Connecting your leads to JobBooker
How leads get in and replies get out, in plain English. Nothing here needs a computer person: if you can click a button in your lead source, you can do this.
What JobBooker is
JobBooker turns leads into booked jobs. It answers a new lead within seconds in your voice, keeps the conversation going, follows up with people who go quiet, books the job on your calendar, keeps every contact and conversation in one place, and runs the follow-through for each stage of the job. Texting and a voice agent are coming next; where the lead comes from is just the front door.
Today the front door is Yelp. Yelp doesn’t let outside software plug in directly unless you’re a Yelp partner, so we connect through Zapier using Yelp’s own free Yelp Leads app plus our Zapier app called JobBooker. Other lead sources connect the same way, through whatever Zapier trigger they offer. (Zapier is a service that passes messages between two apps that don’t talk to each other on their own. A “Zap” is one of those connections.)
You keep full control of your Yelp account; we never ask for your Yelp password.
The three pieces of JobBooker
There are exactly three. One takes things into JobBooker, and two send things out of it. Everything else is your lead source’s own app doing its job.
Process Lead
Action→ Into JobBooker- What it is
- An action is a step Zapier runs for you. This one hands us something that happened at your lead source.
- When it fires
- Every time the Zap it sits in is triggered by Yelp.
- What it carries
- The Yelp event itself: who the customer is, what they asked for, their answers to Yelp's questions, photos, ZIP code, and any phone number.
We do the work from there: create or update the lead, figure out what it is (an emergency? in your service area? a job you actually do? spam?), write the reply, decide whether it needs your approval, schedule the follow-ups, and raise any alerts.
It has one setting called Event that tells us what kind of thing arrived: New lead Customer message Business (human) message Phone number available. One action, four events. That’s why several of the templates below use the same step.
Reply Ready
Instant trigger← Out of JobBooker- What it is
- A trigger is a step that starts a Zap. Instant means it happens the moment we have something, with no waiting around.
- When it fires
- The moment we have a message for the customer: the first reply, a reply later in the conversation, a draft you approved, or a follow-up.
- What it carries
- The lead ID and the message text.
The template pairs it with Yelp’s Create Message step, so the text lands in the Yelp conversation where the customer will see it. One Zap handles every outgoing message, so you don’t need a separate one for follow-ups.
Owner Alert
Instant trigger← Out of JobBooker- What it is
- The nudge that reaches you personally, wherever you want it.
- When it fires
- When something needs you: an emergency lead, a customer shared a phone number, a draft is waiting for your approval (Review mode), a customer replied while you've taken over the thread yourself, or a booking.
- What it carries
- A kind, a title, the body text, how urgent it is, a link to the lead, and the alert phone number and email from your JobBooker Settings.
The kind is one of: emergency hot_lead phone_shared draft_pending customer_replied_paused booked.
This one is optional. Pair it with text message, email, or Slack. If you only want some of them, add a Zapier Filter step on the kind (a Filter is a step that stops the Zap unless a condition matches).
The templates
A template is a ready-made Zap. You don’t build anything. You click Use this Zap, sign in to Yelp Leads with your normal Yelp business login, pick JobBooker (the first time, paste the API key from JobBooker → Connect Yelp), and turn it on.
| Template | Yelp step | JobBooker step | Needed? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auto-reply to new Yelp leads | New Lead | Process Lead (New lead) | Required |
| Send JobBooker replies to Yelp | Create Message | Reply Ready | Required |
| Reply to Yelp customer messages | New Consumer Message | Process Lead (Customer message) | Recommended |
| Capture Yelp phone numbers | Phone Availability | Process Lead (Phone number available) | Recommended |
| Pause when you reply on Yelp yourself | New Business Message | Process Lead (Business message) | Recommended |
| Get alerts by text (or email) | - | Owner Alert | Optional |
Auto-reply to new Yelp leads
RequiredWithin seconds the customer gets a personalized first reply: their fixture, your price range, your hours, one question that qualifies the job, and a request for the best number to reach them if they didn’t already share one.
Pair this with the next template, or the replies never leave JobBooker.
Send JobBooker replies to Yelp
RequiredThis is the delivery van. It drops every reply and every follow-up into the Yelp conversation thread. Without it, JobBooker writes messages that nobody ever sees.
Reply to Yelp customer messages
RecommendedKeeps the conversation going after the first reply. It also spots a booking when someone writes something like “Tuesday morning works”, grabs a phone number typed into the chat, and cancels any follow-ups that were still queued up.
Capture Yelp phone numbers
RecommendedYelp passes the number along (often a Yelp forwarding number that rings through to the customer). We save it, stop the follow-ups, and alert you. That’s a lead worth calling.
