It's simple: someone calls your business number. Your phone rings like normal. If you don't answer within a few rings (you set the timeframe), the system automatically sends them a text message acknowledging their call and letting them know you'll get back to them soon. The text comes from your business number, so it looks like you sent it personally. The customer can reply to that text with more details, and you receive both the missed call notification and any text responses they send. When you're available, you either call them back or continue the conversation via text, whichever makes more sense. The entire thing happens automatically in the background while you're busy doing actual work.

You customize the message during setup, but a typical example is: "Hi! We just missed your call at [Your Business Name]. We're currently with another customer but will call you back within the hour. If this is urgent, please reply to this text and we'll prioritize you. Thanks for reaching out!" The message is friendly, professional, acknowledges their call immediately, sets expectations for callback timing, and gives them an option to flag urgency. You control the exact wording to match your brand voice, we just provide proven templates to start from.

Absolutely... and that's a huge part of what makes this so powerful. It's not just a one-way notification; it's the beginning of a conversation. Customers can reply with details about what they need, their location, urgency level, or questions. You receive those replies as text messages and can respond when you're available. This often makes the eventual conversation more efficient because you already know what they need before you call them back. Some customers prefer texting over phone calls anyway, so this gives them their preferred communication channel.

The text manages expectations, which is the key. Instead of wondering "did they see I called?" or "are they ignoring me?", the customer knows you received their call and will respond soon. This psychological difference is huge. You can also customize messages based on time of day, so after-hours calls get a message like "We're currently closed but will call you first thing tomorrow morning" instead of "within the hour." Setting accurate expectations prevents frustration. Plus, immediate acknowledgment still beats dead silence or a voicemail box, which is what they'd get otherwise.

Yes, and this is where it becomes especially valuable. Someone calls at 9pm about an emergency? They get an immediate text acknowledging the call and setting expectations for when you'll respond. You can customize after-hours messages differently from business hours messages. This is particularly important for emergency services (plumbing, HVAC, locksmith, etc.) where people are calling multiple providers at night and booking whoever responds fastest. Even if you can't take the call at 9pm, the instant text acknowledgment keeps you in the running rather than being immediately eliminated from consideration.

In practice, almost never. The text is a direct response to THEIR action (calling you), so it's expected and welcome. You're not randomly texting people out of nowhere, you're acknowledging their inquiry. The message is brief, helpful, and gives them an option to continue the conversation or just wait for your callback. If someone truly doesn't want texts, they simply don't reply and wait for your call. We've found that 90%+ of customers appreciate the immediate response rather than being annoyed by it. The small minority who don't like it weren't going to be easy customers anyway.

No, it works alongside your voicemail. Customers can still leave a voicemail if they want, but most people hate leaving voicemails these days. The text gives them an immediate alternative. In practice, many customers will reply to the text with details instead of leaving a voicemail because texting is faster and easier for them. You get better information (text is clearer than voicemail audio quality) and they get immediate acknowledgment. Best of both worlds, traditional callers can still leave voicemail; modern customers can text.

Yes. You can pause the automation anytime from your dashboard. If you're on vacation and genuinely unavailable, you can disable it or customize the message to reflect that ("We're closed for the week, back on [date]"). If you're in a meeting and don't want to be interrupted but plan to catch up on calls later, leave it running. You have complete control. Most clients leave it running 24/7 because there's no downside, you're either available to follow up or you're not, but at least the lead is captured either way.

Within seconds, usually 5 - 30 seconds after the missed call. Fast enough that customers often receive the text before they've even decided to call the next business on their list. This speed is crucial because it changes their behavior. Instead of immediately moving to competitor #2, they think "oh, they responded, I'll give them a chance to call back." That few seconds of response time can be the difference between winning and losing the job.

Yes, it works with your current business phone number. We handle the technical setup during your website build, you don't need to change numbers, switch carriers, or do anything complicated. The system runs in the background and uses your existing number for both calls and texts. From the customer's perspective, they called you and you texted them back, simple and seamless. From your perspective, nothing changes except you stop losing leads to missed calls.

