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Yelp Bot Setup Overview

and how it works with ServiceTitan, Podium

Overview

The Yelp Bot system is designed to handle two main functions: automatically replying to messages to gather a customer’s phone number and maintaining high reply rates.

  • Primary Goal: The AI bot’s primary objective is to capture the customer’s phone number.
  • Workflow: The current setup delegates the task of requesting the phone number to the bot. If the phone number is not obtained, the AI continues to send a sequence of follow-up messages in the Yelp chat to try and acquire it before alerting a CSR.

Bot’s Behavior:

  • When a customer provides their phone number, the bot automatically stops replying. The lead is then considered qualified and pushed to the configured CRM (Service Titan or HouseCall Pro) for manual follow-up.
  • If a customer replies with a different question without providing a phone number, the bot continues the conversation by sending a pre-set sequence of follow-up messages, which are designed to re-request the phone number, until the number is acquired.
  • The bot will also immediately stop replying to a thread if a member of your team (CSR) includes *** in their message. This is a technical “ban” trigger configured in the bot’s setup to allow manual takeover.

Notifications are only set to be sent when phone number is acquired for lead qualification purposes. We can send notifications for every lead, but it is not recomended.

How it works

Service Titan Connection

When the AI bot captures a customer’s phone number, the qualified lead is transferred and routed to Service Titan (ST).

  • Lead Handoff: The AI autoresponder captures the customer’s phone number, and this event is visible in the Chat section of ServiceTitan. Leads with a phone number is also pushed to Booking in ServiceTitan.
  • Notifications: SMS notifications for new leads with phone numbers are set to be sent to prefered phone number. We recommend ServiceTitan Chat. Note: Service Titan’s chat offers visibility for CSRs, but it lacks a native auto-reply tool for chat messages. CSR’s should not response to the notification’s phone number

Screenshots Coming Soon….

Podium Connection

For clients who use Podium, the AI bot’s successful phone number acquisition triggers a lead notification directly to Podium.

Notifications: A specific notification type, “Yelp Chat Message Notification,” is set up via a webhook to Podium’s API, and it is configured to only trigger when the Yelp bot acquires a phone number. this is how notification looks in Podium.

Functionality: Podium uses Notification phone number to follow up with the customer through Podium chat. Replies in Podium chat go directly to the customers phone number, they are not posted in Yelp.