Pilot Case Study: Starter Tier
From missed leads and dead-end follow-ups to an automated sales engine — built in 3 weeks
Cameron Knox Painting implemented three core automations from the OpsLever Starter tier during the 2025 off-season. Here's what changed, what it cost, and what the numbers look like.
Note: This is a founder-run pilot. Results marked * are projected from industry benchmarks and tracked over 60 days. All estimates are conservative and sourced from comparable trades implementations.
~22%
Lift in booked estimates*
from after-hours lead capture
4.1×
Increase in Google reviews*
over 90-day window
11 hrs
Saved per week
follow-up, admin, review asks
THE SITUATION:
A painting company running on voicemail and gut feel
"I'm on a ladder all day. Calls go to voicemail. By the time I call back, they've already booked someone else. And Google reviews? I always mean to ask — I just never do."
Lead loss
"I'd send a quote, they'd say 'let me think about it,' and I'd forget to follow up. I was closing maybe 25% of the jobs I quoted."
Follow-up failure
"250 completed jobs. 14 Google reviews. I knew I had a problem but there was no time to fix it in-season."
Reputation gap
WHAT WAS BUILT
Three automations. Three weeks. Zero new staff.
01
LeadCatch AI — 24/7 AI receptionist: Every missed call, DM, and form fill answered within 60 seconds. Qualifies the lead, books the estimate, escalates urgent jobs by SMS.
02
FollowUp Engine — 5-touch nurture sequenceTriggers the moment a quote is sent. SMS, email, and voicemail drop at Day 1 / 3 / 7 / 14 / 30. Personalized per job. Stops the second they reply or book. No manual action required.
03
ReviewBoost — automated review collectionFires at job completion via SMS. Happy customers go to Google in one tap. Unhappy ones route to private recovery. Auto-responds to every review in the owner's voice.
BUILD TIMELINE
Weeks 1–3
WEEK 1
Audit + setup
Discovery session, pipeline built, qualification script written to match painting-specific jobs. LeadCatch live by Day 5.
WEEK 2
Follow-up sequences + review automation
FollowUp Engine wired to the quoting workflow. ReviewBoost connected to invoice triggers. First test sequences deployed.
WEEK 3
Tune + handoff
Edge cases handled, response tone refined, owner trained on the dashboard. Systems running fully hands-off by Day 21.
RESULTS VS. BASELINE
What the numbers looked like before and after
After-hours leads bookedPer month, estimated from call log
~2–3 / mo
~6–8 / mo*
Quote follow-up touches per leadBefore: manual, inconsistent
1 touch avg
5 touches, auto
Google reviews collectedOver 90-day pilot window
14 total (5 yrs)
+41 reviews*
Time spent on manual follow-upWeekly estimate, owner-reported
~8 hrs / wk
<1 hr / wk
CK
Cam Knox
Owner, Cameron Knox Painting — Founder, OpsLever Consulting
"I built these systems on my own company first because I wanted to know exactly what I was selling. The before state is real — 14 reviews after 5 years, manually chasing leads at 9pm. The after state is where trades businesses should be operating. The only reason they're not is nobody's shown them how."
See what this looks like for your business
Free 30-minute audit. You'll leave with a 1-page Automation Opportunities Map — specific to your trade, your size, your gaps. No pitch until you've seen the numbers.
No commitment. Takes 30 minutes. You get the Automation Opportunities Map regardless of whether we work together.