of calls to small businesses go unanswered.
Your yard runs on the phone. Every call you miss is a quote another yard sends first. PalletCRM texts the caller back inside a minute and keeps the job moving — while you keep running the forklift.
Source: 411 Locals mystery-call study, 2024 — 85 small businesses called over 30 days; 62% of calls were not answered by a live person.
The leak is the phone.
You built the yard. You run the trucks, the crew, the cores. The one thing nobody can cover while the saw is running is the phone — and the numbers on what that costs are not small.
of callers who hit voicemail hang up without leaving a message. They just call the next listing.
Industry research (Marchex)
higher odds of qualifying a lead when you respond within 5 minutes instead of 30.
Oldroyd / InsideSales.com lead-response study
of companies respond to a new lead within an hour. Nearly a quarter never respond at all.
Harvard Business Review, lead-response audit of 2,241 firms
One system for the front office.
PalletCRM is not another ERP. It does the part no pallet software touches — the calls, the quotes, the follow-up. Set up for you, running in days.
| Missed-call text-back | Any call you can’t take gets an automatic text inside a minute — “Sorry we missed you. Need a quote or a pickup? Reply here.” The conversation lands in one inbox. |
fires: on every missed call |
|---|---|---|
| Quote follow-up | Every quote gets a follow-up sequence — day 1, day 3, day 7, day 14 — that stops the moment they reply. No quote dies in a day planner again. |
fires: when a quote goes out |
| Pickup request intake | A simple form for pickups and “we have pallets” calls — quantity, grade, ZIP, timing. Auto-confirmed by text and email, booked against your calendar. |
fires: on every request |
| Review engine | The day a job completes, the customer gets a short text asking for a Google review. Yards that answer the phone and show up on time deserve to look like it. |
fires: when a job completes |
| Reorder radar | Watches your standing accounts. When the customer who orders every Tuesday goes quiet, you get flagged before they’ve found another supplier. |
fires: when a regular goes quiet |
| One pipeline | New inquiry → quote sent → scheduled → completed → reviewed. Every open dollar visible on one board, on your phone or the office computer. |
always on |
“When somebody calls us, they always talk to a live person — no voicemail, no automated system.”
Lee Miller, Miller Wood Products — in Pallet Enterprise, on how his yard keeps customers for 25 to 40 years.
That is the standard the best yards set — and Miller Wood Products earned it with headcount. PalletCRM exists for every owner who can’t put a person on the phone all day but refuses to lose work over it. The call still gets answered. It’s still you. You’re just not chained to the desk.
The phone answered at 10pm.
The AI tier staffs your phone with a virtual team trained on your pallet business — grades, cores, heat-treat, trailer counts, your service area, your prices.
It answers the calls you can’t, takes the quote request or books the pickup, texts the caller a confirmation, and hands you the lead — nights, weekends, and every hour you’re on a forklift.
The same team is sold on its own at VirtualGroup. Here, it comes wired into your pallet system.
- Voice receptionistAnswers missed and after-hours calls, speaks pallet — 48×40s, grades, cores, heat-treat.
- Text assistantCarries the text-back conversation: quantity, grade, ZIP, timing — then books it.
- You stay the ownerEvery conversation logged, every lead handed off. It works the phone. You run the yard.
Two ways to run it.
Set up for you and tuned to your yard. No per-seat games — the whole office uses it.
Core
$297 /month
$497 one-time setup
- Missed-call text-back
- Quote follow-up sequences
- Pickup request intake + calendar
- Review engine
- Reorder radar
- The pipeline, on any device
PalletCRM AI
$597 /month
$997 one-time setup
- Everything in Core
- Voice receptionist — answers missed and after-hours calls
- Text assistant on every text-back thread
- Trained on your pallet vocabulary and your prices
- Every call transcribed and logged
Founding rate: the first 25 yards run Core at $247/month, locked. When they’re gone, they’re gone.
Straight answers.
How do pallet companies stop losing missed calls?
By answering every missed call with an automatic text within about a minute, so the caller gets a response before they dial the next yard. PalletCRM sends that text, opens a conversation, and logs the lead — whether it came in at noon or at 10pm.
What is PalletCRM?
A front-office system built for pallet businesses — recyclers, manufacturers, brokers, and buy-sell yards. It handles the phone-and-follow-up side of the business: missed-call text-back, quote follow-up, pickup request intake, review requests, and a pipeline that shows every quote from first call to done.
Does PalletCRM replace my ERP or accounting software?
No. Pallet ERPs handle inventory, production, and invoicing. PalletCRM handles what happens before that — the calls, the quotes, the follow-up, the reviews. It sits in front of whatever you already run, including a paper day planner.
Do I keep my phone number?
Yes. Your published number stays yours. PalletCRM works alongside it, and every text conversation it starts shows up in one inbox you and your office can see.
How long does setup take?
The system itself is set up for you in days, not months — we build it, you approve it. One honest caveat: US carriers require every business texting its customers to register first. That registration usually clears in about a week, sometimes two to three. We handle the paperwork; texting features go live the day it clears.
What is the reorder radar?
The best yards call a regular account the moment it goes quiet. The reorder radar watches your standing accounts and flags the ones that missed their usual rhythm — so a customer who orders every Tuesday and skips one gets a call from you, not a first delivery from your competitor.
Talk to a person. Imagine that.
Tell us about the yard. We’ll show you the system running, run your missed-call math with your real numbers, and give you a straight yes or no on whether it’s worth it for you.