AI & automation for the trades
You know you're behind budget. Nobody can tell you exactly why.
We put an accurate number on your month, automate the reporting that shows exactly where it's going, and fix what the report finds — the booking rate, the pricebook, the estimates nobody chased.
The problem
You already know where it's leaking.
You've got CSRs on the phones and a CRM you pay real money for. None of this is a technology problem — it's four gaps sitting in the space between the systems you already own.
THE BOOKING RATE
Every call gets answered. A good share still don't turn into a job on the board — and most shops can't tell you which ones, or why, or which CSR needs help with what.
THE PRICEBOOK
Your tech is standing in the kitchen and can't give a number, because the pricebook won't let him. He says he'll send it over. Somebody else gets there first.
THE UNSOLD ESTIMATE
They're sitting in ServiceTitan right now, aging quietly. Nobody is chasing them, because chasing them has never actually been anybody's job.
THE OVERFLOW
Peak season. Every CSR on a line, hold times climbing, callers dropping off. Those calls don't show up in any report anyone opens on Monday.
Reporting & the numbers
Most owners find out they missed budget three weeks after they missed it.
By the time the P&L lands, the month is over and so is your chance to do anything about it. You don't need more data — your CRM is drowning in data. You need a number to hit, and a report that tells you this week which part of the business is short and what to do about it.
Plan
$220,000
Actual
$178,400
Gap
−$41,600
BEHIND PLANWhere the gap came from
No monthly budget?
That's where we start. Revenue and margin by department, and what each tech has to produce for the plan to hold. An accurate number, not an aspirational one — a budget nobody believes is worse than none.
No KPIs?
We set the handful that actually move the month and automate the tracking: booking rate, average ticket, close rate, revenue per tech, margin by department, unsold estimate value.
No idea who needs help?
The same numbers, per person. You find out who's carrying the month and who's quietly slipping — while there's still month left to do something about it.
That's the compass. No guessing, no "I think we had a slow month" — a report that points straight at the thing costing you, in time to fix it.
The part that isn't AI at all
Half the time, the problem is your pricebook.
A tech who can't put a number in front of the customer while he's still standing there is a tech who loses the job to whoever shows up next. It doesn't matter how good your marketing is or how sharp your CSRs are — that one was won or lost at the kitchen table.
Building flat-rate pricebooks is work I've done for years, long before any of it had AI in the name. Properly structured tasks, good-better-best options a homeowner can actually choose between, and margins that hold up when your best tech is having a slow week.
Sometimes the audit turns up a shop that doesn't need a single automation. It needs its pricebook rebuilt. I'll tell you that.
At the kitchen table
Three options on the tablet before he leaves the driveway. Figures are placeholders.
What gets built
Specific things, not a strategy.
Every one of these sits on top of the CRM you already run. Nothing here asks you to move platforms or retrain a team that finally learned the last one.
Budget & KPI build
An accurate monthly number by department, and the handful of KPIs that tell you whether you'll hit it — set up once, tracked automatically from then on.
Weekly scoreboard
Where you are against plan, what moved, who's up, who's slipping, and the one or two things worth fixing this week. On your phone, every Monday.
Unsold estimate follow-up
Pulled straight from your CRM and chased automatically — spaced out, polite, persistent — until the customer says yes or says no. Most shops are sitting on months of these.
Overflow & after-hours capture
When every CSR is on a line, or it's nine at night, the caller still gets a response and a slot instead of a hold tone. Real emergencies still reach a person.
Pricebook rebuild
Flat-rate structure, good-better-best options, margins that hold. Loaded into ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro or whatever you already run.
Call review & CSR coaching
Every call reviewed instead of the four your manager has time for. You find out which calls didn't book and what was actually said on them.
Job notes to write-up
The tech talks through the job on the drive back. The write-up is drafted before he's off the highway, ready to check and send.
Review requests
Sent at the one moment the customer is happiest — the job just finished and it works. That timing is most of the battle.
