Skip to content
StrandCalls
Get Support

Services and quoting

The service catalog is your price book. It’s what lets the AI answer “how much is that?” — and it’s the only place the AI is ever allowed to get a number.

There are exactly three places a number can come from, and this page is the first: the service catalog, the minimum call-out charges for emergencies, and the membership plan prices. All three are tables you fill in. There is no fourth.

Configure the catalog in Settings → Services & Prices.

Each entry carries:

FieldWhat it does
NameWhat the caller asks for; also how it shows on the appointment
Subject classThe size or type qualifier this row is for — “sedan”, “full-size truck”, “large breed”. Two rows with the same name and different classes make one service with two prices
KeywordsExtra words a caller might use for this service, to help the lookup find it
PriceThe base price, in dollars
Maximum priceThe top of the range, when the quote policy is a range
Duration (minutes)Reserved on the calendar — drives availability. Between 15 and 480
Quote policyHow the price is communicated (below)
DepositAmount to collect at booking, if any — see Deposits
Intake questionsUp to 10 questions the AI must ask before booking this job
UpsellA related service to offer
Don’t offer ifConditions under which this service should not be suggested

The quote policy is how honest-but-useful gets encoded. Four options:

  • Exact — “That’s $189.” Use for fixed-price work where you’ll stand behind the number sight unseen.
  • Starting at — “That starts at $189.” Use when the price is a floor and scope can push it up.
  • Range — “That runs $189 to $340.” Uses the price and maximum price fields. Use when the honest answer really is a spread.
  • Never — the AI does not quote this service at all, and instead books the job or takes a message for you to price. Use for anything you refuse to price over the phone.

Every quote the AI gives is logged against the call — the service, the policy, and the figure — so you can see exactly what was said to whom, even if you change the price afterwards.

Give two rows the same name and different subject classes and the AI handles the difference on the call. Asked for a price it can’t pin down, it doesn’t guess and it doesn’t average: it asks which one applies — “is that a sedan or a full-size truck?” — and quotes only after the caller answers.

If every variant is priced with a starting at policy, it can answer with the cheapest as a floor instead of interrogating the caller. That’s the only case where it will answer an ambiguous question directly.

Per-service questions the AI asks before it will book. This is how you stop showing up to a job without the information you needed:

  • Tint shop: “What year, make, and model?”
  • Detailing: “Any pet hair? How many seats?”
  • Plumbing: “Is the water currently shut off?”

The AI asks these naturally in the flow of conversation and attaches the answers to the appointment. It also won’t re-ask something it already knows about a returning caller.

  • Upsell — a service to mention when this one is booked (“while we’re out there, do you want us to…”). At most one upsell per call, offered after the base price, and never a hard sell. Suggesting something cheaper that fits the caller better isn’t counted and is always allowed.
  • Don’t offer if — conditions that suppress a service. Use it for work you only do in season, only for existing customers, or only above a job size.

For anything visual, pair the catalog with photo intake: the AI asks the caller to text a picture, which lands on their record before you commit to a price or roll a truck.

Without catalog entries, the AI won’t quote — when a caller asks about price it says it can’t quote over the phone and that you’ll follow up. That’s a safe default, not a broken one. Add your top five or ten jobs first; those cover most calls.

Catalog quoting is available on every plan — turn it on by adding services in Settings → Services & Prices. The pricing rule itself — that the AI never invents a number — applies whether or not you’ve built a catalog. See Plans and billing.