A good discovery call with a service business owner follows one job from the first phone call to the paid invoice, and asks about the people, tools and words involved at each step. The answers tell you what the app needs to do and how to describe it. Below is a question list you can use as is, with why each question matters, and a template for turning the answers into a first description for Alori.
Before the call
Spend ten minutes preparing. It makes the call shorter and the questions sharper.
- Read their website. Note their services, service area and how they ask for bookings.
- Check their reviews. Complaints about missed appointments or slow quotes are clues.
- Paste their website into Alori to see a first draft. Alori picks up the business name, colors and what they do, so you walk in with something to react to.
Plan for 30 minutes. Owners are busy, and most of the value comes from the first half.
The question list
Ask in roughly this order. You won't need every question for every business.
The business
| Question | Why you ask |
|---|---|
| What services do you offer, and which ones bring in most of your work? | Tells you which job types the app must handle first. |
| How many people work here, and who does what? | Shows who needs access: office, crew leads, technicians. |
| Who is in the field, and who is in the office? | Field staff need a phone-friendly view of their day. |
| Do you have repeat customers or recurring visits? | Recurring work changes how scheduling should work. |
How a job moves
| Question | Why you ask |
|---|---|
| Walk me through the last job you did, from the first call to getting paid. | The single most useful question. It reveals the real process. |
| How does a new customer reach you? | Shows where customer records start. |
| Do you send quotes? How do you build them: per hour, per job, per square foot? | Quote structure shapes the quotes module. |
| What happens when a customer says yes to a quote? | Shows how a quote becomes a job. |
| How do you decide who goes where, and when? | Tells you what the schedule must show. |
| How does the crew know what to do on site? | Reveals notes, checklists, gate codes or photos the job needs. |
| How do you invoice, and how do you know who hasn't paid? | Shows what the invoice side must track. |
Tools and pain
| Question | Why you ask |
|---|---|
| What tools do you use today? Paper, spreadsheets, apps? | Shows what the app replaces and what data exists. |
| What do you pay for those each month? | Helps you size the value. See the true cost of your SaaS stack. |
| Where do you retype the same information? | Retyping is the clearest sign of wasted hours. |
| What falls through the cracks most often? | Points to the feature that will matter most to them. |
| If you could fix one thing this month, what would it be? | Gives you the hook for the first version. |
Words and people
| Question | Why you ask |
|---|---|
| Do you say customers or clients? Quotes or estimates? Jobs, visits or appointments? | The app should use their words, not yours. |
| Who will use the app every day? | Those people should be at the demo and the training. |
| Who decides on buying something like this? | Saves you from pitching to someone who can't say yes. |
| Is anyone on the team wary of new software? | Lets you plan training and keep the first version simple. |
Listen for these signals
While they talk, note:
- Exact words. Write down how they name things.
- Numbers. Team size, jobs per week, hours spent on paperwork.
- Emotion. The part of the process they sigh about is your opening.
- Exceptions. "Except for commercial clients, where we..." often means a separate job type.
Don't solve problems on the call. Your job here is to understand. The solving happens in the demo.
Turn the answers into a first description
Alori builds from a plain description of the business. Your notes become that description. Keep it short and concrete. You can always add more by asking for changes.
A simple template:
[Business type] with [team size and roles]. Customers are [homeowners, businesses, both]. We [how quotes are priced]. Jobs are [one-off, recurring, both], scheduled [how]. Crews need to see [what on site]. We invoice [when and how]. We call them [their words].
Example
Here is a hypothetical. Say the call was with a landscaping company. The description could read:
Landscaping company with 2 office staff and 3 crews of 3. Mostly homeowners, some small commercial properties. We quote per visit for mowing and per project for installs. Mowing is weekly from April to October; installs are one-off. Crew leads need to see today's stops, gate codes and notes on their phone. We invoice monthly for mowing and on completion for installs. We say clients, estimates and visits.
Paste it in. Alori will ask a couple of multiple-choice questions where something is unclear, instead of guessing. Answer them using your notes. For more on writing good descriptions, read how to describe your business to an AI app builder.
After the call
Within a day:
- Build the first version from your description.
- Make the two or three changes that address their biggest pain.
- Send the owner a link and a short summary of what you heard.
- Book the next meeting to walk through the app with the people who will use it.
From there, follow the plan in how to deliver a client app in a week.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a discovery call with a small business owner be?
About 30 minutes is enough for most service businesses. Focus on following one real job from start to finish. If you need more detail, book a second short call with the office manager.
What is the most important discovery question to ask?
"Walk me through the last job you did, from the first call to getting paid." It shows how the business actually works rather than how the owner thinks it works. Most of the other questions are follow-ups to that story.
Should I show the app during the discovery call?
You can show a quick draft built from their website to get reactions. Keep the main focus on listening. A full demo works better once you understand their process.
What if the owner can't explain their process clearly?
Ask about specific recent jobs instead of the general process. Concrete stories are easier to tell. You can also ask to speak with whoever handles scheduling or invoicing day to day.
Try it with your notes
Take the notes from your next discovery call, write a short description and see what Alori builds. It is free to start, with no credit card and no account needed. Start building.
