Start: the front office basics, set up and running.

Who Start fits

Start fits a one-location business where the owner or a small crew is on the job most of the day: a barber with two chairs, a one-truck plumber, a detailer working out of a bay, a mobile mechanic. The common thread is that nobody sits by the phone, and the business still needs to look open, answer people and collect reviews.

It also fits an owner who is not sure how much help they want. Start is the plain version of the front office. If you later want more pages, more reviews handled and a monthly campaign, the Grow plan adds those on top without redoing the setup.

What is in it

Everything below is set up for you in the first week, in your business's name, from facts you approve.

• Phone answering. Nora, the phone assistant we set up for your business, answers the calls you miss, in English or Spanish. She takes the details or books the visit, and your phone gets a ping and a summary. Urgent calls are flagged and pinged at once.
• The Centera app on your phone. A ping for calls, messages, bookings and reviews, and one tap to call back.
• One inbox. Email, Facebook, Instagram, Google chat and site chat land in a single thread per customer.
• Booking. A booking page for each service, calendar sync, confirmations and reminders, reschedule and cancel links, and a QR code that opens the booking page.
• Reviews. After a job every customer gets the same request with a direct Google link and a line to reach you, and a low rating pings you right away. You also get a review card and QR code for the counter.
• A one-page site that books, built for your trade, on your own domain.
• Your Google listing, fixed and kept right, with a weekly post drafted for you to approve.
• Invoices, estimates and payment links, and documents signed on the phone.
• A Monday email with the week's numbers.

A day with Start

A plumber is under a sink at 10 am when a homeowner calls about a leaking water heater. The call rings out, Nora picks up in the company's name, takes the address and what the tank is doing, and flags it urgent because the owner ticked water damage on the urgent list. The plumber's phone buzzes with the summary. He finishes the sink, calls back from the truck, and the job is already on the calendar.

That evening a customer from last week gets a short note with a direct link to the shop's Google page and a line to reach the owner. She leaves a few kind words. Another customer leaves a low rating, and the owner is pinged right away to reply and make it right. On Monday morning the email shows the week: calls answered, visits booked, reviews in.

What Start does not include

Start is the basics, and we would rather say so plainly. It does not include management of paid ads, though we can connect your ad accounts so they are set up right. It does not include extra website pages, a monthly campaign to past customers, or every review answered in your voice; those arrive with Grow. The marketing plan with creative and a monthly growth call is Studio. Social posting from your raw clips is part of the plan at a lighter level, and the heavier creative work is the Social Creative add-on.

The limits on phone time and messages sit on the pricing page, next to each plan.

How to decide

Count how many hours a week you are away from the phone while customers are calling. Then look at your Google reviews and ask when the last one came in. If both answers hurt, Start covers them. If you also want someone answering reviews, adding pages and running a monthly note to past customers, read the Grow page next. You can move up at any point.

To see what it would look like for your business, take the free report or book a 15-minute review.

Questions owners ask