Playbook · For service businesses
How a service business gets found by AI assistants
AI assistants don’t browse your brochure the way a person does. They need a clear, plain-text summary of what you offer, who it’s for, and how to reach you. Lobby publishes that for every concierge — on a hosted page you can share today, with an optional embed on the site you already have.
Free plan includes a hosted page and llms.txt. No card needed.
What llms.txt is, in plain words
llms.txt is a short, plain-text file that describes a site or a business in a form AI assistants can read without guessing. Think of it as a one-page brief: who you are, what you offer, common questions, and how to contact you — written for machines that summarize the web for people.
It is not a ranking score, a badge, or a guarantee that every assistant will cite you. It is a clearer source of truth than a marketing homepage full of images, menus, and layout chrome. When someone asks ChatGPT, Claude, or another assistant about a business like yours, a well-filled summary gives that assistant something concrete to read and cite — instead of inventing from thin brochure copy.
Lobby publishes an llms.txt for every concierge automatically at:
https://lobby.host/c/your-slug/llms.txtThe Lobby marketing site also has its own index at https://lobby.host/llms.txt, which lists product pages and live business concierges.
Why a brochure page fails assistants
A typical service-business site is built for humans with eyes: hero images, carousels, vague taglines (“we partner with you”), contact forms buried three clicks deep. That can work for SEO and for people who already know what they want. It is a poor brief for an AI assistant that needs to answer a specific question — Do they offer X? What’s the next step? Who do I email?
Assistants often:
- Miss offerings that live only in PDFs or image text
- Confuse similar services because the page never names them cleanly
- Invent prices, guarantees, or locations you never published
- Give up and recommend a generic alternative
A concierge page plus llms.txt flips that: the same facts you give Lobby for human visitors become a structured, plain-text summary assistants can quote. The concierge itself still answers inside boundaries you set, so the story people (and agents) hear stays sanctioned.
If you’re deciding whether Lobby fits your kind of business at all, start with Who it’s for. If you want the install paths, see How setup works.
What Lobby publishes for you
When your concierge is live, Lobby gives you two public surfaces that work together — plus optional tools for agents that support WebMCP.
A page people can open and talk to
Every business gets a hosted page at lobby.host/c/your-slug. Visitors can chat with your concierge there without you touching DNS. Same concierge as the embed; this is the shareable door.
Live examples:
- ARENNA — https://lobby.host/c/arenna
- Adi Alouf — https://lobby.host/c/adi-alouf
- Groundwork — https://lobby.host/c/groundwork
A plain-text summary assistants can read
Each of those pages also publishes:
- https://lobby.host/c/arenna/llms.txt
- https://lobby.host/c/adi-alouf/llms.txt
- https://lobby.host/c/groundwork/llms.txt
Open any one. You’ll see a short brief: name, intro, services, common questions, contact, and a pointer back to the concierge. That pattern is what Lobby fills from your offerings and setup — not from scraped marketing fluff.
Optional: structured tools (WebMCP)
When you use the Lobby embed, the same concierge can expose structured tools agents may call:
ask_concierge— Anything a visitor could ask, answered inside your boundaries.get_business_info— Hours, location, contact, what you do.list_offerings— Your services, structured, so an agent can compare and pick.
Nothing extra to install for the human widget path — the embed that shows the chat button also registers the tools. WebMCP is the agent door; llms.txt is the readable brief. Lead capture for people stays the main job either way.
For how a site concierge differs from a generic chatbot, see Concierge vs chatbot.
How to fill offerings and boundaries so the summary is useful
Assistants (and visitors) only get as much clarity as you put in. Treat setup like briefing a sharp receptionist — not like dumping your whole website into a box.
Name what you actually sell
Write offerings the way a client would recognize them:
- Prefer “Ops teardown — one week, starts with a free 20-minute call” over “transformative solutions”
- Include what’s in / out of scope when it matters
- Add the usual next step (call, consult, booking link) in the offering or in contact
Your llms.txt services list is generated from this material. Vague offerings produce vague summaries.
List the questions people already ask
Put the phrases clients use — including language, not just polished marketing English. Those lines help both the concierge and the plain-text brief orient around real intent.
