). I try to answer as if it were an office line to answer asap. From that, I confirm I can Text them, I then send a request form via jobber that has basic info / few questions to answer. If / when they fill it out, I add to the schedule for a confirmed day / time to quote on site. etc…… I feel this part is a lot of back and forth, and until I have an in house admin office worker that can answer these calls the first ring - I won’t be able to truly grow / stay efficient. (If I’m tied up, I don’t like calling them back 2 hours later, etc) but also - I love having them fill out the form bc the way I have questions on it, it turns it from a warm lead, to a warmer lead. Any way to streamline this, get more efficient, improve this current process? ANY thoughts or advice - real thankful.Are you using AI in your business yet or still “just curious”?
Where are you at with AI right now? A) Not using it at all B) Using it for basic stuff (e.g., emails, replies) C) Using it for ops (e.g., estimating, training, reporting) D) “We run everything through AI” level—share below how you’re using it! In this episode of Masters of Home Service, PhilRisher and ryaantuttle share real-world ways home service pros are using AI to: Speed up estimating and hiring processes Create ready-to-use marketing content Prep for the shift from traditional SEO to AEO and GEO Want to put these tips into action? Download our free AI starter toolkit (includes scripts and pro tips). Never miss an episode of Masters of Home Service. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I built an AI assistant that runs my office
A few weeks ago I shared how I built a one-step enrollment system for my lawn care program — client enters their info, credit card goes on file, and they're enrolled. No quote approval, no back-and-forth. Automated sequences handle the welcome email, welcome text, and contact setup. One step, done. Coming from a background as an electrician, I tend to look at everything as a circuit. If there’s a break in communication or a 'loose wire' in my lead flow, the whole system fails. I decided to stop fighting the mess and started 'wiring' my office the same way I would a complex panel. I built an AI operations system that runs alongside Jobber. Every text, phone call, email, voicemail, missed call, and website form submission automatically gets logged to a centralized database through a series of Zaps. Every client has one record, one timeline, and one clear next action at all times. Every morning before I head out, I run a 5-minute briefing with an AI assistant. It reads the full client database through an MCP server — which basically means the AI has live access to every client interaction in real time. It tells me who contacted me overnight, who's waiting on a response, who's going cold, and what I should do next for each person. It drafts the messages. I review, edit if needed, and send. I also set up an AI receptionist on my business phone line. It answers calls, can answer common questions about services and pricing, takes client information, and transfers calls when needed. It can also send texts to the caller during or after the call — like a direct link to the enrollment page or the resources section on my website. It handles multiple calls at the same time. No more missed calls going to voicemail. The tools: Jobber for jobs, scheduling, and service history. An MCP-connected database for the client timeline. Zapier to connect everything. An AI assistant for daily briefings and client communication. An AI receptionist for inbound calls. Jobber stays at the center — it's my source of truth for every job, every visit, every quote. The AI layer sits on top and makes sure nothing falls through the cracks between Jobber and everything else. I'm planning my first hire this season. Not because I'm behind — because the systems are handling the admin load well enough that I can focus on growing. The AI doesn't replace a person. It replaced the office work I used to do at 10 PM after a full day in the field. If anyone's curious about how any of this works, happy to answer questions. I'm not selling anything — just sharing what I've built because this community helped me think through a lot of it.What ai/automated workflows do you use for your home service business?
I want to better implement AI into my landscaping business out in Arizona. What workflows do you use to better help everything run smoothly or save time? Here's what I have going so far: Field crew uses ChatGPT or Claude to troubleshoot issues I use it for rough calculations of the material and time it will take for the job writing specific contracts for customers Handling mistakes on projects when it comes to client communication Training manuals and internal SOP creation Captions and storyboards for social media posts Ad copy for marketing Financial analyzation for profit and growth Finding gaps in my business for course correction
