"Anyone know a good painter in Amersham?" - and you actually see it.

Someone posts in a local Facebook group asking if anyone knows a good painter, plumber, electrician - whoever you are. By the time you happen to scroll past it, if you ever do, three other trades have already replied. That moment often decides who gets the job, long before a phone ever rings.

Nobody has time to sit refreshing local groups all day watching for it. An agent can.

Phase 1 - spotting it, and saying a quick hello

1. It watches for the moment. Local groups and pages, for the specific kind of "does anyone know a good..." post that's actually a buying signal - not scraping everyone's photos, just that.

2. It drafts a short, honest reply. Something like "Hi, I'm a local painter based nearby - happy to have a quick chat if that helps, just send me a DM." Friendly, not a sales pitch.

3. You approve it, fast. These moments move quickly, so checking the draft takes a tap, not a sit-down review - but it's still your tap, every time. Nothing goes out under your name unseen.

4. It doesn't just hope you saw the ping. A phone notification is easy to miss mid-job. Miss it for a few minutes, and it escalates - a call that leaves you a voicemail, or a text, whichever you'd rather have chasing you. Either way, it keeps nudging until you've actually seen it, not just until it's sent something.

Phase 2 - where the reply actually sends them

5. A normal page, not a script. The DM points to your actual FAQs and prices, written once and kept honest - a website if you've got one, a Facebook page if you haven't, so a stranger scrolling gets a straight answer without a back-and-forth chat.

6. It tells them what happens if you don't pick up. Because you might be up a ladder, not by a phone - the page says so plainly: if it goes to voicemail, leave one, and expect a call back within 20 minutes.

7. And it helps you actually keep that promise. A voicemail comes in, gets transcribed, and lands as a plain message on your phone - who called, and why - so the callback is quick because you already know what it's about.

Why almost nothing here sends itself

The short DM invite is about the only thing that goes out on a fast approval, and even that stays one honest line, never a pitch pretending to be a person. Everything past that - pricing questions, booking a job, anything that actually commits you to work - waits for you. Fast doesn't mean automatic.

Worth saying plainly: this is shown as a simple version. The same pattern can be built simple or pushed a lot further - more sources it watches, more it can draft, more it checks before handing back to you - depending on what your business actually needs.

Wondering if this needs new software first? Usually not - here's how that actually works.

What the £199 buys, and what it doesn't

The Working Diagnosis buys the plan for your version of this - which groups and platforms are actually worth watching, what your voicemail promise should realistically be, and what your FAQ page needs to answer honestly instead of vaguely. Not the build itself. The report is yours to keep either way. If we go further, the £199 is credited off the first invoice.