Joe Ruotolo's Top Tech Automation Tool For Turning Leads Into Business

Welcome back to the show. I'm your host, Phil Risher. And on today's episode, we're going to be discussing a unique way to use website chat to convert more leads from your website. We have Joe Rotolo. Joe and I, we connected through Intaker, his company. I actually saw their chat on a website and I was like, wow, this is so cool. What is this thing? And so kind of went through the, the, the deep dive of Intaker and what is this? And I said, hey, why don't y' all come on the show and kind of talk about what Intaker is, how you're utilizing it to convert more leads and that kind of stuff. So, Joe, thanks so much for joining us, man.

I'm glad to be here, Phil. It's great to join you in your community today.

Yeah. All right, sweet. So can you give us like a brief overview of what is Intaker and what exactly do y' all do?

Sure, sure. And I think instead of rambling about all the ways that we can help, I want to talk about the problem that, that a lot of business owners face. Because oftentimes, whether you're home services or whether you're a law firm or any business that is attracting clients online, there are limits that you can hit if you don't have the right systems in place of turning the inquiries and the leads that you're getting into results into business, just because it takes time, energy and you need systems to make sure you're not losing out on a lot of these opportunities that you might be driving through your website, through your digital marketing. So what Intaker does is it is a tool that you can use to create a stronger, deeper, more personal connection with folks who visit your website, do a lot of the heavy lifting for pre qualification up front so you know who's going to be the right fit for your business and who might just be a tire kicker and then automate the next steps of actions, whether that's schedule an appointment, connect someone on the phone to you, or even sending a service agreement, if that's appropriate. Automating the next steps in the journey. Once you've made sure that you're talking to the right person, you can help them and they have a need that is a fit for your business. The website chat I know we're going to get into is where we started as a company just to create more of that engaging personal experience, using video as a big part of that. But also things like the CRM and the lead management platform, which now being that AI and automation are more Accessible than ever for businesses. Not all of those tools are built the same when it comes to using AI and using automation to drive actual results in terms of sales, in terms of conversions, not just capturing leads, but signing people as clients. But, you know, we'll talk a little bit about that. That's the area where we're really building and growing, you know, more, more tools for, for business owners to use a lot of the new sexy, you know, AI and automation stuff when it actually comes to turning those leads into happy clients.

Yeah, I completely agree with you that when people come to the website, you have to have those lead magnets, those conversion metrics on your website to actually convert them into a leads. It's not just go to a contact form and fill out this form, but how can you engage with them? So I'm definitely curious to hear how this all came about. Can you tell a lot of the business owners, they're in their business. They are kind of like the driving force of technology or the ones that's like trying to implement stuff. You are the CMO of a technology company and you also kind of understand small business and how it works. What if someone's looking for someone in their business to like, implement technology? Who is that typically and how does that usually happen? Is it like a young person or an office manager? Or is there something that they should be looking at when they're trying to find someone to implement technology in their business? Like, who should usually do that?

It's a very good question. And whoever it is has to have a deep knowledge of the specific problems that the business is facing. Because it could be different. For one firm, it could be getting the phone to ring or getting leads in the door. But for another company, it could be doing the intake or turning those opportunities into either retainers or into assigned customers and clients. So whoever it is, typically, I'll give a bit of backstory. Intaker. We now work in more verticals, including home services. You know, whether that's solar, whether that's H Vac, and then also professional services as well. But law firms are where we started. And what I can tell you is oftentimes the people that have the best knowledge of the specific problems are the business owners. And while like an office manager or, you know, a lieutenant, so to speak, at the, at the business might also have a good grasp, it usually does require the business owners, you know, insight, input and involvement to some degree. Unless they have someone that's really managing, you know, the operations and like a COO of the company. Yeah, but Usually for most of the firms that I work with, the owners are pretty involved just because at the end of the day, they're the ones responsible for making sure that the system is working. That, you know, everything from the marketing to the fulfillment of the service is where it needs to be. But I would also say that sometimes having a different, fresh set of eyes, other folks in the company who might understand a bit more of what's possible with things like AI and automation, it'll help. But to have a deep understanding of the problem is the most important thing. You know what I mean?

