Case study · AI SMS automation platform
AutoLobby SMS: An AI Front Desk That Texts Customers Back in Seconds
A multi-tenant AI receptionist that gives a service business its own phone number and answers customer texts in seconds, 24/7. Built and sold by MBM.
- Client: My Business Magnet product
- Location: Jacksonville, FL
- Year: 2025–2026
- Built with: React Native + Expo (web, iOS, Android), Installable PWA, Express + TypeScript, Supabase (PostgreSQL, Auth, Realtime), Drizzle ORM, Twilio (SMS, voice, numbers, A2P), OpenAI, Stripe subscriptions, Web Push
The Problem
A stylist mid-appointment, a contractor on a roof, a shop owner at the register: none of them can answer a "do you have anything today?" text, and the customer who does not hear back books somewhere else. Off-the-shelf autoresponders send one canned line. The business needed an assistant that understands what the customer is asking, knows the business, and hands the thread to the owner the moment a human is needed.
What We Did
- Built the app once in React Native with Expo and shipped it as an installable Progressive Web App for phones and desktop, with iOS and Android builds from the same code.
- Gave every business its own dedicated Twilio number, provisioned only after payment clears, with inbound messages routed to the right tenant and standard START, STOP, and HELP keywords handled for compliance.
- Layered the reply engine: OpenAI intent analysis first, keyword automations second, then answers drawn from the business’s own website (fetched, stripped to text, and refreshed weekly), then a menu fallback.
- Built two roles on Supabase Auth with row-level security: business owners who manage automations, conversation history, and starred contacts, and a super admin who onboards businesses, buys and releases numbers, and sees registration details.
- Registered all businesses under one centrally managed A2P campaign through a Twilio Messaging Service, so a new customer is texting from a compliant number on day one without their own carrier paperwork.
- Added Stripe subscriptions at $30 a month with a call-forwarding add-on, checkout links delivered by SMS, and subscription status gating the app, plus Supabase Realtime so new messages appear instantly.
- Hardened the API to OWASP guidance: tiered rate limits, strict Zod validation on every mutation, Helmet headers, size limits, and request IDs, with no stack traces ever returned to a client.
Results
| Measure | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Time to first reply to a customer text | Whenever the owner is free | Under 5 seconds, 24/7 |
| Reply logic | One canned message | AI intent, keywords, website content, menu fallback |
| Carrier compliance setup per business | Own A2P registration | None, shared registered campaign |
| Platforms from one codebase | n/a | Web PWA, iOS, Android |
Outcome
AutoLobby SMS is an MBM product rather than client work, and it is the reference build for the AI automation MBM sells: a real business phone number, an assistant that reads the business’s own website, and an owner who can jump into any thread. The first outreach campaign, a verified list of 117 Jacksonville barbershops and salons, is built and ready to send.