5 Steps From Dormant Customer to Booked Job — No Manual Work on Your End

Your past customer list doesn't need to be organized. Most contractors come to us with a combination of a spreadsheet from their billing software, a QuickBooks export, a CSV from a job management app they haven't opened in a year, or names and numbers in a phone note. All of it works.

We accept CSV, Excel, Google Sheets, and direct exports from common home-service billing and field management platforms. You don't need to clean the file, reformat columns, or cross-reference two lists by hand. Send us what you have and tell us what software it came from.

Once we receive the file, we run a deduplication pass — if the same customer appears twice under slightly different names or phone numbers, we resolve it before any message fires. Invalid numbers — landlines, disconnected lines, incomplete entries — are filtered out so sequences aren't wasted on dead ends. Job date and service type columns are mapped automatically. Missing data defaults to safe values instead of erroring out.

Most imports are processed and ready to segment within 24 hours of receiving the file. The minimum you need to provide is a customer name and phone number. Job date and service type improve message targeting, but the system runs without them. A list that's been sitting in a folder for two years becomes an active reactivation pipeline by tomorrow.

Once the list is clean, every customer gets tagged individually — not lumped together. Sending the same message to every past customer is the fastest path to the spam folder and a string of opt-outs.

The system segments your list on three dimensions before a single message fires. Months since last job determines urgency and tone — customers who went silent 6 months ago get a different message than customers who haven't called in two years. The further out they are, the softer the first touch needs to be and the more specific the offer has to get to earn a response.

Service type determines the angle. HVAC customers get seasonal timing hooks tied to heating and cooling cycles. Plumbing customers get maintenance-angle messages about drain health or water heater age. Electrical customers get safety and upgrade angles. These aren't interchangeable: an HVAC tune-up offer sent to a customer who originally called you for a burst pipe is noise. A winter drain maintenance reminder sent to that same customer in October is relevant.

Job value tier determines sequence intensity. A customer who spent $2,000 or more on an HVAC installation or electrical panel upgrade gets a higher-touch follow-up sequence than a $150 drain clear. Higher past spend signals higher future potential.

You configure nothing. During onboarding, we map your list data to the segmentation logic and write message templates for your specific trade mix. From that point forward, every customer who hits the 6-month silence mark is tagged, bucketed, and queued automatically — no owner input required.

At the 6-month silence mark, the first SMS fires. Not "Hey, we miss you" — that message gets deleted in under 5 seconds. The message that earns a response is specific to the customer's service history, the time of year, and a concrete reason to act now.

An HVAC customer whose system you tuned up last spring gets a message in September: "Hey [First Name], it's [Business Name]. Your AC handled this summer — want us to lock in a fall furnace check before October books up? Reply YES and we'll hold a slot." That's a specific offer tied to a real seasonal moment, not a mass blast.

A plumbing customer who had a drain job 7 months ago gets a different message: a seasonal drain maintenance offer, a water heater age check if we have the install date, or a shutoff valve inspection tied to the current season. Different customer, different trade, different message.

Every SMS comes from your existing business phone number — not a shortcode, not an unknown number. It looks exactly like a text from the contractor they already hired.

Timing specificity matters. A water heater reminder in March captures spring awareness. The same message in August is irrelevant. An AC tune-up offer in May hits pre-summer urgency. The same offer in November lands flat. We schedule each message template to fire inside the window where it's actually valuable — and that's the difference between a booked appointment and an ignored text.

Offer language is customizable during onboarding. We write the first versions; you review and approve. From that point forward, timing, personalization, and send logic run automatically.

If the SMS goes unanswered for 48 hours, the email sequence begins. Three emails over 7 days, each taking a different angle on the same offer.

The first email arrives on day 2. It's a clean, short version of the SMS offer — your logo, your business name, and a direct booking CTA. Five or six sentences, easy to scan on a phone. No wall of text.

The second email arrives on day 5 with a timing angle. The seasonal window is real: fall HVAC slots do fill up, spring plumbing inspection demand picks up in March and April. This email makes that case briefly without manufactured pressure.

The third email arrives on day 9 and takes the stakes angle — what the customer is risking by skipping this service cycle. A water heater at 11 years old has a shortened remaining service life. A slow drain doesn't fix itself. An electrical panel that's never been inspected carries compounding risk. Specific, not alarmist.

Every email shows your business name in the from field, your logo in the header, and your phone number in the footer. To the customer, it reads like a follow-up from the contractor they've hired before — because it's written that way and branded that way throughout. Direct replies to any email route to your inbox. You don't write any of it. We build the templates during onboarding, you approve, and the sequence runs.

When a customer replies YES to the SMS — or clicks a booking link in any of the emails — scheduling happens without you touching anything.

A positive reply triggers a booking flow: the customer receives a link showing your open calendar slots, picks a time, and the appointment lands in your existing calendar. You get a notification. No phone tag, no "let me check my schedule" thread, no missed follow-up because you were mid-job.

For customers who reply with a question before booking — "how much does that cost?" or "do you work Saturdays?" — the AI handles the conversation and steers toward scheduling. Complex situations escalate to you with the full conversation thread attached, so you walk into the call with context instead of starting cold.

Every appointment from the reactivation list is tagged at the source. Over 60 days, that tagging shows you exactly how many jobs came back and at what total value. The math is visible, not guessed — four HVAC tune-ups at $250 and two plumbing calls at $400 is $1,800 recovered from a list that was collecting dust.

For the full picture on pricing and the performance guarantee, see the lost customer reactivation service overview.

Most people won't respond on round one. That's expected. They may be mid-project, on a tight month, or just not thinking about HVAC maintenance in August. Non-response doesn't mark a customer as gone.

Customers who complete the initial SMS and email sequence without responding move to a slow-nurture hold. Ninety days later, they receive a second sequence — different angle, different offer, different seasonal hook. A customer who didn't respond to a fall furnace-check offer in October might respond to a late-winter system-prep message in February. The second touch is designed to land in a different context.

Spacing is intentional. Two relevant contacts per year is useful follow-up. Six messages in six weeks is spam — and earns blocks and complaint reports. The system never sends a second sequence until the 90-day hold expires.

Customers who reply STOP at any point are removed immediately from all channels and never re-contacted through this sequence. Suppression is automatic — you don't maintain a do-not-contact list by hand.

The result: every dormant past customer gets at least two well-timed reactivation attempts before being marked inactive. You're running jobs. The system is working the list.

For specific questions about suppression rules, list size minimums, and response handling edge cases, check the frequently asked questions about customer reactivation.

There is no dashboard for you to log into. No sequence builder, no report to pull, no settings page to check.

Your experience: booked appointments show up in your existing calendar. Each one tagged "Reactivation" so you know exactly where it came from. You show up to the job. You get paid.

Once a month, we send you a text summary — jobs recovered from the reactivation list, total booked value, anything notable. One text. No login required.

If a message template stops performing, we rewrite it. If your slow season shifts, we adjust the timing windows. If you add a new service line, we add a segmentation tag for it. You don't manage any of this — we do. That's the difference between a software license and an operated system.

Want to know exactly what the first 48 hours look like from your end? See the full 48-hour onboarding process — that page walks through every step from signing up to watching the first reactivation appointment land in your calendar.