Oh, I completely agree. And I think that a lot of business owners that I know, they listen to a podcast or on YouTube and they see a cool thing and they see a cool video chat, like, oh, we gotta get this on our website. Like, it's gonna convert like crazy. And then they add it to the. To their website. But there's not. There's no one that's, like, looking at the chats and saying, or whatever the technology is and saying, oh, oh, well, we could use that over here. And we could add this section. There's. It's just like, now you have another clunky tool on your website that you're not actually using. And then, you know, six months down the line, you get your QuickBooks expense report and you're like, what is this thing again? Like, why do we need this? You know? So that's why I wanted to get some clarity on what your thoughts were. And I think you hit the nail on the head that someone that has an intimate relationship with the problems, but can also see that, oh, how can we connect the dots here and solve this problem with this tool? And because a lot of times with technology and AI, there's so many solutions. It's just about how can it fit in your business and help you solve problems? So I completely agree with what you're saying. Can we talk a little bit about how the video aspect came about? If. If someone's out there, basically what it is is there's think of like a podium chat or something that pops up that says, you know, hey, send us a message here. But what Intaker has is it has videos that you can add on different pages of your website that would ultimately convert the. The person there video literally pops up and starts talking, and you can interact with the video in the chat format. So can you talk a little bit, Joe, about, like, how did that come about? And what have you seen from, like, a traditional chat, like a podium or something like that compared to, like, A video engaging capture, lead capture type of thing.

Yes, yes. All mention that when I came and started within Dacre, which is about one year after the company was founded, came on as like the first full time sales rep. And back then it was, you know, beginning of 2020 and it was actually obviously March of 2020 was when, you know, we all stayed home for a while with the lockdowns and things. And what happened was it was a scary time for I'm sure everybody, but for so many business owners and at that point we're working specifically with law firms and there was the issue where clients could not come into the office, they could not have the same type of engagement or facetime with the, with the lawyers, with the service providers that they were hiring. And it became a pain point because people were not used to doing business this way. And you know, they were still, people still had things they needed help with but there were not the ways of, you know, building that relationship, building that connection in the same way. And so it was actually in April of 2020 that I can't tell you what the moment was that we decided, hey, we need to do this. But it started with an idea and very, how should I say, you know, like a rough implementation in the beginning. The first version of how Intaker with Video looked in April of 2020 is totally different than how it looks today. But we got like immediate positive response from the handful of businesses and law firms that we were that we use this with. And from that it quickly became our like main differentiator in how the chat experience on a website. If you imagine going a typical website and you see the chat in the corner that might say, hi, how can I help you? People are used to seeing that now, right? If you don't have that on your website, you might be missing out on potential leads. So everyone should have a chat, I believe, especially if you're investing in digital marketing. But how can you make that experience stand out when they come to your website versus another having a short video of, you know, either the owner, the managing partner, the face of the company, whoever that is for you give that short welcome. When I say a short welcome, I mean a 20 or 30 second spot video to let people know, hey, if you're dealing with XYZ issue, you might be looking for the right team of professionals. And you know, we'd love to see if we can help you. So please drop some information below. By the way, I'm so and so and you know, this is what we are committed to doing for you and folks like you, right, whatever. It is just a short little introduction to get someone to stop consider like, hey, you know, I might have seen few other websites right now, but. But this person seems different, right? This seems like someone I can have a connection with. Now what happened in 2020 with, you know, the shift to so much, you know, moving online, you know, even after Covid business has changed the expectations that people have when they go through the process of like reaching out to a company and trying to get someone to help them, those expectations are still different today than they were before, before COVID And what I would say is having the video as a way to show, to stand out, to build that empathy and to create that sense of trust with a stranger who might have just found you from either a Google search or, you know, some other web marketing. It goes a long way not just to getting that initial conversion, but even to signing them up as a client when the time is right for that.

Yeah, I completely agree. Have you seen so like this? There's business owners out there. You said they should have a chat widget, but a lot of them don't have chat widgets on their website because they don't know what to do or how to utilize it or how to, how to chat with people and stuff like that. So what have you seen with no chat versus adding chat? Is there like conversion numbers that you could say, hey, it increased your conversion rate of X, Y and Z or any numbers that you've seen on your side of things?