How we work
Four steps, in this order, every time.
You don't start by buying anything. You start by finding out whether there's enough here to be worth the trouble — and you find that out before you commit.
The audit
We go through your booking rate, your unsold estimates, your pricebook and where the hours actually go. You get a written list of what's worth fixing, what isn't, and roughly what each is costing you now. If there isn't enough there to pay for itself, I say so.
The build
We build and deploy against the CRM you already run. You don't configure anything, pick tools, or learn a platform.
The handover
We sit with your CSRs, your dispatcher and whoever runs the office until they can work it without calling us. If your team can't run it alone, we haven't finished.
Keeping it running
Seasons change, things break, you think of something new. Some shops want us on call for that. Plenty don't need us after the handover, and that's a fine outcome.
Straight answers
We're not right for every shop.
This works if
- +You have CSRs on the phones and a CRM you're already paying for.
- +You couldn't tell me this month's booking rate without going and looking it up.
- +You have no monthly budget, or you have one nobody actually believes.
- +Your techs sometimes leave a house without giving the customer a number.
- +You'd rather plug the leak than buy more leads to pour into it.
Look elsewhere if
- –You want somebody to run your ads and your social media. That's not this.
- –You're hoping to cut CSR headcount. You shouldn't, and I won't help you try.
- –You want the cheapest quote. I won't be it.
- –Your numbers are already tight. Some shops are, and I'll tell you so.
Who you'd be working with
Trades Smart is new. Here's the honest version.
There's no wall of client logos on this page because there isn't one yet. I'd rather say that plainly than pad the page out with stock photos and invented numbers, which is what you'd normally get here.
What isn't new is the trade. I've spent years building flat-rate pricebooks — structuring tasks, setting options, getting margins to hold — for companies running the same software you run. That work has nothing to do with AI. It's the reason I know where your money is going before I've automated anything.
So the audit is where you find out whether I know what I'm talking about. Half a day, fixed price, and you keep the written findings whether or not you ever hire me for the build. If I go through your numbers and don't find enough worth fixing to pay for itself, I'll tell you, and we'll shake hands.
— Jake Blair, Trades Smart
Questions we get
The ones worth answering.
Are you trying to replace my CSRs?
No, and I'd argue against it if you asked. Your CSRs handle the calls that need a person. This takes the overflow, the after-hours and the follow-up nobody has time for — and gives your manager a way to actually coach the calls that didn't book.
We already have dashboards in our CRM.
Dashboards show you numbers. They don't tell you what to do about them, and most were never set against a budget in the first place — so they're measuring you against nothing. The work is deciding what the number should be, then reporting the gap and its cause.
Our data is a mess.
It usually is, and pretending otherwise would waste your money. Cleaning up what the CRM records — so the numbers coming out of it can be trusted — is part of the job, not a prerequisite you have to sort out before calling.
We already run ServiceTitan / Housecall Pro / Jobber.
Good — keep it. Everything here sits on top of what you have. Ripping out software your team finally learned is almost always worse than the problem it was meant to solve.
Our pricebook is a mess. Is that in scope?
Very much so, and it's often the first thing worth fixing. Flat-rate structure, good-better-best options, margins that hold, loaded into the system you already use. Sometimes that alone moves the numbers more than any automation would.
I'm not technical.
You don't need to be — that's the entire job. If your office can't run it without us after the handover, then we haven't finished the handover.
How long before it's doing anything?
The audit is half a day. Most builds are live in two to three weeks. You're not signing up for a six-month implementation.
Where are you based?
San Antonio, Texas. The work is remote, so we take on shops anywhere in the country.
Next step
Find out what's leaking.
Thirty minutes on the phone. No pitch and no slides — we'll talk through your booking rate, what's sitting unsold in your CRM, and whether your pricebook is helping or hurting. Then I'll tell you whether there's anything here worth doing.