AI intake agent
AI Intake Agent: New Customers Stop Living in Your Texts
An AI intake agent has one job: the new customer becomes a record before the work starts.
Name, address, what they want, photos, gate code, pet, billing contact, how they found you — whatever you currently chase across SMS, voicemail, and a napkin in the van. The agent collects it, files it, and flags what a human still has to decide.
Follow-up gets them to talk. Scheduling puts them on a day. Intake stops the job from starting half-blind.
The 9pm text thread is the product requirement
Every owner knows the thread.
"Can you also do the back room."
"The gate code is 4519 but it changes."
"My husband will be there, his number is…"
"I'll send pictures."
Pictures never arrive.
That thread is customer intake automation whether you named it or not. It is also how details get lost and how you show up to the wrong unit.
An AI intake agent is not a prettier form. It is a worker that chases the missing field until the record is complete or a human is tagged.
What the agent actually does overnight
- 1.
Trigger — booked job, new customer, "I have more info," a photo arriving, a form that is only half filled
- 2.
Context — job type, what this kind of job always needs, last three jobs like it
- 3.
Logic — required vs optional vs "ask once and stop." Your list, not a 40-field interrogation
- 4.
Action — send the one next question, save the answer, file the photo, mark the record ready
- 5.
Handoff — anything medical, legal, angry, or "just make it look nice" with no scope
Ready means a tech or a chair or a crew can start without asking you what the customer meant.
What it does not do
It does not write the estimate unless pricing is already a menu.
It does not diagnose the job from three blurry photos and a vibe.
It does not store payment cards in a sheet.
It does not replace the walkthrough on a first-time complex job.
It does not ask seventeen questions because the form builder let you.
Intake that feels like the DMV is how customers go back to texting you.
The intake list — write this before kickoff
Four columns. One page. That page is the brief.
Always. Name, phone, address or chair, what they think they bought.
By job type. Gate code for the property jobs. Allergies or preferences for the shop. Unit number for the building. Photos for anything you cannot see from the street.
Never by text. Card numbers. Passwords. Anything that would embarrass you in a screenshot.
Ready definition. The sentence a tech can read in the driveway and know they can start.
If "ready" is a feeling, the agent cannot hit it. Make it a checklist.
Verticals this list already works for: barbershops, pool and construction, HVAC, property, any local operation where the customer is a place and a person.
Intake vs the other pilot workflows
| If the pain is… | Buy |
|---|---|
| Leads sit | Lead follow-up |
| They talk and never land on a day | Scheduling |
| They are on the book and you still do not know the job | Intake |
| You have the jobs and no Friday numbers | Reporting |
One workflow per pilot. Intake looks boring next to "AI sales agent." Intake is the one that stops a $2,000 comeback because nobody wrote down the gate code.
Same standard as the rest of the AI agents for small business work: live on real customers, Mission Control, a handoff rule.
Cost
| Build | $1,997 — one intake agent on one job type |
|---|---|
| Scope | One workflow. Maximum three system integrations. Two rounds of revisions. |
| Monitoring | 14 days of founder monitoring included |
| Operate | $497/month after that, for that one agent, or stop |
| Timeline | Days |
| Refund | Not completing real records in 14 days → the full $1,997 back |
| Second job type or a portal | Change order |
Beyond one workflow, the continuous-operation System is from $9,500 + $1,500/mo — built, then run, with weekly evolve and repair, spend caps, and human handoff on money, legal, and commitments. You own the repo, the code, and the data. We run it. Your $1,997 credits toward the System if the System starts within 90 days of your pilot going live. The $497/mo does not credit and stops the day the System starts.
Founding Partner Pilot.
Local: AI automation agency in Boston and Waltham.
How the first week looks
Day 0. The four-column list. The channel you already use (SMS first — that is where the mess is).
Days 1–3. Agent asking the next missing field only. You watch it over-ask once and you cut the list.
Days 4–6. Live jobs. A "ready" mark the crew can trust, or you do not ship the mark.
Day 7+. New customers file themselves. You get exceptions, not novels.
If the crew still texts you "what's the gate code," the agent is not live. The refund window exists for that sentence.
Start
One AI intake agent. One job type. A ready checklist a human can start from. $1,997.
FAQ
What is an AI intake agent?
An agent that collects the fields a job needs, files them in one record, and flags what a person still has to decide — so the details leave your personal text messages.
Is this just an online form?
A form is a door. The agent is the person who follows up when the form is half empty and the photos never came.
Will customers hate the questions?
They hate repeating themselves to three different people. One short thread that ends in "you're booked, we have what we need" is the opposite of that.
Can it take photos?
If the channel can receive them, it can file them. We do not build a new app so a customer can upload a blurry water heater.
Do I need a CRM?
A sheet with a "ready" column launches. A CRM is better. The pilot does not wait on a software migration.
One agent. One workflow. Live in 14 days or full refund.
$1,997 one-time, founder-built in Waltham. Then $497/mo for that one agent, or stop. The continuous-operation System is from $9,500 + $1,500/mo.