Apex Comms — for local trades
The text that takes the deposit.
A call you can’t answer becomes a text conversation that quotes your real prices, offers times you’re actually free, and holds the job with a deposit — before you’re off the ladder. We’re onboarding the first businesses now.
Joe's Plumbing: sorry we missed your call — this is our automated assistant. Reply here and we'll help. Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help.
How much to unclog a kitchen sink drain?
Drain unclogging is $125. Want me to find you a time?
Can you do tomorrow afternoon?
Tomorrow I've got 1:00pm or 3:30pm open — which works?
3:30
Let me make sure I have it right: drain unclogging, tomorrow at 3:30pm. A $31.25 deposit holds it. Reply YES to book it, or tell me what to change.
YES
You're booked. A $31.25 deposit holds it: [payment link]
— pays the deposit —
Joe's Plumbing: deposit received, you're confirmed for Thu 3:30 PM. We'll text a reminder the day before. Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help.
Your prices, and only your prices
It books at your price, or not at all.
The money that binds — the price on the booking, the deposit it takes — is computed from your own setup, in code the assistant can’t touch. It can never book or charge at a figure it made up. And every dollar amount in a reply is checked against your published prices before it leaves: a reply naming one you didn’t publish is never sent — the conversation comes to you instead.
How much to replace a sewer line?
That one we'd have to come and look at — no charge for looking. Want me to have Joe call you?
Sewer work isn't on Joe's list, so there's no price to quote — and a reply that tried to name one would be held, not sent.
Your website says drain cleaning is $40 — can you match that?
Drain unclogging is $125 — that's Joe's price. Want me to find you a time?
There's no $40 anywhere in Joe's setup, so a reply agreeing to it would be stopped before it sent and the thread handed to Joe.
Have Apex already?
One diary. One ledger. No second calendar.
Connect Comms to Apex and a missed call books straight into your real diary — it checks what’s already on before it offers a time, so two customers can’t be promised the same afternoon. The deposit is collected on the job itself, on the same ledger as the rest of your money, and when it’s paid the conversation knows. A booking bot with its own calendar and a card reader stapled to it is two more things to reconcile; this is zero.
The boundaries are the feature
What it refuses to do.
- Send a price you didn’t publish. Anything you haven’t priced never gets a number — the conversation comes to you with the customer’s question, and when a job is waiting on a price, the alert names the service so you can price it in a minute.
- Book a time you didn’t open. It offers slots from your hours and your diary, nothing else. 2am emergencies get handed to you, not booked.
- Bind anything without a read-back. The job, the time and the deposit are read back, and the customer says YES before anything is held.
- Text anyone who said STOP. One word ends it, permanently, checked at the moment of every send.
- Take money you said not to take. Deposits follow the rule you set, and a job you marked no-deposit books with no link and no charge.
- Bluff when it’s lost. Unsure means the conversation comes to you, with the thread attached — not a confident wrong answer to a customer holding a phone.
Pricing
Two plans, 14 days free.
Answer — $49/mo. Missed calls answered, your prices quoted, jobs booked. Front Desk — $99/mo. Everything in Answer, plus deposits collected in the conversation. And if Comms doesn’t book you 3 jobs in your first 60 days, those months are free.
Fair questions
Asked and answered.
- Is this a robot voice answering my phone?
- No conversation ever happens by voice, on purpose. A missed call gets a one-line spoken greeting saying a text is on its way — then everything happens by text. Your customer can read it from a ladder, answer it in a spare minute, or ignore it politely. Nobody sits through a robot pretending to be your office, and the first text says it's automated in the first sentence.
- What exactly happens when I miss a call?
- The caller gets one text back, naming your business and offering to help — sent on its own in full-auto mode, or after you approve it in draft mode, which is how every business starts. If they don't reply, that's the end: no second text, no list, no follow-up campaign. If they do reply, the conversation quotes your prices, offers times you're actually open, and books the job.
- What if someone asks something it doesn't know?
- It hands the conversation to you and tells the customer so — 'Let me get Joe to reply to you directly' — and you get an alert with the conversation one tap away. It does not guess. Anything you haven't priced never gets a number.
- Do I need the Apex app for this?
- No. Comms works on its own, with its own calendar and its own deposit collection. If you do run your business on Apex, they connect: jobs book straight into your Apex diary, the deposit is collected on the job itself, and the conversation knows when it's been paid.
- What does it cost?
- Answer is $49/mo — it answers, quotes your prices, and books jobs. Front Desk is $99/mo — everything in Answer, plus deposits collected in the conversation. Both start with 14 days free, card up front, cancel any time.
- What's the guarantee?
- If Comms doesn't book you 3 jobs in your first 60 days, those months are free — and the app itself tells you when we owe you, with a button to claim it. We built the scoreboard into the product because a guarantee you have to chase isn't one.
- How does a customer make it stop?
- They reply STOP. One word, and no further message is ever sent to that number. HELP gets them help. Both are in the very first text.
- Who's behind this?
- WiSense LLC — the same people as Apex, the website, scheduling and orders platform for independent businesses that this site is about.