Built for custom shops & independent makers
Your customers always know where their build stands.
Automatic weekly updates. Instant "it just moved" texts. An assistant that answers "where's my build?" on its own — so nobody puts down a tool to pick up the phone.
Gunsmiths · jewelers · watchmakers · custom knife makers · custom furniture builders — anyone with custom work in flight.
Founding shops onboard in small batches. No app for your customers — just texts that answer themselves.
The work is great. The phone is the problem.
5–10 hrs
a week answering “where's my build?” calls
Every one pulls a maker off the bench mid-job.
$15,000+
a year in lost bench time
Skilled hands doing phone duty is the most expensive receptionist there is.
73%
of negative reviews on custom shops cite communication
Not the craft. The silence between drop-off and pickup.
How it works
One habit for the shop. Zero new habits for your customers.
- 1
You update a dropdown
When a build moves, open the dashboard on your phone, tap the build, change the stage, hit save. That's your entire job in this system — about ten seconds.
- 2
Your customers hear it from you first
The moment you save, the customer gets a text: “build #1042 just moved to Assembly.” And every Monday morning, everyone with an active build gets a status update automatically — text or email, their choice. Running late? The Monday message handles the honest apology for you.
- 3
The assistant answers the rest
When a customer texts “where's my build?”, they get an instant, accurate answer straight from your live build board. Anything the assistant can't answer gets handed to you with context — never guessed at. Phone calls answered the same way are next on the roadmap.
A real exchange, zero shop minutes spent
Hey any word on my build?
Hey Sarah! Build #1042 is in Assembly — 4 days in, tracking for Aug 14. You'll get a text the second it moves. — Dave at the shop
Awesome, thanks!
Three tiers of front-office support
Planned launch pricing — founding members lock in early rates for life. Beta starts with Starter features; Pro and Full Team roll out to founding shops first.
Starter
Kill the status-call problem.
$199 /mo
- Build tracker dashboard (phone-friendly)
- Automatic Monday status updates, text or email
- Instant “it just moved” texts on every stage change
- AI assistant answers inbound status texts
- Full message + build history log
- Up to 30 active builds
Pro
Never miss a call again.
$399 /mo
- Everything in Starter
- AI voice agent answers your shop phone
- Build status over the phone, no human needed
- Message-taking + warm transfer when you want it
- Call summaries to your dashboard and phone
- Up to 75 active builds
Full Team
The whole front office, handled.
$699 /mo
- Everything in Pro
- New-build intake agent captures specs and budgets
- Quote follow-up and lapsed-customer check-ins
- Review requests after every pickup
- Consultation scheduling with reminders
- Daily digest of everything handled for you
- Unlimited active builds
Fair questions
Who is this actually for?
Any shop doing custom, made-to-order work where turnaround is measured in weeks or months and customers ask for updates. Gunsmiths, jewelers, watchmakers, custom knife makers, custom furniture builders, custom leather workers, custom cabinet shops — same problem, same fix. We started with gunsmiths because their status-call pain was the loudest, but the platform is deliberately vertical-agnostic.
Do you touch any regulated or compliance data?
No — deliberately. BenchNote is a customer-communication tool only. Whatever compliance system you use — an ATF bound book, PCI card processing, HIPAA records, or nothing — stays completely untouched. No serial numbers, no transfer records, no card data, no protected health info. We ask you not to enter that kind of data in BenchNote either; free-text description and notes fields are for the work, not for records.
Do my customers need to download anything?
No. They get normal text messages and emails from your shop. Replying works like texting any business. No app, no portal, no passwords.
What do the texts actually say?
Neutral, carrier-safe wording by design: “Hey Sarah — order #1042 just moved to Assembly. On track for Aug 14.” Full details live in email and your dashboard, never in texts. STOP always works, instantly.
I don't love the idea of an AI talking to my customers.
Fair. The weekly and stage-change messages aren't AI at all — they're fixed templates you can read word-for-word before anything goes out. The AI answers exactly one thing: inbound status questions, using your live board of active work. Anything else — complaints, pricing, technical questions — gets handed straight to you.
What does setup look like?
About 30–45 minutes with us on the phone: your stages of work, your hours, your first orders in progress, a test text to your own phone. Your existing phone number doesn't change — you get a dedicated text line for updates.
What's beta access?
We're onboarding founding shops in small batches so every shop gets real attention. Founding members lock in early pricing for life. Join the waitlist and we'll reach out when a spot opens.
Join the waitlist
Founding shops onboard in small batches at locked-in early rates. Tell us a little about your shop and you're in line.