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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.servicebooked.ca/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

When someone calls and you don’t pick up, ServiceBooked sends them a text within seconds. They reply, the AI starts a conversation, and you’ve kept a lead that would have otherwise gone to your competitor. This is the simplest, highest-impact feature in the whole product. Most owners see a ~3× lift in lead capture from this alone.

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How it works

  1. A customer calls your number.
  2. You don’t pick up (you’re on the tools, driving, or it’s after hours).
  3. Within ~5 seconds of the missed-call event, ServiceBooked sends the caller an SMS from the same number they just called. To them, it looks like a personal text from your business.
  4. When they reply, it goes into your Inbox and the AI takes over the conversation — answering questions, qualifying the lead, and (if you’ve connected a calendar) booking an appointment.

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Set it up

1

Make sure your number is connected

You need to have a ServiceBooked number and either Option A (we ring your phone) or Option B (your carrier forwards) wired up. See Connect your phone number.
2

Open Settings → Phone

From your dashboard, navigate to Settings → Phone.
3

Enable missed-call auto-text

Toggle Missed call auto-text to on.
4

Customize the message

The default works well for most service businesses, but you can edit it. Use {{business_name}} in the message body and we’ll automatically substitute your business name.SMS character budget is 160. Stay under that to avoid splitting into two messages (which can lower delivery rates).
5

Choose which call statuses fire the auto-text

Below the message, four checkboxes control when auto-text fires:
  • No answer — caller waited but you never picked up. Always check this.
  • Busy — caller hit your busy signal. Almost always check.
  • Failed — call dropped or routing failed. Check.
  • Canceled — caller hung up before you could answer. Check this too — these are your hottest leads.
Default is all four checked.
6

Save

Click Save. The change takes effect immediately for the next call.

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What makes a good auto-text message?

The default we ship is intentional:
Hi! Sorry we missed your call — what can we help you with?
A few things make this work:
  • Open-ended question. “What can we help you with?” begs for a reply. A passive “we’ll call you back soon” gets crickets.
  • Apologetic, not corporate. “Sorry we missed your call” is what a real person texts back. “Thank you for contacting [Business Name LLC]” is what a robot does.
  • Short. Long messages feel scripted. Short ones feel human.
  • No “press 1 for…” They already called. Make it easy for them to just type what they need.
If you’re going to customize, keep those principles. Some good variants:
Hey, sorry I missed you — what’s going on at your place?
Hi from ! Just stepping away from the truck. What can I help with?
Hey! On a job and couldn’t pick up. Drop me a quick note about what you need and I’ll get back to you ASAP.
Don’t:
  • Pitch services (“We offer 24/7 emergency plumbing service…”). Too corporate.
  • Promise a callback time you can’t keep (“I’ll call you back in 5 minutes”).
  • Skip the open question. Without it, lots of callers don’t reply.
We automatically append Reply STOP to opt out. to your auto-text. This is required by US carriers (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile) for business-initiated SMS. Without it, your messages get filtered by the carrier and never reach the recipient. You don’t need to add this manually — we add it for you. If your custom message already mentions STOP/opt-out, we won’t double-add.

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What about texts you didn’t write?

The auto-text is the FIRST message. After that, when the customer replies, the AI takes over the conversation using your business hours, services, and knowledge base. You can read more about how that works in SMS replies. You can also disable AI replies and just have the auto-text without follow-up — though we’d encourage you to try the AI for at least a week. It’s the difference between “we got their text” and “we booked the job.”

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A2P 10DLC registration

Before US carriers will deliver your texts reliably, you need to register your brand under A2P 10DLC. This is a one-time process you complete in your Twilio account. Without it, messages will look like they’re sending from our side but get silently filtered before reaching customers. Full A2P 10DLC walkthrough →

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Common questions

Will my auto-text replace my voicemail greeting? No — voicemail is independent. If voicemail is enabled and the caller waits past the auto-text, they can still leave a message; we’ll transcribe it and add it to the conversation. What if a customer calls multiple times in a row? We deduplicate by caller ID + a short window, so frantic redials don’t generate three texts. The auto-text fires once per real “missed call” event. Can I exclude my own number / partners / spam callers? Not yet — the auto-text fires on every real missed call. If you have a known spam-caller problem, add their number to your phone’s blocked list at the carrier level so the call never reaches us. Can I send different messages on weekends / after hours? The single auto-text message is what fires regardless of time. The AI’s follow-up responses (after the customer replies) DO use your business hours and respond differently outside hours. So a customer texting at 11pm gets the same first auto-text but the AI’s answer to “are you open right now?” reflects reality.

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Next

Voice AI assistant

Have the AI actually answer the phone — not just text back.

A2P 10DLC compliance

Register your brand so US carriers don’t filter your texts.