HOW WE WORK

no secrets. no black box. here's exactly what happens.

THE PROCESS

most automation companies sell you a product and disappear.

we build you an employee.

that takes more than a software install. it takes understanding how your business actually works — the real workflows, not the ones on paper. the bottlenecks you've learned to live with. the stuff that falls through the cracks every week.

and it doesn't have to be all-or-nothing.

some clients need one or two problems solved. some need ten problems solved and a whole new way of doing things. we figure out what makes sense for you.

here's exactly how we do it, start to finish.

PHASE 1: DISCOVERY

understanding your business before we touch anything

the discovery call

we start with a conversation. not a sales pitch — a conversation.

i say 30 minutes, but block out an hour and a half. some businesses are straightforward. some have layers. i want to understand yours fully, not rush through it.

i want to understand:

• how your business actually runs day-to-day
• what happens when a lead comes in (and what happens when you're too busy to respond)
• where things fall through the cracks
• what's eating your time that shouldn't be
• what you've tried before and why it didn't work

i'll ask questions you might not expect. not "what software do you use?" but "what happens when you're under a sink and your phone rings?" not "how many employees do you have?" but "who's supposed to answer the phone when everyone's busy?"

some questions you'll need time to think about.

i might ask things you haven't considered — how you handle pricing, what your follow-up process actually looks like, what information you need before you can help a customer. that's fine. take the time. the better your answers, the better your watchstander works.

think of me like an engineer who specializes in connecting things.

you know there are tools out there that could solve your problems. you've probably seen ads for half of them. but you don't have time to find the right ones, learn them, and make them all work together.

that's what i do. i find the right tools and connect them in a way that makes sense for your business. your calendar talks to your phone system talks to your invoicing talks to your reminders — all working together, automatically.

i'm looking for the real pain.

the stuff you've gotten so used to that you don't even think of it as a problem anymore. the missed calls. the forgotten follow-ups. the quotes that never got chased. the invoices sitting unpaid because nobody had time.

and the stuff your people just won't do.

have you ever asked your salespeople to reach out to prior clients? how'd that go? did they find the time, or did it just never happen?

have you asked someone to follow up on every quote that didn't close? to send review requests after every job? to chase down every late payment?

these are the jobs that fall to the bottom of the list. nobody wants to do them. they're tedious. they're repetitive. they get skipped when things get busy.

your watchstander does them. no questions. no complaints. every single time.

but here's the thing: we don't have to start big.

we don't have to solve every single problem you have right now.

if something's costing you 15 minutes a week, it might not be worth automating. we can fix it, sure. but i want to start with the highest leverage solutions — the things that are either stopping you from making money or eating up you and your team's time and preventing them from focusing on the bottom line.

maybe you need 1-2 problems solved within your current system. maybe you need 10 problems solved and a whole new way of doing things. your watchstander can handle either. we figure out what makes sense for you and present you with options.

what happens after the call:

i'll send you a proposal. not a generic quote — a real proposal with:

• what i heard as your biggest problems
• which ones i think we can solve (and which ones we probably can't)
• a detailed plan for each option — what we'd build, how it would work, timeline
• pricing for each option

there's a good chance i'll follow up with written questions first.

after i start mapping out options, i usually have more questions. things to clarify. more detail needed on specific workflows. edge cases i didn't think to ask about on the call.

i'll send you a list. the more thorough your answers, the better the proposal.

you choose what you want to do.

some clients start with the core stuff — voice agent, speed-to-lead, reminders, payment follow-up — and add outbound campaigns or deeper integrations later. some clients need complex operations from day one.

we also build custom solutions. if you just have one specific workflow problem that needs fixing — a repetitive task eating hours every week, systems that don't talk to each other, a messy codebase that needs cleaning up — we can scope that separately.

your build is based on what you actually need, not a package.

maybe you need the voice agent and review automation but your invoicing is already handled. maybe you need something complex in one area but simple everywhere else. we figure out what makes sense and price accordingly.

even if we tackle everything, it's going to be a process. problem by problem. we don't try to boil the ocean on day one.