Yeah, yeah, and it's a good question. The first thing I'll mention is that not all chats are created equal. And it depends on if you're going to staff this in house, if you're going to have someone on your team actually responding physically to every chat, which I don't recommend because there are automated options out there that can get better information in less time. Most importantly, not create any lag or delay on the other side of the user experience if someone is reaching out. So regardless, even the channel chats that, let's say are a little clunky, don't perform that great and need someone to man them. You'll still see an increase in overall engagement and lead conversion using a tool like that, because you can imagine it's another channel. There is people out there who might be searching for help with, you know, whatever that is. If it's something, you know, an issue in their home or they're looking for, you know, to get started with renewable energy or anything, uh, they might be at work And I know some people, you know, no one ever does like non work related searches, you know, while they're on the job. Yes, of course, but you know, on those off chances. I'm joking, but having a way for people to, you know, submit that inquiry without having to make the phone call in a way that's different than a just a contact form because folks might think, oh, I have a contact form on my website and they might get some engagement through that. But what if you could get double, triple, quadruple the engagement from your contact form if you just use another tool? I'm not saying every single chat is going to do that. One of the things that Intaker does a little bit differently, it is a fully automated chat. There are opportunities for people to continue the conversation, but not during the website lead capture and qualification process. For the reason that we can capture the information that a business needs to determine if someone is a good fit or not faster than it takes someone to typically even respond to that chat in the first place. So having a tool to, yes, get those leads in the door, capture the information, but number two, get the information so you can qualify and say, you know, is this someone that I can help that is a good fit for our company and maybe, you know, it's a good lead but not in your area. So you're able to refer it out if you know a little bit of information about, you know, the person's situation and where they are. But then again, if it is someone that you can help, you can always make sure that you're the first person to speak to them. Because what do we know about when people search on Google? People search online for a company, they rarely just reach out to one. Right. So if they've reached out to you through your website and it's not like a personal referral, you can almost rest assured that they've reached out to some of your competitors as well. Having a chat is just a way to make sure that you're going to beat your competitors to the punch, especially if you're using a tool like this and they're not, but also doing some of that pre qualification up front. So rather than just get on the phone with someone blind, you already know a little bit about their situation and you can position yourself how to best help them. You know what I mean?

Yeah, yeah, I completely agree. What we've seen on our end is by adding a chat widget to the website, typically we see an increase of about 3 to 4% conversion rate from website visitor into lead. So if you get 100 people to your website and you add a chat widget, you're going to get three to four more leads. Now, it's all different, you know, based on industry and all that kind of stuff. But if anything, three to four more leads, it could, you know, easily pay for itself just by adding some chat widget on there. The other thing, Joe, that I would say is you mentioned about not all chats are built equally, which I completely agree. A lot of times people will say, well, what is a chat like? A live chat is just going to sit there and then your CSR is going to get to them in 10 minutes and they're going to leave your website and you don't even get any leads out of it. Whereas if you have some automated process, whether it turns into a text message or some AI responding on the back end with frequently asked questions or something to like, pull them through a funnel, to your point, it's much more advantageous if you kind of speed up that process than having some random live chat out there. So I, I totally agree with you. Another big issue that I think a lot of business owners out there have that I, I believe that you are attempting to solve is most of them have a CRM like Service Titan House Call, Pro Jobber or whatever, Service Fusion, and they put their customers in there. But what happens is when they get the leads, they don't have any lead management system or software or program to manage their leads. A very clear way that this would, would look is like someone calls in and says they want to get, you know, a new H vac system installed or, or service or repair, and then they say, you know, I want to talk to my husband and I'll get, get back to you or whatever. Well, then that lead is gone. But if there's a way to secure the lead, then hopefully you can nurture that process. Can you talk to me a little bit about how you all are solving that process and what it looks like for Intaker?

