Owners can stop worrying about phones and office work after the field, because Effiqo's got it: they get their time back, great consistent service for every caller, and best of all more jobs booked



BELLEVUE, WA, November 11, 2026 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Effiqo AI today announced that Antonio Akins has joined the company as Fractional Chief Technology Officer. Antonio now looks after Elise and Xavier, so the phones keep working, the jobs keep getting booked, and nothing drops.

Most shop owners know this moment by heart. The phone rings while your hands are full: under a sink, up a ladder, in a crawl space, or across the counter from a customer who needs you right now. You cannot get to it. The caller waits, gives up, and calls the next shop on the list. Then the workday ends and the second shift begins, with estimates still to chase, past customers still to call back, and office work spread across the kitchen table long after everyone else has gone to bed.

Elise was built for that first moment. She answers the call in a calm, friendly voice, in the middle of the day, in the middle of the night, on weekends and holidays too. She listens to what the caller needs, answers their questions, and books the job right on the schedule. The caller gets a real answer and good care, the same way every time, instead of voicemail. And the owner gets relief. No more sick feeling that a good job just slipped away. No more saying sorry for a call nobody could get to. While Elise covers the phones, the owner can stay with the customer in front of them, do the job well, and still make it home for dinner. Every job she books is money the shop would have lost, and a caller who feels looked after comes back.

Xavier was built for the second shift, the work waiting in the office after the day in the field is done. He follows up on the open estimates, the ones the owner priced with care and then ran out of day to chase. He calls the quote back, plain and simple, kind and steady, never pushy, so a maybe gets an answer, yes or no. He also calls old customers back, folks the shop has not heard from in a while, people who already know the shop and already trust it, and lets them know the shop is there when they need it again. Every job he helps bring back is work the owner had already earned. It only needed someone with the time to ask one more time. Xavier has that time, so the owner does not have to find it at nine at night.

And no caller is ever stuck talking to a machine. If someone asks for a person, Elise or Xavier connects them straight to a human in the shop's own office. The shop stays in charge of its own customers. Effiqo just makes sure the call gets answered first.

That is the work Antonio Akins is joining, and he brings the right kind of experience to it. Akins spent nearly 16 years at Salesforce, most recently as Senior Vice President of Engineering, where he led work on software millions of people use every day. Before that, he spent nearly 14 years at Microsoft, in charge of making sure the work was done right, including leading quality for Bing Mobile and MSN Mobile. A Vanderbilt University computer science graduate, class of '96, he has built his name on one thing: software people can count on, even on the busiest day.

"I have spent my career building software people can count on without having to think about it," said Akins. "A small shop should get that same peace of mind. When a homeowner calls in the middle of the night with no heat, someone should answer, and answer well, every time. And when the owner gets home, the follow-up calls should already be done, the quotes called back, the old customers checked in on. That is time back for the owner, good care for the customer, and more booked jobs for the shop. That is what I came here to help build."

"I know this life from the inside," said Barbara Saunders, Founder of Effiqo AI. "Owners did not start their shops to live on the phone, or to carry the office home in their heads every night. They started them to do good work, to take care of their customers, and to build a better life for their families. So stop worrying about the phones and the office work waiting after being in the field all day, because we got it. Elise and Xavier cover the phone work and the chasing, so owners get their time back, every caller gets great care the same way every time, and more of the work they already earned turns into booked jobs. Antonio makes the team behind them stronger, and I am so glad he is here."

As Fractional Chief Technology Officer, Akins will look after how Elise and Xavier are built, how they keep customer details safe, and what they get better at next. His job, put plainly, is to keep them working right: answering right, booking right, following up right. Owners can stop worrying about the phones and the office work waiting after being in the field all day, because Effiqo's got it: time back, consistent service for every caller, and more jobs booked.

Effiqo AI builds the team behind the team for service businesses, including HVAC, plumbing, roofing, electrical, and auto repair shops. Its two agents, Elise and Xavier, do the daily phone work and chasing that wears owners down. Elise answers calls and books jobs on the schedule. Xavier calls quotes back and brings old customers back. Together they work day and night, so owners can stop worrying about the phones and the office work waiting after being in the field all day, because Effiqo's got it. Every caller gets great care, the same way every time, no good job slips away just because the owner was busy doing the work, owners get their time back, and more of the work they already earned turns into booked jobs. If a caller asks for a person, the agent connects them to a human in the shop's own office. Effiqo AI is based in Bellevue, Washington.

Learn more at www.effiqo.ai

Read the original story here: https://www.24-7pressrelease.com/press-release/540395/effiqo-ai-names-former-salesforce-engineering-leader-antonio-akins-as-fractional-cto

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