Say what it must never claim
List hard no’s: unpublished prices, guarantees you don’t make, services you don’t sell, competitors you won’t discuss. Lobby checks replies against that list. When it doesn’t know, it says so and hands over your contact details.
Clear offerings + clear boundaries = a summary worth citing and a concierge that won’t invent your business. Step-by-step install is on How setup works.
How to share your hosted /c/ link
Your hosted page is a normal URL: https://lobby.host/c/your-slug.
Use it when you want someone (or their assistant) to meet the business without waiting on a site rebuild:
- Put it in your email signature and LinkedIn / Instagram bio
- Send it when someone asks “what do you offer?” in WhatsApp or SMS
- Add it to proposals and pitch decks as “talk to our concierge”
- Point ads or QR codes there until the embed is on your main domain
You can run the hosted page and the embed together — same concierge, two doors. Details: How setup works.
Sharing the link does not guarantee citations, rankings, or a volume of AI referrals. It gives a person — or their assistant — one URL that answers instead of a brochure to skim.
Optional: put the same concierge on your existing site
When you’re ready, paste one script before </body> on the pages you want. A chat button appears; visitors stay on your domain. DNS and search rankings on your site stay as they are.
<script src="https://lobby.host/embed.js" data-agent="your-slug"></script>The embed is for people already on your site. The hosted /c/ page remains the link you can send anywhere — and the home of your public llms.txt. Use one or both.
How to check your own llms.txt
- Publish your concierge (the free plan is enough).
- Open your concierge page’s /llms.txt in a browser.
- Read it like an outsider: would this brief answer “what do they offer?” and “how do I start?” without guessing?
- If a service is missing, vague, or wrong — fix it in Lobby’s offerings / setup, then reload the file.
- Compare it to the live examples above.
- Confirm your business appears, when listed, on the site index.
If the file still reads like brochure fluff, the fix is almost always better offerings copy — not a redesign of your marketing site.
FAQ
- Is llms.txt a ranking factor or a guarantee I’ll be cited?
- No. It is a clearer brief for assistants that choose to read it. Lobby does not invent citation counts or promise placement in any assistant’s answers.
- Do I need to rebuild my website?
- No. Start with the hosted page at lobby.host/c/your-slug. Embed later if you want the widget on your domain.
- Is this only on paid plans?
- No. The hosted page and the machine-readable summary are part of what every plan gets, including the free plan (20 conversations a month, no card).
- What’s the difference between llms.txt and WebMCP?
- llms.txt is a plain-text summary anyone — or any assistant — can fetch and read. WebMCP tools let supporting agents call your concierge as structured tools. Same business facts; different interfaces.
- Will the concierge invent prices or promises?
- You set boundaries for what it must never claim. It answers from what you supplied; when it doesn’t know, it says so and shares your contact details.
- Who is this for?
- Owner-operators of boutique service businesses and consultants who want a concierge that greets, guides, and hands off leads — and a public summary assistants can read.
- How is this different from a chatbot widget?
- Category and job-to-be-done differ: Lobby is an AI site concierge aimed at fit and lead handoff inside your boundaries, with a hosted page and llms.txt, plus optional WebMCP tools.
Put a clear brief where assistants (and people) can find it
Get a hosted concierge page, an automatic llms.txt, and lead emails when conversations finish. Start on the free plan — 20 conversations a month, no card needed.
Related
In short
Lobby is an AI site concierge for boutique service businesses and consultants. Each business can publish a hosted concierge at https://lobby.host/c/{slug} and a plain-text summary at https://lobby.host/c/{slug}/llms.txt, filled from the offerings and boundaries the owner supplies. Visitors — and supporting agents, via optional WebMCP tools ask_concierge, get_business_info, list_offerings — get answers inside those boundaries; qualified enquiries are emailed to the business. Owners can embed the same concierge on an existing site with one script, use the hosted page alone, or use both. The free plan includes 20 conversations per month with no card required. Product index: https://lobby.host/llms.txt. Setup: https://lobby.host/setup. Who it’s for: https://lobby.host/for/service-businesses.