Posts by Joe Hill: one problem, one fix, a demo Posts for local business owners from Joe Hill in Portland, TN: a real problem owners lose business to, the one fix he'd set up, and usually a working demo. https://joehill.net/posts/ 2026-10-26T00:00:00Z Joe Hill The missed call calculator for plumbers https://joehill.net/posts/missed-call-calculator-for-plumbers/ 2026-10-26T00:00:00Z On a job you can't answer the phone, and the customer calls the next plumber. Put in your numbers and see what that costs you a week, a month and a year. An owner let AI clean up the books. The bookkeeper got a bigger mess. https://joehill.net/posts/ai-around-your-books/ 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z Bookkeepers are fixing a bigger mess after AI 'clean-ups' of QuickBooks. Three jobs AI does well around the books, with a bookkeeper deciding every entry, and how to do each. I build AI agents. Check these before you pay for one. https://joehill.net/posts/before-you-buy-an-ai-answering-service/ 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z Sellers pitch AI receptionists hard, and owners can't tell a good one from a bad one. The questions I'd ask a seller, and the test calls I'd make, before a customer hears it. Check your phone first. It may be sending new customers to voicemail. https://joehill.net/posts/check-your-phone-first/ 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z Owners keep asking which text-back or answering service to buy. Check the phone you already carry first: one setting can send every new customer straight to voicemail, and you can change it today. Homeowners are pasting your bids into ChatGPT. https://joehill.net/posts/customers-paste-your-bid-into-chatgpt/ 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z Homeowners now ask an AI which bid is best, and a vague bid loses to one that explains itself. Five things to put in every bid, and how to rebuild your template around them. You're already paying for quote follow-ups. Turn them on. https://joehill.net/posts/follow-ups-you-already-pay-for/ 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z Quotes go out from the truck and never get followed up because you're on the next job. Jobber and QuickBooks Online already have the reminders built in; this is where to switch them on. Asking customers to mention Jake by name now breaks Google's rules. https://joehill.net/posts/google-review-rules-changed/ 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z Google's review policy bans rewards and cherry-picking happy customers, and now review quotas and asking for a tech by name. The fix: one plain ask to everyone after every job, sent automatically. The customer said not today. Who's calling in two weeks? https://joehill.net/posts/the-declined-work-letter/ 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z Declined work leaves with the customer and nobody follows up. One fix, with a working demo: a plain-language letter from the tech's notes, and a reminder when each item comes due. Try to reach your own business the way a new customer would. https://joehill.net/posts/the-front-door-test/ 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z Phone, website form, texts and review requests can all stop working without telling you; you hear about it from a customer who gave up. A 15-minute test to run once a month. The quote you promised in the driveway is still in your head. https://joehill.net/posts/the-quote-that-follows-itself-up/ 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z Quotes promised from the driveway wait till tonight, and then nobody follows up. One fix, with a working demo: a one-minute voice memo becomes a priced quote that follows itself up. Your furnace tune-up list is sitting in last year's invoices. https://joehill.net/posts/the-tune-up-list-in-last-years-invoices/ 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z The customers due a furnace tune-up are in your records, and nobody has an afternoon to go through them. One fix, with a demo: rules sort, AI drafts from each invoice, you approve. I turned down an AI notetaker: every user could read every transcript https://joehill.net/posts/two-questions-before-ai-sees-customer-data/ 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z Staff paste customer details into whatever AI is handy, and notetakers drop call summaries where the wrong people can read them. Two questions to ask first, and the settings that follow. Six times AI went wrong, and what would have stopped each one https://joehill.net/posts/when-ai-went-wrong/ 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z Owners around here are wary of AI, with reason. Six real cases, from invented court cases to a chatbot's refund promise, what each one cost, and the rule that would have caught it. My plumber forgot to text back, and it cost him the job. https://joehill.net/posts/forgot-to-text-back/ 2026-10-23T00:00:00Z He read my text Tuesday and answered Wednesday afternoon, after I'd moved on. What I'd set up so a text gets answered while you're on a job, with a working demo you can run.