Service businesses
Service business management software that answers calls
While you're on a job, Esplanda answers calls and email, books work, chases quotes and asks every customer for a review.
Esplanda POS and your website are free to start, with no card needed. Add paid tools only when you want them: AI Phone is $149 a month with 500 answered minutes, then 20¢ a minute, and the AI Chat & Order Helper is $29 a month, with the first 90 days free. See how Esplanda works.
The phone
The missed call, answered
A service call is urgent in a way a shop visit isn't. Someone with a leak or a dead furnace calls a few numbers and hires whoever picks up first, and the lost job never shows up anywhere you can see it.
It does
- Keeps your number. Only the calls you miss forward to Esplanda, or the whole line if you choose.
- Answers the routine part: what you do, the areas you cover and your hours.
- Takes the full job details, properly.
- Tells callers it's your business's AI receptionist.
It always
- Sticks to your prices. It quotes only what you've priced; anything else becomes a callback.
- Puts urgent calls through. Anything urgent or unusual goes to a person right away, without dropping the call.
AI Phone is $149 per location per month with 500 answered minutes, then 20¢ a minute. It quotes only the prices you've set and books only the job types you allow. Web chat, owner inbox triage and the staff answer device are the AI Chat & Order Helper, $29 a month with the first 90 days free, and every conversation is logged against the customer record.
See how our AI receptionist handles calls.
Illustrative example
Between jobs
The work around the work
The expensive failures in a service business are quiet ones: the quote nobody chased, the review nobody asked for, the customer who was due months ago.
Every quote followed up
A check-in a couple of days out, a second after a week and a polite last one, on your schedule. It stops the moment the customer replies or books, and over time you see which kinds of job you tend to win. It runs from our marketing automation for small business.
A review ask after every job
Every customer is asked the same way, so every review comes from a real customer. A reply is drafted for each one, 3, 4 and 5 star reviews can be answered inside your tone rules, and replies to 1–2 star reviews always come to you: read why Esplanda is safe to trust. Changes to your Google profile, service areas and hours are prepared for your OK. See our review management software and local SEO software.
Reminders when service is due
Gutters every year, the furnace before winter, the AC before summer. Each customer hears from you when they're due, with a mention of the last job. Texts go only to customers who agreed to hear from you, inside the contact limits you set. See our text message marketing for small business.
Jobs and crew on one calendar
Esplanda works as small business scheduling software for the jobs and the crew. With AI Phone, calls book jobs into the open times you set. With Employee Scheduling & Attendance, Esplanda builds next week's schedule from forecast demand, prices it and flags overtime and days above your labor target before you post it. Clean hours go straight to the payroll provider you already use. See our staff scheduling software and the time clock app for small business.
Quote follow-ups, review requests, reminders and your Google profile run on Marketing — Do It Yourself: Esplanda shows which quotes are going cold and who is due, writes every message, and sends it by email or text on your schedule or holds it for your approval, inside your contact limits. Review replies are Reviews & Reputation. Each line’s price is in the table below.
Beyond the calls
Everything else a service business runs on
Service business software has to cover more than the phone. Esplanda keeps the money, the reports, the marketing and the payments in the same system as the calls, quotes and reviews.
| The job | What Esplanda does |
|---|---|
| Money | Expenses, profit and loss, cash flow and the balance sheet kept current from the same data, with Books & Expenses, our expense tracking software for small business. |
| Owner reports | A daily and a weekly report that take minutes to read. Ask in plain words, such as “How many quotes went out last month, and how many closed?”, and get the answer from your own numbers, with our AI business assistant. |
| Email and text | Messages segmented by the work each customer had done, sent inside the contact limits you set, to customers who agreed to hear from you. |
| Ads | Google, Meta and TikTok inside a cap you set per channel, judged on profit after the ad cost, with media on your own card, never marked up, and no ad spend committed without your approval. Ads run on Marketing — Do It Yourself. |
| Card payments | Optional. Take cards through Esplanda, a reseller for First American Payment Systems (a Deluxe company), from 2.79% + $0.10 in person and 2.89% + $0.30 online, with your rate set when First American approves your account, or keep your processor, with every software price the same on it. More on credit card processing for small business. |
The reports live in our business reporting software.
Built for
Who Esplanda is built for
Esplanda runs the calls, quotes, reviews and reminders around the work, for owner-run businesses.
Built for owner-run businesses
- Owner-run home services: plumbing, HVAC, electrical, cleaning, landscaping and similar trades.
- Owners on the tools all day who miss calls because of it.
- Salons and repair shops with a counter, where the POS system with inventory management is free; a shop that sells more product than service runs on our retail POS system.
- Businesses that don't carry stock. Inventory and purchasing simply stay off.
Works with what you have
- Your number: keep it. Only the calls you miss forward to Esplanda, or the whole line if you choose.
- Your prices: the phone line quotes only the prices you've set and books only the job types you allow.
- Your payroll provider: clean hours go straight to the payroll provider you already use.