Yeah. Now, it was a pretty natural development for us in this way. We started with chat, I mentioned, just to solve the problem of conversion rates and making sure businesses are not missing out on opportunities. But we were finding that a lot of our clients were getting the leads now that they were missing out on before. But they had another problem. They weren't converting them at a healthy rate into actual, you know, clients and signed cases and customers and the like. And so this is now going into 2021, where we realized, you know, after the chat was, you know, performing really well. For a lot of folks that there was a new opportunity and that was on the lead management side. Now when people think of lead management, you know, they might think of like drip campaigns, you know, over, over email and like nurturing those customers. And that is 100% important. But what's even more important is using communication channels that you know they're going to see that they're going to respond quickly. And that's mostly over text, over sms. And so finding a system that can do both, that can do your emails in terms of following up, giving people information might be a bit, you know, longer form, more detail but also can give them those shorter sales oriented text follow ups just so that people remember that hey, you know, if they reached out on Monday and now it's, you know, Thursday, sometimes like you said, they might have to talk to their spouse or for any number of reasons, they might fall out of mind and they might need a reminder at the same time expecting your team to follow up with every single lead doing, you know, whatever it is, three to five touch points a week, sometimes more depending on, you know, the, the vertical. That is a lot to ask for your team to do manually, especially when you've got ways to do that with automation. So what Intaker does and what is maybe different from the lead management and the CRM for your, not for your customers, but for those opportunities, those sales opportunities that are waiting to, you know, turn into revenue is that what if you could automate all of those touch points, everything shy of picking up the phone and calling them, you know, every text, every email and inviting them, even if it's just inviting them to schedule a time using a scheduler and an integration so that they're going to get a link automatically every couple days. Hey, just a reminder, we'd love to chat with you. Please find a time here. And having a system that's smart enough to know when they do schedule that, to automatically stop that sequence so that you're not reaching out when it's no longer appropriate to follow up in that way. That is the next problem that we aim to solve. And what's amazing right now is We've got about 1,000 companies using Intaker. Like I said, a lot of them are law firms. But more and more are coming on board in these other industries. However, using the new abilities of. I'm sure you Talk about Chat GPT on this show from time to time. OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has, you know, these APIs, integrations that other tools can plug into. And so being Able to use the power of a platform like ChatGPT to not just provide you with a system that you can use to, you know, set up these sequences and follow ups and manage your leads, but it's smart enough to know when someone responds in a text message, for example, to an automated message that you sent. Having a system that now can intelligently respond to that to drive whatever result you might be looking for, that might be scheduling an appointment, right? That might be, you know, getting them to sign an agreement, whatever that goal is. Having a system that can now continue the conversation automatically and take any relevant information from that conversation and automatically sort it into the right fields in your system. So all of your data is automatically structured the way you want it. If you've got certain information that you capture maybe around more than the basics of location and name and things like that, but even down to the specific type of service that they need, if this is a new install or if it's a repair or, or they're just calling for whatever quote, whatever it is that you might want to understand from that conversation. Any text based conversation can now pretty much happen on autopilot. It's pretty amazing and I've not seen anything like it until we released this recently. It's a product in a closed beta right now, but we're working with a few businesses to make this happen and it's pretty cool.

Yeah, I think the coolest thing about Chachi BT is that you can train business owners, can train a ChatGPT bot, for example, to speak and interact exactly how they would. And there's always this issue that we see with business owners, like if the csrs, if I was a csr, I would book every job. If, if I was this person, I would close every single sale. So if now that with ChatGPT there's a way that you can build this thing as if it was you that can communicate with your customers. So without having a personal person there, all aside from, you know, just talking on the phone. So I definitely think that that's a really big advantage to communicating back and forth with the nurture process. Have you seen like you mentioned three to five times, do you see like a fall off after a certain amount of time or any like, hey, this is what we recommend, this cadence of like 14 days or like every three days or something like that that you would recommend?

I think it depends on the nature of the inquiry and it depends on the actual vertical that you're operating in. And so most of my experience is in the legal world and for example, I can give you quick example. Something like personal injury is usually very urgent. Like a three by three system works well there where there's three follow ups per day for three days. That's usually call, text and email. And then again for day two and day three. And typically for something like that it's, you know, the opportunity might be, if you haven't converted it in that short time, they chances are they went with someone else versus something like, you know, estate planning as just another legal example. Those are things where there might be less urgency because it's planning for the future. And, and so a follow up system there could be over weeks or months right now for something like an I'd consider, you know, to the audience you might imagine there's different cases where if someone is considering, you know, a new solar install on their home and you call them, you know, twice a day every day for like three or five days in a row, that's going to be a turn off, right?

Yeah.

