Our process
Our process
Five phases, and you can stop after any of them
Agencies tend to be vague about process because vagueness protects the timeline. Here is ours in full: what happens, what you receive, what we need from you, and what it costs if you decide to walk after each phase.
Principles
How we work, before what we do
These shape every decision in the phases below, so they are worth reading first.
- Measure before building
- We do not touch anything until we know how long your business currently takes to answer a new customer, on every channel. Without that number, nothing we do afterwards can be proven to have worked.
- Your rules, written down first
- Block scheduling, team preferences, which jobs need how long, what the assistant must never say. We capture all of it before a line of code, because that is where these projects actually fail.
- Nothing goes live unapproved
- Every message a customer could receive is reviewed and signed off by you before it can send. There is no category of automated message that surprises you later.
- Handover is a deliverable
- Accounts in your name, documentation written for your office manager, and a training session recorded so the next hire can watch it. Leaving us should be possible. Most vendors quietly make it hard.
Phases
What the eight weeks actually contain
Each phase names what you get at the end of it and what we need from you to get there. Nothing here happens without your sign-off on the phase before.
Phase 01
Audit
Week 0 · free
We become a prospective customer. We call your office at three different times, fill in your own web form, message whatever channels you have open, and load your site on a mid-range phone on a normal connection. Then we take your booking path as far as a customer could and note where it stops. Everything gets written down with timestamps.
You get
- A written audit, usually eight to twelve pages
- Response times by channel, with recordings and screenshots
- Mobile performance and accessibility findings
- Every question a customer cannot get answered without phoning you
- The three highest-return fixes, ranked
We need
- Your business name and address
- Permission to contact the office as a customer
- Nothing else
Phase 02
Blueprint
Weeks 1–2
A working session with whoever knows how the schedule really runs — usually the office manager rather than the owner. We map every rule, every exception and every thing that must never be automated. We agree the scope, the price and the dates, and you get a document you could hand to any other developer.
You get
- Scheduling rules document
- Sitemap and page-by-page content plan
- Automation map: every trigger, message and escalation
- Integration plan for your scheduling or CRM software
- Fixed-price proposal with dates
We need
- Two hours with your office manager
- Thirty minutes per team member
- Read access to your scheduling setup
Phase 03
Build
Weeks 3–7
Design, content and integration run in parallel. You see a live preview link from the first week and it updates continuously, so there is never a big reveal that turns into a big argument. Two structured review rounds, and you can comment on the preview any time in between.
You get
- A live preview URL from week one
- Design system and all page designs
- Full site copy for approval
- Booking flow running against a test schedule
- Every automated message, in a document, for sign-off
We need
- Two review rounds, about two hours each
- Copy and message approvals within three business days
- Prices, hours, and team bios
Phase 04
Launch
Week 8
We switch over at a time your team chooses, usually a Tuesday morning so there is a full week to catch anything. Old URLs are redirected, search console is updated, and we watch the first forty-eight hours closely. Your team gets trained before the switch, not after.
You get
- Live site, booking and automation
- All URLs redirected, rankings preserved
- Team training session, recorded
- Handover document and runbook
- Every account in your business's name
We need
- A ninety-minute training slot for the front desk
- A launch date that suits your schedule
Phase 05
Optimise
Ongoing, month to month
The first ninety days are where most of the improvement happens, because now there is real data. We read what customers actually ask, extend the knowledge base, adjust the timing of messages, and fix the parts of the booking flow where people hesitate.
You get
- Monthly report: appointments, response times, what the assistant handled
- Knowledge base updates from real customer questions
- Message timing and copy adjustments
- Assistant accuracy reviewed against real transcripts
- A quarterly review with your numbers next to your goals
We need
- Thirty minutes a month, if you want it
- A heads-up when your hours, staff or prices change
Live run
What that looks like for one customer
Phases are how the project runs. This is how a single Monday-night toothache moves through the finished system.
9:11pmCustomer
Finds you and does not bounce
Site loads in 1.4 seconds. New customers welcome, prices visible, soonest opening on screen.
9:12pmCustomer
Asks a question instead of filling in a form
The assistant answers from your plan list in about five seconds, then offers to show times.
9:13pmNightbell
Reads live availability
Urgent slots only, correct person, correct length. They pick 10:15am.
9:14pmNightbell
Books and confirms
Written into your schedule. WhatsApp confirmation with address, parking and intake forms.
9:15pmBusiness
Complete record waiting in the morning
What they need, their completed forms and the full transcript of what they were told.
8:00amNightbell
Confirms again
Reminder the morning of, and two hours before. Reschedules handled in the same conversation.
9:40pmNightbell
Follows up the one who stalled
A second visitor stopped at the price question. One email, answering exactly that, with the form still open.
After launch
What the relationship actually looks like at month six
Most agency relationships get quiet after launch. Here is what ours is meant to consist of, so you can hold us to it.
- A report you can read in four minutes
- Appointments booked and by which channel, median time to first reply, what the assistant answered on its own, what it handed to your team, and what changed since last month. No vanity metrics.
- Knowledge base kept current
- Every question the assistant could not answer is reviewed. If it is a fair question, the answer goes in. Your assistant gets better because your customers keep asking new things.
- Someone who answers
- A named person, a shared channel, and a one-business-day reply. Anything customer-facing and broken is treated as urgent regardless of the hour.
- A quarterly look at whether it is working
- Your numbers next to the goals we set at Blueprint. If a service is not paying for itself we will suggest cutting it before you have to ask.
Process FAQ
Asked before signing
You keep the blueprint. It is written to be handed to any developer, and several businesses have done exactly that. We charge for the blueprint phase, so there is no obligation to continue into the build.
Eight weeks is typical for a single location, from the blueprint session to launch. The two things that stretch it are waiting on content approvals and scheduling or CRM software that needs vendor involvement to open up.
Whoever runs the schedule most of all — they know how it really works. Each team member who does the work, for about half an hour. The owner for the blueprint and the two review rounds. Total, around six to eight hours across two months.
That is worth taking seriously and we would rather find out in week one. Front-desk staff usually worry it will replace them, and it does not — it removes the voicemail triage and the calling-down-a-list work. We include them in the blueprint session for exactly this reason.
Yes, and we often do. They keep the campaigns, we build the thing the campaigns point at. We will need to agree who owns which accounts up front.
Phase one costs nothing
The audit is free, takes a week, and is useful whether or not you continue.