PHASE 2: DESIGN

mapping the solution to your specific business

we figure out exactly what your watchstander needs to do.

based on what we learned in discovery, i map out:

• what triggers your watchstander to act (call comes in, form submitted, job completed, etc.)
• what questions it needs to ask
• what information it needs to capture
• what actions it takes automatically
• when it escalates to you
• how it sounds (tone, personality, your brand voice)

you'll see this before we build anything.

i'll walk you through the plan. if something doesn't fit how you actually work, we adjust. this is your employee — it needs to work for your business, not some generic template.

we need your information.

this is where "garbage in, garbage out" matters.

your watchstander isn't magic. it can only be as good as the information we give it. that means i need to understand:

• how you handle different situations — what do you say when someone asks for a quote? how do you handle emergency vs. routine requests differently? what's your service area?
• how you prevent things from falling through the cracks — what's supposed to happen after a quote is sent? after a job is completed? when an invoice goes unpaid?
• how you engage prior customers — do you have a system for reaching back out? seasonal reminders? check-ins?
• your qualification criteria — what makes someone a good lead vs. a waste of time? budget minimums? service types you don't do?
• your scheduling rules — when are you available? how much buffer between appointments? any blackout times?

don't have formal documentation? that's fine.

most small businesses don't have an employee handbook or written SOPs. you just know how things work.

i have templates for this stuff. we can adjust them to match your business — but they'll help us consider things you may not have thought of or devoted time to. the "next level" operational stuff you never found time to work on because you're so busy with day-to-day.

i'll ask the questions. we'll document it together. and now you'll have it written down — which is useful even beyond what we're building.

we supply defaults and recommendations.

you don't have to figure everything out from scratch.

i'll give you:

• standard conversation flows that work for businesses like yours
• recommended follow-up timing (when to send reminders, how long to chase quotes, etc.)
• templates for how your watchstander should represent your business
• best practices from what's worked for other clients

you can use these as-is or tweak them.

most clients start with our defaults and adjust as they see how things work. you don't need to reinvent the wheel — just tell us what's different about your business.

your information stays secure.

we'll sign an NDA if you want one. all your business information, customer data, and processes are stored securely and never shared. this is your competitive advantage — we treat it that way.

QUALIFYING YOUR LEADS

what information does your watchstander need to gather?

this is where we figure out what your watchstander needs to ask every caller or inquiry to properly qualify them before they hit your calendar.

if you're a plumber, that might be: "is there water on the floor? how old is the unit? gas or electric? what's your address?"

if you're a contractor, that might be: "what's the scope? what's your timeline? have you gotten other quotes? what's your budget range?"

you know what questions you'd ask. we make sure your watchstander asks them too.

PHASE 3: BUILD

prototype in days, not weeks

you'll have something working fast.

not a mockup. not a presentation. a working prototype you can actually test.

typically within 3-5 days of finalizing the design, you'll have:

• a voice agent you can call and talk to
• automations running in a test environment
• integrations connected to your real calendar

it won't be perfect. that's the point.

we build fast so we can test fast. real feedback beats theoretical planning every time.

what i need from you during this phase:

most of the work is on me. but i'll need you to:

• be available for integration setup — connecting to your calendar, scheduling software, CRM, etc. sometimes this means giving me access. sometimes this means creating an account for your watchstander in your system (e.g., if you're in a Microsoft environment, we might create a dedicated profile that I can use to connect everything).
• answer quick questions — "does this sound right?" "is this how you'd phrase it?" usually via text or a quick call.
• test it when it's ready — call your own voice agent, submit test forms, watch the automations run.

this isn't a "we need 40 hours of your time to implement" situation. i do the work. you stay available and test the results.

PHASE 4: TEST & REFINE

making sure it actually works for your business

we test together.

you call your own voice agent. you submit test forms. you watch the automations run.

and you tell me what's wrong.

• "it's asking about budget too early"
• "we don't service that zip code"
• "the tone is too formal"
• "it should ask about the make and model first"

every piece of feedback makes it better.

this isn't a "hope it works" situation. we iterate until it works the way you need it to.

typical refinement cycle:

• round 1: basic functionality (does it work?)
• round 2: accuracy (does it ask the right questions?)
• round 3: tone and feel (does it sound right?)
• round 4: edge cases (what happens when something weird comes up?)

most clients need 2-3 rounds of refinement. some need more. we keep going until you're confident in it.

PHASE 5: GO LIVE

your watchstander starts working

soft launch first.

we don't flip a switch and hope for the best. we start with a soft launch:

• route a percentage of calls to your watchstander
• monitor everything closely
• catch any issues before they become problems

then we scale up.

once you're confident it's handling things correctly:

• route all calls to your watchstander
• activate all automations
• your watchstander is officially on duty

the first week is critical.

i'm watching closely. you're watching closely. we're looking for:

• calls that didn't go well
• automations that misfired
• edge cases we didn't anticipate
• anything that doesn't feel right

quick fixes happen fast. if something's not working, i fix it. same day when possible.