But at the same time, if it's something like there's a, you know, emergency repair on air conditioner or heater or anything like that, it becomes very different. And so using shorter follow ups, if it's a more urgent issue and having a system that can help you customize such that for XYZ issue, if this comes in the door automatically run this sequence that's specific to that urgent issue versus if it's something that homeowner might take a little more time making a decision. Having a system that can have different sequences loaded in and then have the right understanding of when to trigger a specific sequence that has that set cadence that could be either shorter or longer again depending on the nature. I know this is maybe a little bit abstract, but it's kind of making sense, Phil, how we can tailor the automation and the behavior. Remember, this is a fully automated system, but you can tailor the behavior to specific, you know, words and inputs from, from people. So that's what we're solving. But I want to make sure that I'm not like talking too high.

No, no, no, I, I get it and I think you, you explain it pretty well. Like if someone's looking for, you know, I have a no heat call, for example. Well, yeah, you got to hit them pretty hard. Cause they have no heat and they're probably looking for a solution pretty quickly. But for someone who may be looking to replace their hot water heater, it's like, yeah, I probably need to get this replaced. My water's running out. Every now and then you don't gotta hit them over the head to try to get in their house today. So I completely understand what you're saying. Are inside of that nurture sequence, are there any specific like things that they should, that people should talk about? Like hey, here's a little bit about our company. Read our reviews, customer testimonials, or is it more maybe like the first couple ones are focused on like let's get them booked and then it kind of goes into more of a nurture type of thing. Have you seen that to work or any specific examples of what they should share?

Very good question. A lot of my clients might have a short term sales focused sequence that like you said, is more just about making that conversion right away, getting the job signed up. But at the same time everyone on their system might go to like an email list where there is going to be, you know, less urgent calls to action that might try to build that relationship and, and build the brand of your company in the mind of that prospect so that, you know, maybe whether they hired you or not now if something comes up in six months, then they're on your email list and they're getting those, you know, usual touches. And even if they're not really reading every single email, seeing something valuable in their inbox that if they do click into that, you know, it is there, there, there's something in it for them, right? Maybe that's just a tip or maybe that's, you know, like you said, a lot of, I know your, your clients are, are in their local community, right. So being able to highlight whatever, you know, give back days or, or events that they're sponsoring in their community just as a way to make that relationship with their broader list more valuable and more engaging, more productive. Those are a lot of things that I see my, some of my clients doing. But I would separate those and say that there should be a short term sales focused sequence up front, you know, in the immediate span of when someone comes in. And like I said, that could be a little bit different if it's, you know, very urgent or if it takes a little bit longer for a decision maker to pull the trigger. But all of the leads, including the conversions and the lost opportunities going to some other sequence. And typically I don't see a lot of companies using text for those, you know, marketing lead nurturing functions. That being said, you know, consumer behavior is always changing and you know, there, there might be a use case for using text in, in those channels as well for that kind of lead nurture. So more will be Revealed.

Yeah, that makes sense. All right, so switching gears a little bit, Joe. So if you take off your intake or hat real quick, you said you have about, like, a thousand businesses that y' all work with. If you were to look at, like, the top 10 or 20% of those business, and you're an MBA guy, you're. You're a smart guy, you understand business, what would you say? Those top 10, 20%, like, what do they do different? Like, as far as, like, growing their business? Do they have certain systems or processes in there? Or, like, what are they really focusing on that. That you would say, like, when you meet with them? Like, yeah, this is a company that's definitely going to be growing and is growing.

