Grok Bot & Jobber.......
All right, I did something last night. I had Grokbot sign into my Jobber account and then also sign into my email. I started asking it, "Who owes me money?" It came up with my top four largest invoices that were overdue, roughly about $100,000. So then I said, "All right, let's contact these people." It went in my email. It searched emails to these clients previously so it could see how I typically talk with them. It made a beautiful email outlining all the invoices: how much was due, when they were due, the invoice numbers, and everything, and then sent those emails off to those clients so that I can nudge them and get paid. So, bam, that's my new accounts receivable bot. Now I made a quote follow-up bot as well. This bot went through my recent quotes, and it actually found a couple that the client hadn't opened yet. It also reached out to those people on my behalf through email. Jobber already does a great job at follow-ups, so this new bot is just going to check in with me once a week if it finds any quotes that have been sent and haven't been opened by the client yet. Of course, my mind was blown, and today's job is figuring out what else can Grok Bot do for me in my Jobber account.
Fix the Plumbing Before Adding AI
Greetings Community 👋🏿 A concept I’ve thought about a lot: automating a broken workflow doesn’t save time, it just makes the mess move faster. A lot of teams jump straight to automation and the newest AI tools while the systems underneath are already disconnected: scattered user records, inconsistent permissions, duplicate data, and no clear source of truth. Identity is one of the best places to start. A well-managed IdP gives you a central place to manage users, access, and the SaaS applications your business depends on. It makes implementing SSO, provisioning, and deprovisioning across applications cleaner while establishing clear ownership of identity and access. Now you have a cleaner foundation to connect systems and build automations that actually make sense. Otherwise, you’re just automating the mess.How Often do You Enforce the Fine Print?
In our contracts, it clearly states that if the scope changes and we are not able to do the visit, or if we are sent away for reasons outside of our control we will charge them $300 (for reference our min charge is a half day which is $500). I had a customer who's assistant asked us to install an undermount sink. It was in the contract, they signed it. We had done a visit with them months before and our technician mentioned a top mount sink would be easy but they specifically asked for an undermount. So we order the sink, show up and the owner not the assistant that coordinated the contract) says they want a top mount. Our technician says ok we'll have to come back. We tell them the charge for the new sink plus the cancellation and they think it's unreasonable. I definitely know, no one actually reads the contract. Should the technician have said, if you send me away, it's $300 charge extra. But they also are changing the plan. I'm a softee so I'm not going to charge them the cancellation but what do you think about a situation like that? Maybe the cancellation charge is too much? It's basically enough for me to give the technician something for planning their whole day around the job plus make a very small amount of profit. Thoughts?Is “the customer is always right” hurting service businesses?
I don’t think the customer is always right. Customers deserve respect. They deserve clear communication, fair treatment, and a business that fixes mistakes when they happen. But that doesn’t mean every request is reasonable. A customer may ask for an exact arrival time your route can’t support. Or someone expects free work outside the agreed scope. Another client talks down to your team because they think paying the invoice gives them permission. Those situations affect the whole business. The owner starts making exceptions that turn into expectations. Good service needs boundaries. For us, that means clear policies around service windows, locked gates, aggressive dogs, weather, skipped visits, and what’s included in a visit. When we mess up, we make it right. When a customer ignores the policy or creates an unsafe situation, I can’t treat that the same way. That line matters. Where do you draw the line between taking care of the customer and letting the customer run the business?Using Claude API and Facebook/Instgram API For Social posting
Curious if anyone else here has implemented API's into their websites. I just figured out how to enable Claude API and Facebook/Instgram API's to automaticall generate instagram/facebook descriptions, alt tags, and hashtags by clicking a button. Then I can click another button to uplaod directly to FB and IG. It's made my image gallery uploads and social uploads to my IG and FB pages a breeze. Huge game changer! I even have my stats in my site now and can comment on posts and DM's all through my site without having to go into my social platforms anymore. If anyone would like help with this, please let me know, would be glad to walk you through it.Job Quick Sand - What Do You Do When Things Go Sideways?