ONGOING SUPPORT

you're not on your own after setup

your first month is on us.

once we go live, the first month of service is free.

why? because we're still working out the bugs. your watchstander is live, it's handling real calls and real customers, but we're watching closely and making adjustments. that's not a billable month — that's finishing the job.

your monthly subscription starts after we've proven it works.

your watchstander isn't a product i sell and forget about.

things change. your business evolves. new services. new processes. new problems.

ongoing support includes:

• tuning and adjustments — your follow-up sequence timing isn't quite right? the qualification questions need tweaking? we adjust it.
• monitoring — i keep an eye on how things are running. if something breaks, i often know before you do.
• regular check-ins — quick calls to see how things are going, what's working, what could be better.
• optimization — once we have data, we can make it smarter. better qualification. better timing. better results.

if something's not working, we fix it.

you don't need to debug automations or figure out why something stopped. that's my job.

want to expand the project?

your business grows. you want to add new capabilities. maybe you started with just the voice agent and now you want payment follow-up automation. maybe you want to add a second location.

we can do that. we'll scope it out, give you pricing, and build it the same way we built the original — prototype, test, refine, go live.

your watchstander can grow with your business.

you're paying for an employee, not a product.

employees need management. training. adjustment when things change. that's what ongoing support is.

the goal isn't "set it and forget it." the goal is "this thing keeps getting better and keeps making you money."

WHAT WE CAN'T DO

being honest about limits

your watchstander isn't magic.

there are things it handles beautifully:

• answering calls and qualifying leads
• responding to inquiries instantly
• sending reminders and follow-ups
• chasing payments automatically
• booking appointments
• routing urgent issues to you

there are things it can't do:

• make business decisions for you — it can gather info, but you decide
• handle truly complex negotiations — if a customer needs to haggle, that's you
• replace human judgment — for nuanced situations, it escalates to you
• work without good information — garbage in, garbage out

we'll be honest about what fits.

during discovery, if i hear a problem that automation won't solve, i'll tell you. i'd rather say "this isn't a good fit" than take your money, waste my time building something that doesn't work, disappoint you, and have to give out a refund anyway.

some problems need different solutions.

• if you don't have enough leads, you need marketing first — not automation
• if your service has quality issues, you need to fix the service — automation will just expose the problem faster

i'll tell you if that's the case. and i'll point you toward better solutions if i'm not the right one.

a note on your existing data.

if you don't have organized systems yet, that's actually fine — sometimes it's easier to start fresh with the right tools than to untangle years of workarounds.

what we can do:

• set you up with clean, organized systems from day one
• import existing customer records if they're in digital format (spreadsheets, old CRM exports, etc.)
• help you structure your data properly going forward

what we won't do:

• digitize file cabinets full of paper records
• manually sort through 20 years of disorganized files
• turn a mess into a database one record at a time

if you have paper records you want in the system, you'll need to digitize them first (or we can discuss options). if your digital records are a mess, we can probably run them through some processing to make sense of them — but let's talk about scope.

you can always add records manually.

we'll give you tools to enter customer information, job history, whatever you need. if you want to spend time entering old records yourself, you can. some clients do this gradually — adding past customers as they come back in, building the database over time.

the goal is to get you organized going forward, not to become your data entry team.

TIMELINE

how long does this actually take?

Phase	Duration	What Happens
Discovery	1-2 days	Initial call (block 1.5 hours), follow-up questions if needed
Proposal	1-2 days	Detailed proposal with options and pricing sent
Design	2-3 days	Solution mapped, documentation gathered, plan finalized
Build	3-5 days	Working prototype delivered
Test & Refine	5-10 days	2-3 rounds of testing and adjustments
Go Live	1-2 days	Soft launch, then full activation
First Month	30 days	Live monitoring, bug fixes, optimization (no charge)

total: typically 2-4 weeks from first call to fully operational watchstander. first month of service is free while we fine-tune.

this can go faster.

if you're responsive — quick to provide documentation, fast to test and give feedback, available when i have questions — we can move faster. simple builds with engaged clients can go from first call to live in under two weeks.

if you're busy and need more time to gather information or test, that's fine too. we work at your pace.

complex builds with lots of integrations take longer. simple builds can be faster.

but you'll see something working within the first week. that's a promise.

why this timeline works:

• fast enough that you see results quickly
• slow enough that we get it right
• iterative so we catch problems early
• collaborative so it actually fits your business
• first month free so you're not paying while we're still perfecting

i've seen "fast" implementations that take 3 months because nobody tested anything until the end. i've seen "thorough" implementations that never launched because they kept planning forever.

this is neither. it's build fast, test fast, fix fast, launch confident.

READY?

the process starts with a conversation.

block out an hour and a half. we'll probably finish sooner, but i want the time if we need it.

no pressure. we figure out if this makes sense for your business.

if it does, i'll send you a proposal with options. you choose what you want to tackle. if it doesn't make sense, i'll tell you — and point you toward what might work better.

heads up: i take on one client at a time. there's usually a short wait, but it means you get my full attention — not a rushed job or a junior person following a script.

~ Cooper