It's a great question. I think the most important thing that I see from my customers that are very successful, that are growing, and that most importantly are enjoying the process, is that they have a very clear idea of who they are, what they stand for, and who they're looking to serve. If you're a company or you're a business owner and you're trying to go after everyone, then it's going to be a struggle no matter who you are, what industry you're in. But if you've been able to niche it down and know that these are my ideal clients and it could be different for everyone. I mean, an example that I know is, you know, whether that is in, like, life insurance or. Or solar, if someone is in a CrossFit gym. Right. And they've built a community, they built relationships, and now they are really, you know, looking to serve that community of other CrossFitters in their city, in their town or wherever. They build a reputation there, and then they're able to now leverage the referrals and the recommendations of people that they know personally just because they've built a brand and they've built that identity as someone who can serve this community and is passionate and is connected, and they have that. Those relationships. I guess what I'm trying to say, the bottom line, it all comes down to relationships. And those companies that have done a great job building relationships, and especially when they're a local service provider, that's the most important thing. If you want to have business come to you without having to struggle, without having to wonder, you know, is this campaign going to work? And of course, you know, every company needs to do digital marketing to some degree, just because that's how people, you know, look you up to see, are you even legit? Right, Right. But those companies that have found and everything that I'm saying in the, in the local space, you can also use, you know, for your online brand. You don't need to be a crossfitter, you don't need to be plugged into your local church or you know, community service organization. Those are great. But I think to go back to the main point, those companies that are succeeding, they know who they are, who they're looking to serve, and also their ideal client, you know, it could be different. And if you are someone who is, you know, targeting homeowners with a certain job, you know, maybe you're installing radiant heating floors, right, Just as one example, and knowing exactly what those person's pain points are so that when you speak to them, you know, it's not just general, you know, doing it, you know, better, faster, cheaper, but you can talk about what in their own life, their personal life, you know, for their family. You know, what it means when this problem is solved and you can tailor your marketing, your messaging, everything to that client. That's when the problem of getting enough clients or you know, generate, generating leads and converting them, it just becomes a lot easier because you're speaking a language to this smaller group of people that you can form a more intimate, closer, authentic connection with. What do you think, Phil? Does that kind of match what you've seen in your experience?

Yeah, I completely agree with you. Knowing who you serve and for a lot of home service businesses and the trades, they're like, yeah, well, someone wants to, you know, swap out their water heater, I'll do anyone's, I don't care. But the thing is about that, and we've seen this very effectively in eight figure businesses, is that they actually own neighborhoods like they are. These are their neighborhoods, these are their target audience. To your point. So like, how do you do that? You get yard signs on all of your installs out there. You're at all of the local events that happen in that community. You're doing the Clover program, hanging door hangers all across. You maybe have a door, a sign that stands outside of your car as people drive by. It says free estimates. Because I'm in your neighborhood. Like you're literally owning these neighborhoods. Maybe you're even doing postcard campaigns to these neighborhoods. So I think to your point is. Yes. Will you replace a water heater at everyone, anyone's home that wants it? Sure you will. But you have a target audience that it's not just about the water heater, it's about owning that neighborhood and being the go to company in that neighborhood. So I Completely agree with you. I would say also having the vision of like, where is their business going to be going? I think a lot of times in, and this is most business, but even in the trades, a lot of times it's just like, yeah, I want to get to 5 million, I want to get to 10 million, but like, how am I going to get there and what's going to be the process? I think a lot of times people get so stuck on like their, their processes that they, they're just like floundering and saying, oh, I'll spend more money on marketing and that's going to give me to 10 million. When we all know that it's not just marketing that's going to get you there, it takes building 10 million dollar processes. So yeah, I would definitely agree with you on that. Okay, well that, that makes sense. Wrapping up here. What would you say is some of the big changes coming in your industry? You mentioned chat gbt, but what do you, what do you think is coming down the pike? Like I could even see, you know, asking Siri or other smart devices to like communicate with you and that kind of stuff. But what have y' all seen as you think like kind of like let's three, five years out, man, three to.

Five years is an incredibly long time to think about it because I'm thinking in six to 12 months from now when you're gonna get a phone call from someone trying to sell you something and it sounds just like a phone call you get from a real person today.

Yeah.

But it's not. Yeah, it's an AI appointment setter, AI closer. And so much of what's going to change how we think about business, how we think about sales is when, because now you have tools that can not just, you know, understand what makes you tick, but they can talk to you in such a convincing way that you think you're talking to, you know, a real guy named Johnny, when Johnny is AI. I think the rise of, you know, these, we call them AI agents here at Intaker. And that's where, you know, we've started with not on phone calls or anything but just over, you know, texting and other channels, you know, text based channels, being able to, you know, fulfill the role of whether that's an appointment setter or a closer or just, you know, folks in the sales room right now. So I think in the next year people are going to, it's going to be a shock and we'll probably still have to wait to see what the ultimate results of that, you know, Maybe three to five years. See how it all shakes out. Yeah. But I think that is kind of the biggest thing. And most importantly, recognizing that right now is the time of, you know, the most rapid change anyone has ever seen, living or dead. It's happening now and it's happening in your business. It's happening in every industry, it's happening in every country. And so everyone here listening has a choice, Right. Of either getting ahead of what's coming and certain changes or sticking to business as usual. But I would just invite you to think about where do you want to be, like you said, Phil.