Pricing
What each line costs, one by one
Esplanda POS and your website are free. Everything a service business adds is its own line, priced per location per month, and you take only the ones you want.
| The line | What it does for you | Price |
|---|---|---|
| AI Phone | Answers the calls you miss, takes the full job details, quotes only your prices and books only the job types you allow. | $149 a month, with 500 answered minutes, then 20¢ a minute |
| AI Chat & Order Helper | Web chat, owner inbox triage and the staff answer device, with every conversation logged against the customer record. | $29 a month, first 90 days free |
| Reviews & Reputation | A reply drafted in your voice for every review; 3, 4 and 5 star replies sent inside your tone rules if you allow it; 1–2 star reviews always come to you. | $79 a month |
| Marketing — Do It Yourself | Quote follow-ups, review requests and service reminders by email and text, your Google profile, service areas and hours, and ads with media on your own card, never marked up. Grow My Business ($699) contains it, so the two are never billed together. | $199 a month |
| Employee Scheduling & Attendance | Next week’s crew schedule built from forecast demand and priced before you post it, with clean hours for the payroll provider you already use. | $49 a month |
| Books & Expenses | Expenses, profit and loss, cash flow and the balance sheet kept current, ready for your bookkeeper. | $99 a month |
| Forms | Booking, quote-request and intake forms on your website, with no per-form or per-submission fee. See online order forms for small business. | $29 a month |
Free
Esplanda POS and your website
$0 for the register, with the migration and 30 days of parallel running. It runs on the computer, tablet or phone you already have, and tested POS hardware is a one-time purchase if you want new gear. Your website has free hosting, then 99¢ per online order, never more than $299 in a month. Email and chat support are free.
Per location per month · No setup fee, no contract, no per-user fees · Every software price is the same on the processor you have · No card needed to start
See full Esplanda pricing.
Getting started
Setting up service business software, step by step
There's no stock list to move. Setup is mostly telling Esplanda what you do, where you work and what it may say for you.
Describe your services and area
What you do, the towns or ZIP codes you cover and your hours.
Add the prices it may quote
A call-out fee or a standard job price. Anything unpriced becomes a callback, not a guess.
Choose what it may book
Which jobs, into which open times, and which always come to you first.
Forward the calls you miss
Keep your number. Missed calls go to Esplanda instead of voicemail.
Set reviews and reminders
How soon after a job it asks for a review, and how often each service comes due.
Read the first week back
Every call, text and email sits in one inbox. Adjust what it says as you go.
Questions
Service business software questions owners ask
What is service business management software?
Service business management software runs everything around the work itself: answering calls and messages, booking jobs, following up on quotes, asking for reviews and bringing past customers back. Esplanda does all of that in one system for owner-run service businesses, and you approve what matters.
What software does a small service business need?
Software that answers every inquiry, follows up every quote and brings past customers back when they're due, plus reviews and local search. Esplanda covers all of it in one system, with money, reports, email and text, ads and card payments alongside. The register and the website are free, and each paid part is its own line, priced on its own.
Can an AI receptionist answer calls for my service business?
Yes. Esplanda answers the calls you can't take: what you do, the areas you cover and your hours, and it takes the full job details. It tells callers it's your business's AI receptionist and hands anything urgent to a person. It quotes only the prices you've set and books only the work you allow. AI Phone is $149 per location per month with 500 answered minutes, then 20¢ a minute, and the line stops at 1,000 minutes until you approve a top-up. Web chat, owner inbox triage and the staff answer device are the AI Chat and Order Helper, $29 a month, with the first 90 days free.
Does Esplanda work as plumbing business software?
Yes. For plumbers, HVAC and electrical contractors and other home services, Esplanda answers calls while you're on a job with AI Phone, and books work into the open times you allow. With Marketing — Do It Yourself, it shows which quotes are going cold and who is due for service, and writes the quote follow-ups, review requests and reminders, sent by email or text on your schedule or held for your approval. Inventory and purchasing stay off unless you carry parts.
Does Esplanda handle scheduling for a small business?
Yes, in two ways. The AI phone line books customer jobs into the times you've opened, and only the kinds of job you allow. Crew scheduling is Employee Scheduling and Attendance, $49 a month: Esplanda builds next week's schedule from forecast demand, prices it and flags overtime and days above your labor target before you post it. Clean hours go straight to the payroll provider you already use.
How do I get more Google reviews for my service business?
Ask every customer, shortly after every job, the same way. With Marketing — Do It Yourself, Esplanda tells you who to ask and when, and sends each request by email or text the customer agreed to, inside your contact limits, or holds it for your approval. With Reviews and Reputation it drafts a reply to each review, and any complaint comes straight to you so you can put the job right. Every review comes from a real customer, asked the same way as everyone else.
Do I need inventory features if I don't sell products?
No. Inventory and purchasing stay switched off for service businesses that don't carry stock, and nothing else depends on them. If you carry parts or sell over a counter, turn them on and ring sales on Esplanda POS, which is free.
How much does service business software cost with Esplanda?
Esplanda POS and your website are free: the register comes with the migration and 30 days of parallel running and runs on the computer, tablet or phone you already have, and the website has free hosting, then 99¢ per online order, never more than $299 in a month. Email and chat support are free too. Everything else is its own line, per location per month: AI Phone $149 with 500 answered minutes, then 20¢ a minute; AI Chat and Order Helper $29, with the first 90 days free; Reviews and Reputation $79; Marketing — Do It Yourself $199, or Grow My Business $699, which contains it; Employee Scheduling and Attendance $49; Books and Expenses $99; Forms $29. No setup fee, no contract and no per-user fees. Every current price is on the Esplanda pricing page.
Turn the next call into a booked job
Start free today, or book a demo and we'll walk through Esplanda on a business like yours.
Esplanda POS and your website are free to start, with no card needed. Add paid tools only when you want them: AI Phone is $149 a month with 500 answered minutes, then 20¢ a minute, and the AI Chat & Order Helper is $29 a month, with the first 90 days free.
