Five automations local businesses actually pay for, the exact build recipe for each, and the price to put on the invoice. Build all five once, sell them forever.
Everything below runs on GoHighLevel. One platform, one login, and every automation lives in a sub-account you own while the client pays you monthly. Grab the $97/mo Starter plan to build, upgrade to the $297/mo Unlimited plan when you have more than one client so each business gets its own sub-account.
Two things to do today, because they take the longest: buy a phone number inside GHL (Settings, Phone Numbers), then submit A2P 10DLC registration for the client's business. US carriers require it before business texts will deliver reliably, and approval can take days. Start it first, build while you wait.
A local business misses a call, the caller phones the next company on Google, the job is gone. This automation texts the caller back before that happens. It's the best first sell on this list because the owner already feels the pain every single day.
Build it in GHL as one workflow:
# Workflow: missed-call-textback trigger: Call Status = no answer / busy / voicemail action 1: Send SMS "Sorry we missed you at {{location.name}}! How can we help? Book here: {{booking_link}}" action 2: If/Else → contact replies yes → notify owner + push booking link no → follow-up SMS after 1 hour ✓ lead answered while they're still holding the phone
Test it yourself: call the tracked number, let it ring out, and confirm the text lands within seconds. Then show the owner that test on their own phone. It closes deals on the spot.
Owners beg for reviews more than anything else. The fix is timing: ask a few hours after the invoice is paid, while the customer is still happy, with a link that takes one tap.
# Workflow: review-request trigger: Invoice Paid (or job marked complete in their CRM) wait: 4 hours action 1: Send SMS "Thanks for choosing {{location.name}}! Quick favor? One tap: {{review_link}}" action 2: no click in 3 days → one polite nudge, then stop ✓ direct Google review link: g.page/r/YOUR-CLIENT/review
Get the real link from the client's Google Business Profile: hit "Ask for reviews" and copy the short URL. If a customer replies with a complaint instead of clicking, route that conversation to the owner immediately so they can fix it before it goes public.
Most local businesses take hours or days to answer a new lead. The first company to respond usually wins the job. Your automation answers in under a minute, every time, from every lead source.
# Workflow: speed-to-lead trigger: Form Submitted (FB lead form, website, GMB chat) action 1: Send SMS within 60s "Hi {{contact.first_name}}, saw your request! Want a quick quote today? Reply YES." action 2: Send intro email + tag contact "hot-lead" action 3: reply detected → Call Connect dials the owner's cell, then bridges the lead in ✓ lead talking to a human while competitors sleep
Connect every lead source the client has: Facebook lead forms plug into GHL natively, website forms embed directly, and anything else comes in through a webhook. The pitch writes itself: fill out their own contact form in front of them, then watch their face when the text arrives before you finish the sentence.
No-shows quietly burn 20 to 30 percent of revenue in appointment businesses like med spas, salons, dentists, and detailers. Three timed reminders fix most of it, and the build takes an afternoon.
# Workflow: appointment-reminders trigger: Appointment Booked action 1: SMS 24h before → "Reply C to confirm" action 2: SMS 2h before → address + parking note action 3: SMS 30m before → "See you soon!" branch: reply "R" → send reschedule link a reschedule is a save, not a loss ✓ every appointment confirmed or rebooked, zero manual work
Use GHL's calendar or sync the client's existing Google Calendar so bookings flow in automatically. The reschedule branch matters most: a customer who reschedules was a guaranteed no-show a minute earlier.
Half the calls a local business gets are the same ten questions: hours, pricing, service area, do you do X. A bot trained on their actual business answers those on the website and over SMS, then books the job. At 2am. On Sundays.
Use Claude to build the knowledge base, then load it into GHL's Conversation AI:
> claude "Read acmeplumbing.com and this list of
their 15 most common customer questions. Write a
FAQ knowledge base with exact answers, plus rules:
if the visitor wants a quote or booking, send
{{booking_link}}. If unsure, say a human will
follow up and tag the conversation for the owner."
✓ paste into Conversation AI → deploy to webchat + SMS
The escalation rule is the whole game. A bot that admits what it doesn't know and hands off to a human keeps the owner's trust. A bot that guesses about pricing loses you the client.
Don't sell all five at once. Lead with the one that matches the loudest pain: missed calls for trades, no-shows for med spas, reviews for anyone new to Google. Land one automation, prove it with a 30-day report from GHL's dashboard, then expand.
A la carte, the full stack runs about $1,450/mo. Once a client trusts you, bundle everything at $997/mo and it feels like a steal while tripling your revenue per client. Ten clients on the bundle is a six-figure run rate from systems you built once.
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