In February of this year, AI builder and trends researcher Piers Fawkes had to take his car to the mechanic. Once the problem was diagnosed, he was given a pretty steep quote. He decided to run the estimates through ChatGPT to better understand what he was paying for. The result? More clarity… and the inspiration for a new company: Service Buddy.
“I decided to create a company that helps people interrogate their quotes: a car quote, a veterinarian quote, a medical quote,” says Fawkes. “The whole thing is AI.”
Piers dropped his ad spend to pennies by automating Reddit outreach. Want more workflows like this? The Autonomous Marketer newsletter delivers proven strategies every other week—no fluff, just results. Subscribe here →
Service Buddy helps users decode confusing estimates by using computer vision and Large Language Models (LLMs) to analyze service quotes. Users upload an image or enter the text from their bill, and the system quickly returns an assessment, flagging things they might not need, showing how prices compare locally, and even recommending DIY alternatives when possible.
"We're often recommending that drivers change their air or engine filters at home," says Fawkes. “One of the big things is that whether you are dealing with pets or cars, there are a bunch of things to do at home that your vet and mechanic won’t tell you.”
The tool combines proprietary databases of labor costs and zip code-level market rates with outside research using LLMs like Perplexity.
“We have a spreadsheet with all the prices across America — for labor, for the mechanic,” he explains. “Then we run a Perplexity search and say: what are the parts that the person needs to buy? Where can you get them from? What are the prices?”
Given the fluctuating costs of the services—especially in an era of heightened tariffs—Fawkes and his team have started to pull information from professional intelligence platforms like Motor.com as well.
"Service Buddy checks the latest prices of parts every time a quote is processed," he explains. "Labor prices aren't changing so fast, but with the help of partners we monitor prices at a zip code level."
But in addition to offering an AI-powered consumer service, Fawkes is using artificial intelligence behind the scenes to build and refine the product itself with an autonomous marketing approach.
Fawkes workflow is a textbook Imagine approach. Learn more about the High-Performance Marketing Triad.
Among his go-to tools are ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google Vision, and Firefly.
Still, it’s automation software Zapier that’s led to one of the biggest breakthroughs in how he connects with potential customers.
How to use Reddit for customer research
To get a handle on the needs of his customers, Fawkes uses Zapier to monitor Reddit threads related to car repairs and identify people asking for help.
The process starts with the Feedly bookmark tool, which actually finds noted target keywords on Reddit. Fawkes then employs ChatGPT Analyze Data in Zapier to classify the post.
Fawkes explains that Zapier's "trigger" is a new post appearing on Reddit that mentions specific keywords or verticals. The system then analyzes the post by a series of categories and directs the output.
If a post involves a callout for a mechanic, for example, it unleashes a certain series of events.
His workflow:
- Feedly RSS feed of reddit search
- Sends to ChatGPT to analyze and suggest response via email
- Fawkes manually responses
- Commenter clicks through to learn more about Service Buddy
“I use a mix of Perplexity and Service Buddy data,” says Fawkes. “A recommendation is provided, and I use a Reddit Zap to auto-post the findings on the original post.”
Say the post involves the review of an auto shop quote, for example, then a separate process kicks off, involving the analysis of the quote and its transfer to the Service Buddy tool to provide a recommendation.
“Then the Zapier flow waits for a response and emails me a suggested comment to make on the post,” he says. “At first, I was auto-posting, but I started to get flagged by the moderators, so it is best to take the copy and adapt it on the page.”
Finally, if the identified post is about a repair but not a quote, the system queries Service Buddy data held in Airtable about repairs, and then a ChatGPT zap takes that information, crafts a thoughtful comment that is then sent to Fawkes.
Reddit’s open API, which can be easily accessed here, allows for this kind of real-time community monitoring, and Fawkes has found it more effective, and dramatically more efficient than traditional advertising.
“I was spending thousands of ad dollars a month on Reddit and was getting good click-throughs, but nobody was converting,” he says. “Doing it this way, with Zapier, you can find people who really do need your help. So I dropped my ad spend to pennies because I found this to be a better way to find customers. Of the people that we leave a message to, about 20% click through, and 35% upload their quotes and get information.”
"I dropped my ad spend to pennies because I found this to be a better way to find customers."
It’s a sharp contrast to “spray-and-pray” style marketing that demonstrates the potential of combining AI with real-time user intent.
If there’s skepticism in the space, Fawkes thinks it’s less about the use of AI and more about whether machines can truly interpret dense, highly variable documents.
“Most people who get a car quote turn to their uncle and ask for some advice, and everyone is sort of in the dark,” he says. “They don’t realize that AI systems, LLMs, have an amazing amount of data that you can tap into for advice. LLMs win every time.”
When asked about how he measures success and conversion rates, Fawkes explains that his major objectives at the moment involve "being seen as a helpful member of the Reddit community" and earning some SEO juice "with some very useful links."
“I recommend that anyone who creates a system like this posts the comment manually," he notes. "Reddit community can be unforgiving for spammers!"
The stream of customer insights is more important than ever. In the AI age, where anyone can ask an LLM to give them customer research from scratch, talking to actual people is still the best way forward.
“For a couple of years, everybody thought that you can use LLMs to understand trends and research,” he says. “It’s good if you’re starting from nothing, but if you’re trying to create a billion-dollar strategy, you should still be going out there and doing market research and using proprietary data that nobody else has.”
From thousands in ad spend to pennies
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