Yeah.

In three years and five years and 10 years. You know, do you want to. Are you doing this to build a legacy? You know, do you, do you want to have a business that you can either sell or, you know, just continue to grow and, and be able to, you know, have it work for you instead of you necessarily having to work for it? You know, and if you want that, it's about seeing what's coming and just orienting the decisions that you're doing today to plan for this crazy unknown future for tomorrow. But so keep an eye out. I mean, Intaker is one of the. It's a really cool tool. And so if anyone here, you know, hasn't seen it, just go to integr.com you can check out how the chat works and you'll see a lot more about the AI agents coming in the next few weeks, in the few months. But I think those are some of the biggest changes that are coming for every industry, especially for local service providers.

Yeah, I completely agree. I could see like you fill out a form on a website and then 2 seconds later AI person is calling you, trying to book that thing and then basically have an unlimited army of AI salespeople that are going to be calling. There's a tool out there called AIR AI that you can build, know basically like a prompts and salespeople. And I kind of toyed around with that a little bit. I still, like, personally, I just feel not right about deploying these people, just bombarding people with calls. It just to me just doesn't feel right. But to your point, there could be a way to leverage it. That's like you fill out a form and then you get a call automatically. Even if it's 10 o' clock at night on a Saturday and your CSR is asleep now you have someone who's calling on your behalf and booking appointments for you, which I could see that pretty working pretty good. And to your point, that could be six to 12 months out for sure.

Yeah. And just to give people a sense of like where we are now. And again, this is kind of in the intaker world. When leads come in through chat, if they're pre qualified such a way that you want them as a client, then having the system be able to call you and say, hey, you know, you just got a lead, it's you know, Johnny so and so it's about XYZ issue and they're qualified so you know, press one to connect and then having that system be able to connect on the other side with a person in seconds. So that's available today. You still need, you know, a team of phone agents to actually, you know, make the call. But response time is one of the most important things. If you have people have to wait to get a call back after they submit an inquiry, the chances of them actually converting, we know, go way down after the first, you know, few minutes, after the first hour. So, you know, that's where things are today. And like you said, you know, we're going to see more AI phone calls coming. And I agree with you, the AIR AI system is really cool. But it doesn't, it, it's not there yet. You know what I mean? In terms of replacing live people. And I mean that's, I think a good thing right now. But you'll see it change in the next six to 12 months, I'm almost sure of it. And what's going to happen is those businesses that still have that personal touch, that have systems that are supported by AI, by automation, but still have someone with the heart, with the brain, with the connection calling these leads, it's going to go a longer way. I think there's always still going to be room for those, you know, one to one personal connections. It's just, do you have a way of making sure that you're focusing on the best opportunities and that you're not having your salespeople waste time on prospects that are not qualified for one of several reasons that's, I think the, the immediate challenge that business owners need help solving and a lot of them are already, you know, employing systems to do that. So that's kind of the problem that we are looking to help people solve.

Yeah, very cool. Well Joe, this has been great. I really appreciate all your advice, wisdom, thoughts, talking, you know, future AI, all that kind of stuff. So if someone's interested in learning about Intaker, you say go to intaker.com and they can kind of see how it interfaces. Is there anything else that they should do, like to schedule a meeting or something, or they just kind of go on there and they'll figure it out.

Yeah, you can see how the process works end to end. If you go on our website, the best way is to chat with us, being that chat is kind of our big thing for getting leads. And in that process, you'll be able to answer a few questions, get qualified, and then even, you know, be invited to schedule. Schedule a meeting with one of our team. And so you could actually see how the tool works. And you can imagine for on your own website just by coming to us and going through the experience on Intaker. But yeah, reach out. You know, drop your information. You can schedule an appointment, and if you mention Phil, Phil Richard, or Flash Consulting, then we'll know that we came from this podcast. So it was really good, Phil, having a chance to. To connect with you, and I hope that your audience, you know, found some of this valuable and. Yeah, let's. Let's keep it up, man.

Yeah, likewise. It was great connecting with you, Joe. Thanks for your time, man, and we'll talk to you soon.

All right, much love.

All right, see you.