How to Set Up Missed-Call Text Back, Google Review Requests, and a Website Yourself in GoHighLevel
Everything we learned building this for local service businesses: the steps, the traps, and the settings nobody warns you about.
Quick note before we start: Everything below is something you can do yourself, and we'll show you how. If you'd rather not spend your evenings in software, Red, White & Booked will set all three up and run them for you for $297 per month. There's no contract or set up fee and you can cancel anytime. Get started here →
What you're building
There are three pieces:
Missed-call text back. When you can't pick up, the caller gets a text from your business within seconds, before they call the next guy on Google.
Automated Google review requests. When a job is done, the customer gets a text with a direct link to leave you a review.
A clean website. It's one simple page with your number, your services, and a way to contact or book you.
All three run on GoHighLevel (GHL). The Starter plan is $97 per month, and there's a 14-day free trial. Texting and calling are billed on top of that by usage, usually a few cents per message.
One heads-up: GHL moves its menus around often. If a button isn't exactly where we say, look for the same name somewhere nearby.
Step 1: Get a new phone number (don't touch your old one)
In GHL, buy a new local number under Settings → Phone Numbers. Pick your area code.
Don't port your existing business number. Instead, set the new number to forward to your current cell. You put the new number on your website, your Google profile, and your truck. Calls still ring your phone like normal, but now GHL can see them.
The trap almost everyone hits: if your cell's voicemail picks up a forwarded call, GHL thinks the call was answered, so no text goes out. To fix it, set GHL's ring time shorter than your cell's voicemail delay (around 20 seconds is a good starting point), so GHL's voicemail catches the call first. Then test it, which we cover at the end.
Download the LeadConnector app on your phone. That's where you'll see and reply to every text the system sends.
Step 2: Build the website first
This sounds backwards, but it isn't. The texting approval in Step 3 checks your website, so the site has to be live before you can text anyone.
Go to Sites → Websites, start from a template, and strip it down. You need:
Your business name and a clickable logo that goes back to the home page
Your services and the towns you serve
Your new phone number, big and tappable
A contact form or booking calendar
Three pages linked in the footer: Privacy Policy, Terms, and SMS Terms
Those last three pages aren't optional. The carriers reject texting applications without them.
Your contact form needs a consent checkbox, unchecked by default, that says something like: "I agree to receive text messages from [Business Name] about my inquiry. Msg & data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out."
Connect your domain under Settings → Domains, then open the site on your phone and tap every button. Most of your customers will see it on a phone, not a computer.
Small detail that matters: if you add a booking calendar, check the page URL. GHL sometimes fills in ugly default names. Customers notice a link with "template" or "test-calendar" in it.
Step 3: Texting approval (A2P 10DLC)
This is the part nobody tells you about. In the US, a business can't send automated texts until the phone carriers approve it. The process is called A2P 10DLC registration, and you find it under Settings → Phone System → Trust Center (or similar).
There are two parts, a Brand (your business) and a Campaign (what you'll text about). Here's what we learned the hard way:
Your legal name must match the IRS exactly. Use the name on your EIN letter (the CP 575), character for character. "Smith Plumbing LLC" and "Smith Plumbing, LLC" can count as a mismatch.
Brand-new EINs often get rejected. If you just formed your LLC, the carrier database may not have your EIN yet. Ours failed the first time for exactly this reason. We waited a few weeks, resubmitted the same information, and it was approved. If you get rejected for a name/EIN mismatch on a new business, this is probably why.
Check the "embedded links" box. Your review requests will contain a link. If you don't declare links when you submit the campaign, you can't add them later without starting a whole new campaign.
Write your sample messages to look like the real ones. Include your business name and "Reply STOP to opt out."
Approval can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. You can build Steps 4 and 5 while you wait. They just won't send texts until you're approved.
Step 4: Missed-call text back
GHL has a built-in missed-call text back setting. Turn it off. It applies to your whole account, you can't control it per number, and if you also build a workflow (which you should), callers get two texts.
Build it as a workflow instead, under Automation → Workflows.
Start small. Add the trigger and one text message, publish it, and test it. Get that working before you add anything else. Then add one piece at a time and test after each. If you build the whole thing at once and it doesn't work, you won't know which part is broken.
The trigger: Call Status, filtered to inbound calls that were missed or not answered.
The first text: Keep it short and human. For example: "Hi, this is Mike from Smith Plumbing. Sorry I missed your call, I'm on a job. What can I help you with?" Don't use "Reply YES and we'll call you back." If you could have called back, you would have.
The follow-ups: Wait about 1 hour for a reply. If none comes, send a nudge. If there's still nothing, send a second nudge later. Then stop. Two nudges is plenty.
Quiet hours: Restrict the nudges to roughly 8:00 am to 9:00 pm. A follow-up text at 11:30 pm will cost you the job.
When they reply: Have the workflow notify you (a push notification or a text to your cell) and tag the contact "replied" so the nudges stop.
The fix most setups miss: what if you call the person back yourself? Without this fix, the nudges keep firing on someone you just talked to, which looks robotic. Build a second, tiny workflow: when you make an outbound call to a contact, use the Remove From Workflow action to pull them out of the missed-call sequence.
The #1 reason "it doesn't work": the workflow is still in Draft. Workflows do nothing until you flip them to Publish. We lost an afternoon to this.
Step 5: Automated Google review requests
First, grab your Google review link. You'll find it in your Google Business Profile ("Ask for reviews"), and you can also add it under GHL's Reputation settings.
Now, the key decision is what triggers the request. A lot of guides use "appointment completed." That doesn't fit most service businesses, because half your jobs never touch a calendar. They're phone calls, walk-ups, and repeat customers.
Trigger it with a tag instead, like "job-done." When you finish a job, open the contact in the LeadConnector app and add the tag. That takes about 5 seconds, and you control exactly who gets asked.
The workflow:
Trigger: Contact tag added → "job-done"
Wait: about 2 hours, so they've had time to see the finished work. Apply the same 8:00 am to 9:00 pm window.
Text: "Thanks for having us out today! If you were happy with the work, a quick Google review helps us a ton: [link]"
Optional: One reminder about 3 days later if they haven't left a review. Don't send more than one.
This is where the "embedded links" checkbox from Step 3 matters. These texts have a link in them.
Step 6: Test everything like a customer would
Before you call it done, use a phone that isn't yours (a spouse's or a friend's):
Call your new number and don't answer. Did the text arrive within a minute?
Call again and let it go all the way to voicemail. Did the text still arrive? (This catches the voicemail trap from Step 1.)
Reply to the text. Did you get notified, and did the nudges stop?
Call that person back from GHL. Did they drop out of the sequence?
Tag them "job-done." Did the review text show up about 2 hours later?
Open your website on the phone. Does every button work?
If all of that passes, you're live.
Realistic expectations
Doable? Yes. Quick? Not usually. Between learning GHL, waiting on carrier approval, and debugging workflows, expect it to take a few weekends, not one afternoon. After that, plan on occasional maintenance when something changes or breaks.
Rather just have it done? Red, White & Booked sets up all three (missed-call text back, automated Google reviews, and your website) and handles the carrier approval, the testing, and the upkeep. It's $297 per month with no contract, and you can cancel anytime. Get started here →
