AI Business Plays

All plays › Local trades and home services

Local trades and home servicesGrok Bot

Have a Grok Bot negotiate your credit card processing fees

Picked and checked by Olga Pearson, host of The Practical AI Show · Published

Result

self-reported

About $5k a year saved on card processing for an auto repair shop that takes about $2M a year in cards. The markup over interchange went from 0.35% to 0.10%.

Franklynn Automotive is an auto repair shop that runs about $2M a year through card payments. Processing is the bill you set up once and never look at again. Dan Mallatt gave his Grok Bot 24 months of statements. Interchange isn’t negotiable, but the processor’s markup is, so the bot found what the shop was paying on top of interchange and built the case for a lower rate based on the shop’s higher volume. It drafted every email and the counteroffer, and Dan reviewed each one before it went out. The markup dropped from 0.35% to 0.10% over interchange. His last step: get the final pricing in writing.

Who did it

Dan Mallatt (@dan_mallatt)Franklynn Automotive (auto repair shop)Dan Mallatt on X · Oct 21, 2026

Try it now

  1. Give your bot 12 to 24 months of card processing statements.
  2. Have it find what you’re really paying on top of interchange and which parts are negotiable.
  3. Ask your processor for a pricing review, with a specific number in hand.
  4. Counter the first offer. Let the bot draft each email, and read every one before it goes out.
  5. Get the final pricing in writing, then set a reminder to check the next statements.
Copy-paste prompt
Here are my last [12-24] months of credit card processing statements. Separate interchange (not negotiable) from the processor’s markup and fees. Show me my effective markup over interchange, my monthly volume and what I paid in markup each month. Then draft a short email asking my processor for a pricing review, citing my volume and asking for a specific lower markup. Don’t send anything until I approve it.

Make it run every week

A play works once. Turn it into a routine in three small steps:

  1. Run it once and check the result yourself.
  2. Give your AI a schedule. Tell it when to run this play (every week, or every month) and to message you with what it found before you act.
  3. Keep a log. One line per run: what was checked, anything flagged, what you did.

See how owners turn plays into systems →

What to watch out for

Self-reported from his own post. Interchange is set by the card networks, so focus on the markup and extra fees. Get the new rate in writing and check the next statements to make sure it actually shows up. The same method works on software, insurance, phone and internet, and parts vendors.

Did it work?

PageMotor keeps this site free.

Related plays

  • Local trades and home servicesGrok Bot

    Have a Grok Bot build the moving inventory from customer photos

    self-reported

    A customer booked a whole move through the company’s Grok Bot, from quote to confirmed date, without a single phone call. The bot builds the full inventory list from photos or a video, and a person checks every line.

    Next Gen Movers is a long-distance moving company, and they say most moving quotes go wrong before moving day because nobody really knows what’s being moved. Now customers send photos or a quick video, and their Grok Bot goes room by room and builds the full inventory list. A real person on the team checks every line and asks about anything unclear. They also ask for photos of closets, stairs and where the truck will park, because that’s where the extra hours come from. One customer booked the whole move through the bot, quote to confirmed date, with no phone call.

    By Next Gen Movers (@nextgenmove), Next Gen Movers (long-distance moving company) · Source

  • Local trades and home servicesGrok Bot

    Have a Grok Bot build your landscaping website instead of paying a $2,500 quote

    self-reported

    His Grok Bot built a website for his landscaping business, found the cheapest domain and set everything up from the info and pictures he gave it. He had been quoted up to $2,500 for the same job.

    Max runs a landscaping business and needed a website. He had quotes as high as $2,500. Instead he gave his Grok Bot some details about the business and photos of his work. The bot built the site, compared domain prices, picked the cheapest one and set it all up. He says the result is exactly what he wanted.

    By Max (@max_peloquin1), Landscaping business · Source

  • Local trades and home servicesGrok Bot

    Have a Grok Bot build the fix inside Slack before you switch to pricier software

    self-reported

    Instead of switching software and more than doubling his software costs, he spent 2 to 3 hours with his Grok Bot and got a working solution inside Slack that his team is now testing. All on a $78 a month plan.

    Logan Robison owns a cleaning business, one of four side businesses he says brought in more than $2M. His team had a problem they’d been fighting for a long time, and the fix on the table was moving to new software that would more than double what he pays. One morning he gave the problem 2 to 3 hours with his Grok Bot instead. By the end they had a working solution inside Slack, where the team already works, and the team is pressure testing it.

    By Logan Robison (@LoganARobison), Cleaning business owner · Source