What does Front Counter AI do?

We build your website, run your Google listing and ads, send emails and texts to your customers, answer your phones with an AI Receptionist and set up Claude, Gemini or ChatGPT in your office. Pricing is set on a short call and put in writing before any work starts.

Who runs my website and my Google listing?

We do. Your website, your domain, your Google listing and your ad account are hosted and run on our accounts, so one company is accountable for all of it and nothing waits on a sign-up you have not done. What happens if you ever leave is confirmed on the call.

What does the Website Refresh include?

Two working sessions with you, and the site is done. Up to six pages on one of our designs, built for phones with a tap-to-call button on every screen, your Google reviews on the page and an estimate form that texts you, live in five business days. After launch, Hosting and Care includes one content change each month.

What does the Custom Storefront include?

A custom design with AI built in: an AI estimate agent that asks the right questions, gathers photos and books the visit; an AI chat agent that answers questions about hours, prices, your service area and what to expect; voice, so a customer can talk to the site out loud and get an answer; and the search words your customers actually use, with a page for every service in every town. Four working sessions, live in about 30 days.

Is the ad money extra?

Yes. Your ad money goes to Google on top of our fee, at the budget you set, and you see every dollar. The ad account is run on our accounts, so one company is accountable for all of it. Our fee is set on a short call and confirmed in writing before any work starts.

How is the AI Receptionist priced?

It is priced on a short call and confirmed in writing before any work starts, month to month. Your number and minutes are billed at the carrier's cost with no markup. It takes only the calls you miss, answers the way a receptionist does, and is live in about two weeks.

What is AI in Your Business?

We set up Claude, Gemini or ChatGPT in your office over four weeks: your files in one place and searchable, your email and calendar connected, your price book loaded, QuickBooks connected, and four classes for your team with a written playbook. Nothing custom-built. Priced on a short call, in writing before any work starts.

How do I get the free sample designs?

Give the business name and town, and a cell number or an email. A person on our team calls you for a short call (with only an email, we email you to set one up), the same business day (Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific; otherwise by 9 a.m. the next business day), then sends three sample designs of your front page, built around your business, so you can pick the one you like, and a snapshot of how you show up on Google. Designs to look at, not a working website; the one you pick becomes your site when you say go. Free, no sign-up.

How do I reach a person?

Leave your number and a person calls you back the same business day, Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific; otherwise by 9 a.m. the next business day. Or pick a 20-minute call at https://cal.com/frontcounter.ai/call, or email sam@frontcounter.ai. Or talk to Sam, our AI agent, right now, out loud or in writing, at https://frontcounter.ai/talk/. Or call (628) 303-3366: Sam, our AI agent, answers and takes the message for a person.

Who do you work with?

Established owner-run businesses of every kind, anywhere in the United States, by phone, video and email: roofing companies, trucking companies, plumbers, electricians, heating and air companies, pest control and every other kind of business with customers, phones and a website.

Who runs Front Counter AI?

Front Counter AI was founded by Jeff, an owner who built systems to run his own businesses better. Our team builds and runs those systems for other owners, with AI doing in minutes what used to take weeks.

No. Sam is an AI agent, our Chief AI Officer, and says so. A person on our team sees every request.

How to get more Google reviews for a contracting business without breaking the rules

More reviews than the shop next to you on the list is the cheapest advantage in the trades, and most owners never ask. Here is the way that works, the rules that get a listing suspended, and what we do for you if you would rather not think about it.

Written by Front Counter AI. Published October 12, 2026.

The numbers from our scan.

In our October 2026 scan of Google's first pages, town by town, the typical electrician listed had between two and six reviews. Heating and air companies did a little better, but in every town most of the list sat under ten. That means twenty reviews, asked for the right way over a few months, puts a company near the top of the list in most of the towns we checked. Few things in business are that cheap.

The ask that works.

Ask every customer, the same way, the moment the job is done and the customer is happy to see you leave. Not a week later.
Send a text with the direct link to your review page. One tap, no searching. A printed card works for the customers who do not text.
One reminder three days later if nothing came in. Then stop. Nobody likes to be chased.
Reply to every review within a day, good or bad, with the customer's name and one true sentence about the job. Google shows the replies, and the next customer reads them.

The rules, and what breaks them.

Google's rules and the federal rule on reviews that took effect in 2024 say the same things. Never pay for a review, with money, a discount or a gift. Never ask only the customers you expect to be happy and skip the rest; that is called gating and Google removes listings for it. Never have staff or family write reviews. Never set up a review station in your shop. Never threaten or pressure anyone to change or remove a review. The federal rule carries civil penalties of more than fifty thousand dollars per violation, and Google can suspend the listing on its own.

Asking every customer the same way, with no reward attached, is allowed and is exactly what works. We ask every customer of every client the same way, and we never pay for or filter a review.

What to do with a bad review.

Reply once, calmly, the same day. Say what happened in one or two sentences, say what you are doing about it, and offer to make it right by phone. Never argue in the reply and never name the customer's mistakes. The reply is not for the reviewer; it is for the hundred people who read it next. If a review is plainly fake or from someone who was never a customer, report it to Google once and move on.

What we do for you.

Reviews and Listings does the whole habit for you: we ask after every job, reply to every review, post to your Google listing, Yelp, Facebook and Nextdoor every week, and keep your listings correct everywhere. Month to month, with 30 days' notice. If you want to see where you stand first, check your Google listing for free.

Questions owners ask.

Can I ask for five stars?
Ask for a review, not a rating. Asking for a number is the kind of pressure the rules are written against, and customers can tell.

Can I give a discount for a review?
No. Not a discount, not a gift card, not a raffle entry. Google removes reviews earned that way and can suspend the listing, and the federal rule treats it as a violation.

A competitor left a fake review. What now?
Report it through your listing once, and reply once in a calm sentence that you have no record of the job. Then keep collecting real reviews; they bury it.

How many reviews is enough?
More than the next company on your town's list, and then keep going. Google also weighs how recent they are, so a steady few every month beats a burst once a year.

Should I respond to the good ones too?
Yes. A short thank-you with the customer's first name and the job. It takes a minute and it shows the next customer that someone is home.