How can I use AI (ChatGPT or Claude) to help run my home service business?

Connect your AI chat to the software you already quote in, so it does the work there instead of only giving advice. With ResponsiBid’s AI connection, a pressure washing, house washing, window cleaning, gutter, holiday lighting, or house cleaning business can turn a few photos of a house and one spoken request into a real quote in its account, priced with its own rates, and check its work before anything goes to the customer.

It works with ChatGPT and Claude, and you don’t have to be tech-savvy to use it. It’s in beta for ResponsiBid customers right now. Our founder, Curt Kempton, quoted a house with it live on Oct 23.

Watch the replay

What does it look like to quote a job by talking to AI?

You use it the way you may already use the ChatGPT or Claude app on your phone: you talk to it (voice to text works) and add photos. Curt ran the demo on a desktop and said to picture it on your phone. Here’s what happened:

1. Photos and one request. Curt dragged five photos of the four sides of a house into the chat. Then he spoke one request: a test customer’s name, email, address, and phone; how they heard about us (Google); a house-wash quote; and suggestions for other services. (4:54)
2. It looked and suggested. It counted what it could see, suggested services that could fit, and ruled out the ones that didn’t (the house had no gutters). (6:13)
3. It checked with him. It asked which services to price, then asked multiple-choice questions to confirm what it saw: no gutters on the eaves, no sun screens, a wood deck, a 2XL house with a walkout. It also caught a misspelled email address. (6:43)
4. It asked what to do with the quote. Send it to the customer, save it in ResponsiBid without sending it, or just show a preview. Nothing is saved until you say so. (10:32)
5. It showed a preview first. It built a quote page right in the chat, plus a table of the quoted items, to look over before anything went into ResponsiBid. (11:29) That page is a Claude feature (Claude calls it an “artifact”). Curt’s instructions only asked for a quote sheet he could show a customer in person; the AI designed the page itself.
6. “Send it.” When Curt said “send it,” it saved a real quote in ResponsiBid and put it in the Open status, which starts the follow-up you’ve set for open quotes. (14:03)
7. It handed back links and notes. It handed back links to the proposal, to the quote (to make changes as the admin), and to the customer’s profile (to text them or see the follow-up that’s running). It also left notes on the quote: that it was a photo quote from five photos, the walkway line, and what it worked out. (15:08)

Curt started the demo with a skill that comes with the connection, “/ResponsiBid photo quote.” Beta customers get it when they connect, in ChatGPT or Claude. (A skill is a set of saved instructions for your AI.)

Curt’s way to picture it: it’s like calling your office and talking to someone who’s sitting in the software for you. On a job site, you can talk with the customer while it works.

Does the AI make up the prices?

No. It works from what you’ve already set up in ResponsiBid: your services, pricing, house sizes, custom items, and service areas. It prices from your catalog and pricing rules, including guardrails like minimums. (11:55)

The exception is a custom item with no set price. The house in Curt’s demo had a flagstone walkway, and his account had no price for one. The AI estimated $100, explained how it got there, and asked how Curt wanted to handle that line before saving. (12:31) Read those lines closely. That number is the AI’s guess, not your price.

It works with house-size pricing (small, medium, large, XL) too. In the account Curt used, windows were priced by house size and stories. Curt said it saves the most time for owners who price by counts and sizes: linear feet of gutters, number of windows, patio and deck size. (21:38)

One setting to know: quotes it creates start with bundles off. In the demo, Curt turned bundles on for the quote in ResponsiBid, and his house wash and window cleaning bundle applied. (16:29) If you haven’t set up bundles yet, start with How do I price packages and bundles for exterior cleaning?

How does it work out sizes from photos?

It estimates them, using things of known size for scale. In the demo, that was an oversized front door and a standard window (about 2½ to 3 feet wide). From there, it estimated the deck at 45 × 10 feet and counted the front windows: six on the main floor, five clerestory windows, the glass in the entry door, and two sidelights. (12:37) Then it turned what it saw into the answers your services ask for, and asked Curt to confirm some of them.

