Questions owners actually ask

Cover the three leaks: the surge (instant response on every inquiry — text-back at minimum — plus self-serve rescheduling so plan customers stop clogging the phone), the too-late callback (respond in under a minute, automatically), and the customer who never calls because they asked an AI assistant (be bookable inside it). Rescheduling and text-back this week; surge coverage before next season.

Because a large share of a pest company's inbound calls aren't new sales — they're quarterly-plan customers moving a visit. Every one of those that needs a phone call competes with a new customer trying to book. A text or link that lets plan customers move a service is the cheapest plug in this guide: it frees the phone for the calls that are actually revenue.

Yes, if you're connected — through Canopy the assistant sees real availability and books the initial treatment or inspection into your software. Unconnected companies get named but not booked: in Copp Oak's study of 11,676 ChatGPT and Gemini answers, 79.1% offered neither a booking path nor a connector.

The plan. The first response wins the initial treatment, and the initial treatment is the audition for the recurring agreement behind it. That's why a callback that evening is a courtesy call to someone who has already signed with a competitor — you didn't lose a ticket, you lost the annuity.

Phone AI is priced per minute or as a platform add-on. Canopy is around $100 per booked job that shows up, no monthly fee, with new companies on a 3-month free pilot — you pay nothing until booked jobs actually arrive, and the off-season costs nothing.

Call your own shop at 11am on a busy weekday and count the rings. Then ask an AI assistant to book quarterly pest control in your town and see who gets named and whether anyone can actually be booked. Whatever you find is what your market finds — during the surge, and in the assistant, every week.