No. The automation only triggers when a call goes unanswered. If you pick up, you handle it like normal and no automated text is sent. The system is smart enough to detect whether you answered or not. This means you're only getting text-back help when you actually need it (when you're unavailable), not when you're already handling the call yourself.

Everything is logged in your CRM dashboard. You can see a complete list of missed calls with timestamps, any text replies customers sent, and the full conversation history. This is incredibly valuable for tracking lead flow, identifying busy times when you might need help, and making sure no inquiry falls through the cracks. You can also see patterns, like if you're missing a lot of calls during certain hours, maybe you need to adjust staffing or availability.

Technically yes, but it's not a problem. Spam callers don't care about your text response, they're robocalls that immediately move on. The only "downside" is that a robot somewhere received your professional text message, which costs you nothing and hurts nobody. Real customers, however, get valuable immediate acknowledgment. The benefit of catching every real lead far outweighs the minor "cost" of occasionally texting back to a spam call. Plus, your CRM logs these so you can identify and block repeat spam numbers if needed.

It's instant and automatic. When you manually text back, you're doing it 30 minutes later, or an hour later, or whenever you remember to check your missed calls. By then, the customer has often already booked with someone else. Automated text-back happens within seconds of the missed call, faster than you could physically type and send a text even if you tried. It's the speed that makes this effective. You can absolutely still text customers personally as part of your follow-up; this system just handles the critical first response that keeps them engaged until you're available.

The message is clearly service-oriented ("we missed your call, we'll call back soon"), so it's obvious it's a business response rather than a personal "hey, what's up?" text. But customers don't care whether a human typed it or a system sent it, they care that they got acknowledged immediately. The professionalism and speed is what matters. If anything, the instant response makes you look MORE professional and organized than competitors who take hours to get back to people. Nobody's going to not hire you because your immediate response was automated; they might not hire you if you never responded at all.

It's the opposite. Immediate response signals professionalism, organization, and customer service, not desperation. Apple sends you order confirmations within seconds. Airlines text you boarding passes immediately. Hotels confirm your reservation instantly. Fast response is the standard expectation in modern business. What looks unprofessional is making customers wait hours or days for acknowledgment. You're not begging for their business; you're providing excellent service by letting them know you received their inquiry and will follow up soon. There's nothing desperate about being responsive.

The automated text is just the acknowledgment, you don't have to continue the conversation via text if you don't want to. The message says "we'll call you back," and then you... call them back. The text simply bridges the gap and keeps them engaged until you can make that call. If customers reply to the text, you can either respond via text (if you want) or just call them when you're available and reference their text. You're in control of the communication method; the automation just makes sure you don't lose the lead in the first place.

From your perspective, nothing changes about how you operate. Your phone rings, you answer it when you can. The only difference is that when you CAN'T answer, the system sends a text automatically instead of just letting the call go to voicemail. You don't need to learn new software or change your workflow. We set it up, it runs in the background, and you just benefit from fewer lost leads. The only "learning" is checking your CRM dashboard if you want to see missed call logs, but that's optional, the system works whether you look at the dashboard or not.

If it captures even ONE additional job per month that you would've otherwise lost to a missed call, it pays for your entire website subscription. Let's say you miss 10 calls per month (very conservative for most businesses). Without text-back, maybe 2 of those people wait for your callback and 8 move on to competitors. With text-back, maybe 7 of those people wait for you and only 3 move on. If your average job is $200, that's 5 extra jobs = $1,000 in additional monthly revenue. The entire website costs $247/month, so the text-back system alone justifies the investment. And that's assuming you only miss 10 calls per month, most busy service businesses miss way more than that.

Immediately. The system goes live with your website and starts working the moment someone calls and you don't answer. Your first prevented lost lead could be day one. Most businesses notice the impact within the first week when they get text replies from customers who would've otherwise moved on. You'll also see it in your CRM logs, suddenly you're capturing and converting leads from missed calls that previously just disappeared. Unlike marketing that takes months to show ROI, this is instant value because you're working with leads who already found you and tried to contact you.