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Self-audit · 10 minutes · no email

The 15-question AI deployment
checklist for service businesses.

15 yes/no questions across lead capture, follow-up, and internal handoffs. If 3+ answers land in the red column, that’s the workflow to automate first. No email required, no PDF gate.

01 · Lead capture

The first place owners leak revenue. Most service businesses can name the leak; few measure it.

  1. Q01
    Do you answer every inbound call within 3 rings during business hours?
    Green
    Yes — and someone covers lunch / breaks / sick days.
    Red
    Calls go to voicemail more than 1–2 times a day.
  2. Q02
    Do you answer calls outside business hours?
    Green
    Yes — a voicemail, an answering service, or an auto-text covers it.
    Red
    Calls just ring and die.
  3. Q03
    Do you reply to a new website / Instagram / WhatsApp lead in under 30 minutes?
    Green
    Yes — and you can show the reply time if asked.
    Red
    Replies happen 'when there's a gap' — sometimes that's hours, sometimes the next day.
  4. Q04
    Do you know how many missed calls you had last week?
    Green
    Yes — you have the number.
    Red
    You'd have to guess.
  5. Q05
    Do you know how many website / DM leads went unanswered last week?
    Green
    Yes — you have the number.
    Red
    You'd have to guess.
02 · Follow-up + qualification

The second leak. Even owners who answer fast lose deals to slow or inconsistent follow-up.

  1. Q06
    Do you have a written script or checklist for what to ask a new lead?
    Green
    Yes — same five fields every time: name, contact, need, timing, next step.
    Red
    It's vibes-based. Different staff ask different things.
  2. Q07
    Does every lead get a summary written down somewhere a teammate could pick up?
    Green
    Yes — CRM, notes app, shared sheet, anywhere durable.
    Red
    Lives in someone's head or a single text thread.
  3. Q08
    Do you follow up with a lead that goes quiet at 24h, 72h, and 7 days?
    Green
    Yes — and the follow-ups happen even if the owner is on vacation.
    Red
    One follow-up, maybe two. Then forgotten.
  4. Q09
    Do you send appointment reminders 24h and 1h before the slot?
    Green
    Yes — and no-show rate is under 10%.
    Red
    Reminders are inconsistent and no-shows hurt.
  5. Q10
    When a lead asks 'how much?' do they get a real answer in the same message?
    Green
    Yes — pricing range or starting-at number.
    Red
    Pricing is 'let's hop on a call' — half the leads disappear before the call.
03 · Internal handoffs

The third leak. Quiet but expensive. Time you spend re-typing the same thing is the highest-margin time to automate first.

  1. Q11
    Do you type the same five sentences to customers more than 10 times a week?
    Green
    No — common replies are templated or saved.
    Red
    Yes — and you can list which sentences without thinking.
  2. Q12
    Do you have a documented intake → quote → book flow?
    Green
    Yes — you could hand the document to a new hire on day one.
    Red
    Lives in the owner's head and changes weekly.
  3. Q13
    Do invoices or estimates go out the same day the work is quoted?
    Green
    Yes — never more than a 24h delay.
    Red
    Invoices get forgotten and chased weeks later.
  4. Q14
    Does your team know within 10 minutes when a new lead lands?
    Green
    Yes — a real-time channel (Slack, Discord, Telegram, SMS) pings the right person.
    Red
    Leads bottleneck through one inbox.
  5. Q15
    Could you take a 10-day vacation without losing a deal you would otherwise have closed?
    Green
    Yes — coverage exists and the systems run without you.
    Red
    No — half the inbound goes cold.

Counted 3+ reds?

That’s the workflow to automate first. Send me the form and I’ll reply with the specific deployment I’d build — or tell you not to deploy yet, here’s why.

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