The first 30 days on SalesThumb shape whether you'll get the leverage the platform is designed to provide. Shops that follow a structured rollout get to "humming" by week three. Shops that don't tend to half-deploy features and silently leave revenue on the table for months.
This is the day-by-day playbook we'd give any new shop owner. A few steps need a higher plan: film roll inventory, low-stock alerts, QuickBooks, marketing campaigns, and Smart Pricing are Growth and up, and Basic has no outbound SMS or email. It's not meant to be exhaustive — it's meant to be enough to hit week-four with the major workflows actually running.
Days 1-3: Foundations
Day 1 — Account + brand
- Run the onboarding wizard. Basic setup takes about 30 minutes.
- Upload your logo. Set your primary color.
- Configure business hours and time zone.
- Connect payments via connect payments. Approval depends on the processor's review and has no guaranteed turnaround — start this on Day 1 so it's done by the time you need to charge.
Day 2 — Service catalog (top 5 only)
- Build your 5 highest-revenue services in detail. Skip the long tail.
- For each: name, base price, duration, and deposit % (warranty tiers are picked on each quote).
- Set up tier-based pricing for your top 2-3 services.
Day 3 — Customer import + basic settings
- Import your existing customer list via CSV or Excel.
- Configure your public booking page.
- SMS: start your texting setup in Settings → Texting now — apply for a new text number or use your current business phone number; texting stays off until it's approved. If you're planning to run your own Twilio account (Bring Your Own Carrier) instead, start that 10DLC registration with Twilio now — the carriers set the review timeline and you don't want it blocking week 3's automation.
Days 4-7: First real quotes
Day 4 — First test quote to yourself
- Create a quote to your own phone number.
- Step through customer experience — accept the quote, pay the deposit, view confirmation.
- Find anything that feels weird — fix it.
Day 5 — First real customer quote
- Send a quote to a real customer (ideally a repeat customer who'll be patient).
- Watch the quote move from Sent to Viewed to Approved on the quote record.
- Ask for feedback at the end of the job.
Day 6 — Configure SMS templates
- Build your SMS reply template library — at least the starter 7 templates.
- Test each template by sending to yourself.
Day 7 — Tour the dashboard
- Spend 30 minutes in /app exploring. Don't change anything, just look.
- Open every menu item once. You don't need to use everything yet but knowing what's available matters.
Days 8-14: First jobs flowing
Day 8-10 — Run real jobs end-to-end
- Process 3-5 real customer jobs from quote to completion.
- Have your installer download the installer app.
- Capture photos for every install.
- Send the warranty PDF.
- Verify payouts land in your bank account.
Day 11 — Photo gallery
- Set up your shareable photo galleries.
- Share your first photo gallery with a customer. Watch them share it to Instagram.
Day 12 — Block holidays + time off
- Block shop holidays and time off for the next 12 months. 10 minutes, saves you a year of "wait, we're closed Memorial Day."
Day 13-14 — Calendar sync
- If you use Google Calendar (or Apple/Outlook), set up a Calendar Subscription Feed so your SalesThumb appointments show up there automatically.
- Confirm new bookings appear on your subscribed calendar within a few minutes. This is a one-way feed (SalesThumb → your calendar); it won't pull personal calendar blocks back into SalesThumb yet.
Days 15-21: Automation begins
Day 15 — Check messaging health
- Check Settings → Texting shows your shop's registration approved — SalesThumb registers your shop's texting with the carriers for you and pays the fees; carrier review typically takes 1–3 weeks. If you connected your own Twilio account (Bring Your Own Carrier), confirm your Twilio campaign shows approved before you lean on automated reminders.
- Check Messages → Deliverability for your baseline delivery/failure rate.
Day 16 — Appointment reminders
- Configure appointment reminder automation.
- Send one to yourself as a test.
Day 17 — Recurring service reminders
- Configure recurring reminders for your top recurring service (ceramic top-up, quarterly detail, annual PPF check).
Day 18 — Review request automation
- Set up auto-Google review requests.
- Confirm your Google Business Profile link is correct.
Day 19 — Tipping (if applicable)
- Turn on tip collection on invoices for your detail/mobile services.
Day 20 — Inventory tracking
- Set up film roll inventory for your top 10 SKUs.
- Configure low-stock alerts.
Day 21 — Team invitations
- Invite your installers and front-desk staff via team roles.
- Make sure each person has the right role and only the right role.
Days 22-30: Reports + optimization
Day 22-24 — Read your reports
- Open the monthly story report and check Smart Pricing (Sales → Pricing Insight) for any RAISE/REDUCE flags.
- Identify ONE metric that's lower than you want.
- Read the relevant KB article for fixing it.
Day 25 — QuickBooks export
- If you use QuickBooks, set up QuickBooks export.
- Verify the first batch of synced data is correct.
Day 26-28 — Run a marketing campaign
- Follow First marketing campaign setup.
- Send a winback or rebook campaign to ~50 customers.
Day 29 — Audit your setup
- Review every section of Settings.
- Make sure no test data, placeholder text, or default copy is in front of customers.
Day 30 — Look at the numbers
- Compare your first 30 days on SalesThumb to your previous 30 days on the old tool (or your manual process):
- Total quotes sent
- Total revenue
- Average ticket
- Close rate
- No-show rate
- Hours saved per week
If the numbers aren't already meaningfully better, dig in to figure out why. Usually one of: (a) you didn't fully migrate (still doing things the old way), (b) one major automation isn't on yet, or (c) the tool isn't a fit for your shop type.
What good looks like at day 30
- All real jobs flowing through SalesThumb
- Quote → deposit → install → warranty → review cycle running automatically
- Photo galleries sharing with customers
- SMS reminders driving no-shows down
- Reviews trickling in from auto-request
- Your team using the mobile app
- Reports being read weekly
If you're there, you're ahead of the curve. The structured 30-day playbook above is built to get you there.
What NOT to do in your first 30 days
- Don't try to migrate every legacy customer record perfectly. "Good enough" is fine for day-1 data; you'll clean up as you go.
- Don't customize too aggressively. Default settings are mostly right. Customize only when you feel friction.
- Don't disable connect payments and try to keep using your old payment processor "for now." Half-migrated payments are a maintenance nightmare. Commit.
- Don't skip the installer app rollout. Shops that skip installer mobile usage end up using SalesThumb as a fancy CRM instead of a workflow tool. The leverage is in the bay.
- Don't disable automations because "we'll do that later." Recurring reminders, appointment reminders, review requests — turn them on at the right week and let them run.
Related
- Getting started with SalesThumb - How to migrate from ShopMonkey - How to migrate from OrbisX - How to migrate from Tint Wiz