What FirstQuote knows about Yelp
Yelp isn't a generic inbox, and an auto responder that treats it like one answers badly. These are the things about Yelp that shape how FirstQuote replies.
Your response badges are public. Yelp shows a Response Rate and a Response Time on your business page, built from how quickly and how often you answer. Homeowners comparing three plumbers can see which one answers in minutes and which one takes a day. Answering everything, immediately, quietly improves the thing every future visitor to your page sees before they ever message you.
Request a Quote goes to more than one business. When someone uses Request a Quote, the same job description can land with several pros at once. You're not deciding whether to reply, you're racing. The first useful reply is usually the one that gets the conversation, and the rest are answering someone who has already made up their mind.
Photos come attached to the request. Yelp lets customers send pictures, and homeowners use it constantly, because it's easier than describing the problem. FirstQuote looks at those photos before it writes anything, so a picture of a corroded shut-off valve gets a reply about a shut-off valve, not a greeting.
The phone number shows up when they share it. Yelp keeps the conversation in messages until the customer chooses to share their number. When they do, it comes through to FirstQuote, and that's what makes the live call transfer possible. Until then the Yelp thread is the channel, and FirstQuote works it the way you would.
Your own replies take over the conversation. Yelp's app is still yours. Answer from your phone whenever you want, and that conversation becomes yours alone. FirstQuote sees your message and steps back from that lead for good, so there are no double replies and no crossed wires.
Each business is set up separately. Two locations or two brands means two Yelp connections and two sets of instructions, so the drain-cleaning side doesn't answer like the remodel side. They all live in one account.
It works on messages, and only messages. FirstQuote doesn't answer your phone line, doesn't respond to your reviews, and doesn't put anything on your calendar. What it does is make sure every conversation in your Yelp business inbox gets a real answer from your business. The rest of your Yelp presence stays exactly the way you run it.
Why the first useful reply wins on Yelp
A Yelp lead isn't a customer yet. They sent the same request to a handful of businesses and they're holding the phone, waiting to see who comes back with something worth reading. The first company that does gets to shape the decision. On Yelp that same speed is also written onto your business page as a badge for the next customer to see, so the message that came in at 7:40 on a Tuesday night and got answered at 9:15 costs you twice: the job, and a little of the next one. The general case for answering fast, with the research behind it, is in speed to lead. What's particular to Yelp is that the platform keeps score in public.
Connecting Yelp, and what happens after
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Connect Yelp once. Sign in to Yelp, pick which business to connect, and you're done. It takes about two clicks and uses Yelp's official partner connection, the same channel Yelp's own tools use, so your replies appear in your Yelp inbox as messages from your business, exactly like the ones you type yourself. The step-by-step is in connecting Yelp.
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Every message in your inbox is answered. It doesn't matter whether the lead came from a Yelp ad, from someone browsing your listing, or from a Request a Quote. If it lands in your Yelp business inbox, FirstQuote sees it the moment it arrives and answers it while the customer is still holding the phone.
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Photos are read before the reply is written. If the homeowner attached pictures, FirstQuote looks at them first, so the reply talks about the cracked section of driveway in the photo instead of asking what the job is.
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When the customer shares their number, the handoff is ready. Yelp passes the number through once the customer opts in, and from then on FirstQuote can call your phone, tell you about the job, and connect you straight to the homeowner when you press 1.
From there it's the same conversation FirstQuote runs on every lead source. It writes from your instructions (what you do, what you don't, roughly what you charge, how you like to talk to customers), asks the one or two questions you'd need before you could quote, follows up on the schedule you set if the customer goes quiet, and gets you by text, email, or a call once the job is ready. A lead that was never a fit gets a polite decline and doesn't count toward what you pay. The features page walks through all of that, and automated follow-up covers how the follow-up schedule behaves.
Read what it says to your next five leads
The fastest way to know whether this works for your business is to let it answer a handful of real Yelp leads and read the conversations afterward. Your first 5 qualified leads are free, no card required. After that you pay per qualified lead, billed weekly. There's no monthly subscription, and leads that weren't a fit don't count.
Every homeowner who writes to you on Yelp at 8pm on a Sunday, while you're under a sink, gets a real answer from your business in seconds. The good ones end up on the phone with you. Your Response Time badge takes care of itself.
How it compares
| FirstQuote | Replying yourself | |
|---|---|---|
| The Response Time badge on your Yelp page | Built from replies in seconds, every day | Built from whatever the week allowed |
| A Request a Quote sent to several businesses | Yours is the first useful reply | Yours arrives after two others |
| Photos attached to the request | Read before the reply is written | Opened later on your phone |
| A message at 8pm on a Sunday | Answered at 8pm on a Sunday | Answered Monday |
| The number the customer shares | Ready for a one-keypress call transfer | Copied out by hand |
| When you reply from the Yelp app | FirstQuote steps back for good | You were already in it |