Pause when you reply on Yelp yourself
RecommendedWhen you answer a customer in Yelp yourself, the AI stops answering that one thread. We call it human takeover. Your inbox then shows “needs you” when that customer replies again, so nothing gets dropped. Follow-ups keep running from your message, so a customer who goes quiet still gets nudged; press Pause AI on the lead if you want silence instead.
Get alerts by text (or email)
OptionalPings your phone when something needs you. Add a Zapier Filter step on the kind if you only want some of them, for example, only booked.
What order to turn things on
Turn the delivery Zap on first, so the replies always have somewhere to go.
- Send JobBooker replies to Yelp, the delivery van.
- Auto-reply to new Yelp leads, now new leads get answered.
- Reply to Yelp customer messages, the back-and-forth.
- Capture Yelp phone numbers.
- Pause when you reply on Yelp yourself.
- Get alerts by text, whenever you want it.
Start with Review mode on, so every reply comes to you as a draft to approve or edit before it sends, and leave emergency bypass off. Read what it writes for a few days. Once the replies sound like you, turn Review mode off and let it run, and turn emergency bypass on so 2am burst-pipe leads never sit in a queue.
What it costs
Zapier counts one task every time an action step actually runs. Each Zap here is two steps, so:
- a lead coming in costs about 1 task,
- each reply going out costs 1 task,
- each follow-up costs 1 task.
The free Zapier plan allows 5 Zaps and 100 tasks a month, roughly 10 leads with their replies and follow-ups. Paid Zapier plans remove both limits. Yelp’s own Yelp Leads app is free.
What you control in JobBooker Settings
What you do, and what you don't. Jobs you don't take get a polite decline instead of silence.
The ZIP codes you'll drive to. Anything outside is declined politely.
Price ranges per service, quoted in the first message. That's what wins Yelp leads.
An honest "we're closed until…" instead of pretending someone is awake.
How it sounds, and the name it signs off with.
Dropped into replies when it makes sense.
Plain English, e.g. "never ask for photos". It follows them.
Every reply becomes a draft you approve or edit first.
Emergencies skip the approval queue and send right away.
Default 10 minutes, 1 hour, 24 hours. Stops when the customer replies (the clock restarts from your next message), when a phone number comes in, when the lead is booked, won, lost, spam or unqualified, when you press Pause AI on the lead, or when you switch follow-ups off here. Replying yourself does not stop them.
One line on the first reply saying it was sent automatically. On by default, because California requires it. Only the first reply carries it.
Spanish requests are detected and answered in Spanish.
How long a message is allowed to get.
Where things show up
Your inbox has tabs across the top:
All Unread Booked Emergency Filtered out
Leads outside your area, jobs you don’t do, and spam all land in Filtered out so your real list stays short. Open any lead to see the whole conversation; photos the customer attached show up as links you can click. At the bottom of a lead there is a Raw payload section: exactly what Yelp sent us. You’ll never need it unless something looks wrong and we ask you to check.
Common questions
No. You sign in to Yelp’s own Zapier app with your normal Yelp for Business login, on Yelp’s page. We never see it, and you can disconnect it yourself at any time.
Turn on Review mode and nothing sends until you approve it. Add custom instructions in plain English for anything it keeps getting wrong. And you can take over any conversation yourself: reply in Yelp, or from the lead page, and the AI stops answering that thread.
It writes as your business, in your tone, with your prices and your name on the signature. California requires a one-line note that the first reply was automated, so JobBooker adds it for California businesses only, and Settings under Replies has the switch either way. A real person is always watching the inbox.
No. A follow-up exists to re-engage a customer who went quiet, whoever wrote last, so your message just restarts the clock. They stop when the customer replies (then the clock restarts from your next message), when a phone number comes in, when the lead is marked booked, won, lost, spam or unqualified, when you press Pause AI on that lead, or when you switch follow-ups off in Settings.
No. Spam is recognized and sent to the Filtered out tab. Nothing is sent back to it.
We show them as links in the lead thread, and the AI is told how many there are so it can mention them without pretending to have looked at them.
Yes. In the alerts Zap, add a Zapier Filter step set to continue only when kind = booked.
No. Those are only for people connecting without the JobBooker app. If you used the templates, ignore them.
Zapier pauses the Zaps until your month resets, and leads simply sit in Yelp waiting for you. Upgrading Zapier restarts everything. Nothing in JobBooker is lost.
Open Connect in the app for your API key and the step-by-step version, or just ask us and we’ll set the Zaps up with you.