The looking is done by ChatGPT or Claude. The pricing comes from ResponsiBid.

If you price by panes, it asks when it can’t tell from a photo, like whether the dividers are on the inside or the outside. (26:42)

So check its work. It’s the AI’s read of the photos. In the demo, Curt confirmed its answers, reviewed the walkway line, and raised the deck price by hand. Very large commercial jobs may be a stretch.

What else can I ask it to do?

• Answer questions about your quotes. Ask how many quotes you got this month, and have it make a spreadsheet (CSV or Excel) or a chart. (28:49)
• Quote repeat customers. If the customer is already in ResponsiBid, it adds the new quote to them (and a new property, if it’s a new address) instead of making a duplicate contact.
• Quote house cleaning. Same idea: photos of the rooms, and it lines them up with your house-cleaning questions, like rooms, bathrooms, ovens, and wood floors. (21:05)
• Quote holiday lighting. It can estimate linear feet and count bushes from photos. (42:17)
• Work with your other connected tools. This part is your AI tool’s feature, not ResponsiBid’s. If your AI chat is also connected to tools like Gmail or Slack, you can chain them. Curt had it send the proposal to a teammate on Slack without saying which connection to use. (25:08)
• Learn your rules. Also an AI-tool feature: in Claude, you can keep a folder of your own rules, build your own quoting skill on top of the ResponsiBid one, and tell it what you didn’t like about a quote so it remembers next time. (29:23)

What can’t it do yet?

It’s a beta, and Curt was upfront about the rough edges:

• It can be slow and buggy, and it doesn’t have every feature yet. For a simple quote, typing it into ResponsiBid yourself may still be faster. (18:50)
• It can’t add an adjustment to a service. Curt added a $100 detail-work adjustment to the deck by hand in ResponsiBid. (19:16)
• It can’t change a quote after it’s saved. Make edits in ResponsiBid. (43:55)
• It doesn’t attach your photos to the quote. (42:50)
• Photos, not video, for now. Curt hasn’t tested video walk-arounds.
• It isn’t fast enough to answer phone calls live. That’s a job for ResponsiBid’s API (next section).
• New quote prices can take a moment to show on the proposal.

If you’d rather have customers price jobs themselves on your website, that’s a different tool: see How do I give instant online quotes on my website?

What’s the difference between connecting your AI chat and connecting other software?

An API is how two programs talk to each other. The connection for AI chat (called an MCP, a connector built for AI) works on the same idea. (0:37)

• The AI-chat connection is what you saw in the demo: flexible, it figures things out as it goes, but it’s slower.
• ResponsiBid’s API is fast and direct, for software that’s coded to it, like an AI phone-answering system. You can have AI write that code for you. (37:04)

In the beta, you get access to both. (37:16)

Next up: AI that answers the phone, built on ResponsiBid’s API. Watch the Oct 30 Live.

How do I connect ChatGPT or Claude to ResponsiBid?

It’s in beta, and ResponsiBid turns it on for your account. Your account needs to be on the new ResponsiBid interface. (8:18) Once it’s on:

1. Add the connection in your AI tool. In Claude, go to Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector and enter the address from the help doc. ChatGPT has its own steps in the same doc. (7:47)
2. Sign in to your ResponsiBid account.
3. Approve it. A ResponsiBid admin approves the connection on a consent screen that shows what it can read and change.

Once it’s signed in, it works in your account like another user in your company, and it only sees your company’s data. (10:04)

Already a ResponsiBid customer? Join the beta: email API@symphosize.com and say you’re interested. It’s for owners who have time to try it now and send feedback. Once it’s on for your account, follow the setup guide: Connect your AI assistant to ResponsiBid.

Not on ResponsiBid yet? Book a free demo, and we’ll show you how ResponsiBid quotes your services with your own pricing and follows up for you.