The $12k Job Nobody Followed Up On
The Quote That Went Nowhere
A storm-belt roofer we work with sent out a $12,000 estimate on a Thursday afternoon. Friday got busy. Monday, a competitor had already signed the homeowner.
The job wasn't lost because the price was wrong. It was lost because nobody owned the follow-through.
Operations Is a Person Problem, Not a Process Problem
Most small businesses don't have an ops gap - they have a bandwidth gap. The owner is also the project manager, the scheduler, and the person who remembers to call people back.
When that person gets pulled into the field, the office, or just a bad week, things fall through. Every time.
What Mike Actually Does
Mike is ARC's operations AI Employee. His job is to own the in-between moments - the follow-up after a quote goes out, the reminder before a job starts, the check-in when a deadline is approaching.
One HVAC company we work with had Mike handling their post-estimate sequence. Response rates on pending quotes improved enough in the first 60 days that they covered his cost several times over - though results vary by business and market.
This Isn't Automation, It's Accountability
The difference matters. Automation fires off a generic email. Mike tracks the thread, adjusts timing based on what's already been sent, and flags anything that's gone cold for a human to review.
You're not setting up a drip campaign. You're hiring someone whose job is to make sure nothing slips.
What It Costs to Get Started
Mike on his own fits into the Starter tier at $1,499 per month, plus a one-time $5,000 onboarding fee. That onboarding is where he gets trained on your workflow, your tone, and what "follow up" actually means in your business.
If ops is the gap but you also need sales coverage, the Full Team tier at $4,999 per month pairs Mike with Sutton, Hudson, and a third teammate - it's the most popular option for a reason.
Hire Mike First
If you've ever sent a quote and thought "I should follow up on that" - and then didn't - Mike is the hire to make. Start with a 14-day free trial and build out the follow-through system your business has been missing. The leads are already there. Someone just has to own what happens next.
Sutton, Hudson, Tom, Sarah, Christi, Mike. Six named AI teammates working 24/7. The audit maps which one bleeds the most money in your shop today.
Why your team is actually a team of six
Sales, outreach, reception, customer success, marketing, ops — six roles. We named them and put them on payroll.
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