How We Work
We decide what to fix before we build anything.
Most automation projects start with a tool. Ours start with a map of how your business actually runs. Here’s the method, start to finish, including the parts where we tell you not to buy.
Why we start with workflows, not tools
A job title is a bundle of workflows.
At Alier, one person answered the WhatsApp line. That job was really a bundle: answering price questions, checking delivery areas, quoting orders, sending payment instructions, collecting shipping details, confirming payments, and handling problems. Most of it followed the same pattern every time. Confirming payments and handling problems didn't. So an AI assistant took the first group, and the second stays with the team.
Most businesses have never written their bundles down, so owners end up buying tools for symptoms: a chatbot because leads feel slow, a CRM because things feel messy. And automating a broken process just makes the mess happen faster. We start by writing the workflows down.
How we score a workflow
Three questions decide what gets built first.
How often does it happen?
Work that happens every day or every week adds up. Work that happens once a quarter rarely justifies a build.
How often does it go wrong?
Repetitive work breaks when someone is rushed, busy, or out sick. That's where a system helps most.
What's at stake when it fails?
When the stakes are high, we automate the preparation and keep a person on the final call.
Build first: work that happens often, goes wrong often, and doesn't cost much when it does.
Example
Built first
Answering after-hours WhatsApp questions (Alier). Every day, often missed because nights and weekends waited until morning, and low stakes. It was the first thing we built.
Example
A person decides
Confirming payments and handling order problems (Alier). Every day, and high stakes, because money and customers are on the line. The assistant flags them; a person handles them.
Example
The simpler build
Scheduling auditions (a children’s choir). Once a season, lots of back-and-forth, and it has to stay easy for staff to run. Families are routed by grade, anyone who can’t find a slot goes to a person, and it’s built on a form tool the staff can maintain themselves instead of custom code.
What we never automate
Judgment. Relationships. Anything that moves money without a person approving it.
We automate the preparation, the data entry, and the chasing, and leave the decisions with you.
The four steps
From first call to working system.
1. Free Workflow Review
A 30-minute call about how work moves through your business and where it gets stuck. You leave knowing whether a closer look is worth it.
2. Workflow Audit
We interview you and your team, map every recurring workflow, and score each one. You get a build order, not a slide deck. From $1,500, and the fee comes off any build within 90 days.
3. Build
We build the fixes in that order, ourselves. Most first builds are live within 10 business days.
4. Support
We keep your systems running, fix what breaks, and revisit the map as your business changes.
Sometimes the answer isn't automation
Sometimes the fix is somewhere else.
Sometimes the problem is the foundation: no CRM, no booking system, a Google Business Profile nobody updates. We fix that first. Sometimes it's a hire, just a smaller, different, or later one than you planned. And sometimes it's the offer or the price, which no automation can fix. We'd rather tell you that than sell you a build that won't help.
Why we work this way
Research that doesn't end in a decision is wasted.
Before Fernvay, Roman ran sales at Syscom, a Columbus aerospace supplier whose metallized polymer fibers went into EMI shielding, and built market intelligence programs for an industrial manufacturer. He saw how often good research never turns into a decision. So every audit ends in a build order, and every recommendation says what it costs, what it saves, and when not to do it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to start with an audit?
No. If you already know what you need, go straight to a service. The free Workflow Review will tell you which it is.
What if the answer is "don't automate"?
Then we tell you. That’s the point of looking first.
Will this replace my staff?
It gives your team back the repetitive part of their week, and it can mean you need fewer new hires as you grow. Fewer new hires isn’t the same as fewer people.
Do you work in Spanish?
Yes. Reviews, audits, and builds can be in English or Spanish.
Start With a Free Workflow Review
A 30-minute call about how your business runs today and where it hurts.