We are on a job right now where we are in a bit of job quick sand and nothing can go right. We have been working with this client for years on a number of projects but this is the biggest one we've done. A bunch of tile in the kitchen, painting kitchen cabinets, and replacing all their doors. Fairly straight forward. It all started with something they didn't like about the tile layout in one section. No big deal easy fix. Then they were nit picking the paint job before it was done. Still not that big of a deal. Then it started when the doors we ordered were delivered damaged. We were only doing one at a time but the door they asked us to install was in their master bath. Now they don't have a door till the replacements come in. Then they started asking for add on tasks but complaining about the price. Then they approved a quote for gutters but I guess the wife wanted vinyl and the husband wanted aluminum. He comes home and flips out because his wife approved vinyl gutters. Then the replacement doors arrived and and were the wrong ones. All the while the husband calls me everyday at the end of the day to discuss the plan. Some of this is our fault, some of this is out of our control but either way it's putting stress on the team and myself. What do you guys do when you start to get in that quick sand?How early is too early to start servicing a customer?
This came up for me because summer routes can get brutal. When temperatures are pushing 95 to 100 degrees, I don’t want my team out in the hottest part of the day if it can be avoided. In our line of work, the job is outside. It’s physical. There’s no shade in a lot of backyards. The heat wears people down fast. So my general opinion is this: If the sun is up, visibility is good, and the technician can clearly see the yard, then it’s reasonable to start service. For pet waste removal, that means we can see the ground, see the waste, safely walk the property, check gates, read yard conditions, and do the job to our standard. I don’t think the clock alone should decide whether it’s “too early.” The bigger question is whether the customer has been properly prepared for how your service operates. If a customer thinks you’re coming between 10 AM and noon, and you show up at 6:30 AM, that’s going to feel wrong to them. If your onboarding explains that service may begin early during summer months, especially to protect technicians from extreme heat, then the expectation is different. Communication is what makes the difference. For us, this is why customer expectations matter so much. You can’t surprise people with an early arrival and then act like they should have known. They need to know upfront: what your service window is whether you give exact arrival times how much notice they get before arrival what happens if dogs are outside what happens if gates are locked why summer routes may start earlier how you handle extreme heat days I’m a big believer in the on-the-way message. If the customer gets a reasonable heads-up before arrival, they can bring dogs inside, unlock the gate, or prepare for the visit. That message matters even more when service starts early. The goal is not to sneak onto a property before people are awake. It is to run the route safely, protect the team, and still give customers enough communication to feel respected. There’s also a real operations side to this. If you wait until late morning to start every summer route, the team may end up doing the hardest part of the day in the worst heat. That can affect: speed morale safety quality callbacks employee retention A customer may prefer a later visit. But the business also has to protect the people doing the work. If we can safely complete a yard at 7 AM instead of 2 PM on a 100-degree day, that’s usually better for the technician and the route. The key is making sure your policy is clear before it becomes a problem. For example: “During summer months, our team may begin routes earlier in the day to avoid extreme heat. You’ll still receive an on-the-way message before arrival so dogs can be secured and gates can be accessible.” That one line can prevent a lot of confusion. This is another example of something that feels small until the business grows. When you’re solo, you can adjust everything manually. Once you have a team, policies matter more. You need a standard that protects the customer, the technician, and the route. How early is too early for your team to start work? And do your customers know your summer service window before the appointment happens?AI Transcription Hack - use Plaud. Thank Me Later
I've got to share this because it's genuinely changed how I run my day, and I think a lot of you dealing with client walkthroughs, team conversations, and constant mental juggling will get a lot out of it too. It's this little device, about the size of a credit card, that sticks on the back of your phone. It records and transcribes conversations, then hands you back a summary. There are a bunch of templates built in depending on what kind of conversation you're having. I originally picked it up to help with walkthroughs. If you're like me, people talk to you about so much stuff during a single job site visit that it's impossible to keep it all straight in your head. Now I've got it recording, and afterward I get a clean summary instead of trying to remember everything or scribble notes while I'm supposed to be paying attention to the person in front of me. Here's the part that's saved me more than once: when a client says "well, I said this" or "you told me that," I can actually go back to the AI summary and say, "here's what was actually said." No more he-said-she-said. It's all sitting right there. But the thing I'm most excited about is what it's done for GSR meetings — goal setting and review meetings. There was a recent Jobber podcast episode that got into these, and I liked the idea, but I had a mental block about actually doing them. I hate the idea of filling out extra spreadsheets and handing my team more stuff to track. It just becomes one more thing nobody keeps up with. So instead, I just run the meeting, let Plaud record it, and have it spit out a summary. That summary becomes my record. No spreadsheet, no separate tracking system, no extra homework for anyone. I just keep the summaries and refer back to them next time. If you're drowning in notes, or you've been putting off something like GSR meetings because of the extra admin, this might be the nudge you need. Worth checking out.
