Guides

You pay only when a customer actually walks in.

Lucilla is an AI agent your customers text — or use in the app. They ask for what they want; it sends them to whoever nearby has it, with an offer and a QR code. The only thing that ever counts is a real visit.

Text the agent now — +1 (314) 237-4046 SMS or WhatsApp · no app needed to start
Start here · for businesses

List your business so customers actually find you

Listing is free and it takes one message. Text the number above and send whatever you've got — all at once, or a bit at a time. Nothing here is a form and nothing is required in order.

But what you send decides everything that happens next. The agent matches a customer's own words — "somewhere for a good meal", "cheap tacos open now", "someone to fix a leaking tap tonight" — against what your listing says. A listing that never says what the business is and what it sells cannot be matched to any of those, and it reads badly on the rare occasion it is shown.

The 60-second version — copy this shape

Listing my business. Name: Cannon Street Soup Co. Kind of place: restaurant What we sell: soup, sandwiches, salads — braised beef soup, spicy Thai chicken, grilled cheese, tomato basil Address: 10 Cannon St E, Hamilton ON Hours: Tue-Sat 11-7, closed Sun and Mon We're a fixed place, customers come to us Website: cannonstreetsoup.ca · Instagram @cannonstsoup Feel: casual, $$ Deal: $2 off any soup with a sandwich [3 photos attached: the menu board, the counter, a bowl of the braised beef]

That is a complete listing. Everything below explains what each line does, so you can judge what to send if you only have two minutes.

  1. Your NAME, and where you are

    Send The name exactly as it appears on your door or your receipts, and a street address. If you don't have a fixed address, send the areas you cover instead — "all of Hamilton", "Ottawa Street on Saturdays", "Burlington and Oakville".

    Customer sees Your name on a card, a pin on the map, and how far away you are — "1.2km".

    If missing Without a name there is no listing. Without an address or an area, nothing can rank you against "near me", which is how nearly every request is phrased.

  2. What KIND of place you are

    Send One word. These are the ones the agent knows:

    restaurantcafebarbakerygrocerybarbershopsalonspagymretailautorepairtradesserviceshealthpetsevents

    Why It is part of the text the agent matches on, and it is how it tells a taco truck from a tax office. It doesn't decide anything by itself — it just stops you being read as the wrong kind of business.

    If missing You get filed as other, which describes nobody and matches nothing in particular.

  3. What you SELL — in the words a customer would say

    Send The actual things. "Braised beef soup, grilled cheese, tomato basil, vegan chili" — not "an elevated approach to comfort food". For a trade: "emergency plumbing, drain clearing, water heaters, 24-hour callouts". If it's a menu or a service list, photograph it: the agent reads items and prices straight off the picture.

    Why This is the single most important line in your listing. Someone types "cheap tacos" — that matches a business whose listing contains the word tacos. It cannot match one that says "authentic culinary experiences".

    If missing This is the difference between being in the index and being furniture. A listing with a name and an address but nothing about what it sells falls below the agent's match threshold: it is saved, it is on the map, and it will not be returned for a single search. The same listing with one honest line about the food clears the threshold immediately.

  4. Your HOURS

    Send Per day, including the days you're shut — "Tue-Sat 11-7, closed Sun and Mon". Text a change any time: "we're closed Mondays now".

    Customer sees OPEN until 7pm, or closed, opens 11am.

    If missing People ask for somewhere open now constantly. The agent will never guess your hours — sending someone to a locked door is worse than not answering — so your card says "I don't have their hours yet", and the place next door that sent theirs gets the visit.

  5. Website, phone, and socials

    Send Your website, the number customers should actually call, and your Instagram, Facebook or TikTok.

    Why Your website fills a lot in automatically — description, hours, phone, links. Socials go on your listing so someone can see your work before they decide to come.

    If missing A match is worthless if nobody can reach you. And if you give no description of your own, the agent falls back to reading your website — so a site that has lapsed or been parked becomes your listing. See the mistakes below; this one has really happened.

  6. More than one location? Name each one

    Send Every site, one per message if that's easier. Text AREA Locke Street to add a place you cover — up to five, and AREAS lists what you've got.

    Why You come up near all of them instead of only the first one.

    If missing A second address sent as a plain update can overwrite the first. Use AREA and both stick.

  7. In person, MOBILE, or ONLINE only — say which

    Send One of three, in your own words:

    • Customers come to you at a fixed place — a shop, a restaurant, a clinic.
    • Mobile — food truck, market stall, pop-up, trades, mobile groomer, we-come-to-you. Name the areas and when: "Ottawa Street, Saturdays".
    • Online only — no premises to visit, you ship or deliver.

    Customer sees A fixed place gets a pin people walk to. Mobile shows Mobile · Ottawa Street, Saturdays instead of a street. Online gets Online · based in Hamilton and a tag that reaches further out.

    If missing This is the one thing the agent will not guess, because both wrong answers cost you. Left unsaid, a business with an address is treated as a storefront — so a food truck ends up with a pin promising a door that isn't there, and an online seller either loses its reach or sends somebody to an address they can't visit.

  8. PHOTOS

    Send Your menu, your food, your products, the inside of your place, your storefront, your work, your team, a busy night. Three is plenty. Just attach them to a text.

    Why Shown next to places without a picture, yours gets picked far more often — this is the biggest single lift once you're already in the results. A menu photo does double duty: the agent reads the items and prices off it and adds them to what you can be matched on.

    If missing Your card is a block of text sitting beside three cards with pictures.

  9. The FEEL of the place, and the price bracket

    Send One of casual · family · quiet · fun · date-night · upscale, and $, $$, $$$ or $$$$.

    Why People don't ask for a category, they ask for a feeling: "somewhere nice for an anniversary", "quick and cheap", "somewhere the kids won't wreck". The agent pulls that out of their message and uses it to order the shortlist — a match floats up, a mismatch sinks. It never hides anybody, so an honest "casual, $" costs you nothing and wins you every person who asked for exactly that.

    If missing You sit wherever relevance and distance left you, while a place that declared the same feel the customer asked for moves above you.

  10. A DEAL you want to run

    Send One line, plain words: DEAL $2 off any soup, DEAL 10% off first visit, DEAL BOGO wings. Text DEAL off to end it.

    Why Being listed gets you found. An offer is what makes someone actually come in. When four places match a request, the offer is usually what decides which one the customer picks — and the agent puts it in front of people already asking for exactly that thing.

    If missing You're a name on a shortlist next to a name with "$2 off" under it.

  11. Anything you want customers to know

    Send What makes the place yours — how long you've been open, who runs it, what you're known for, dine-in or takeout or delivery or catering, allergies you cater for, languages you speak.

    Why People state these by name — "somewhere to sit down", "grab and go", "catering for 20" — and the agent can only match what it has been told.

If you move around, or sell online

The same eleven things apply, with the address swapped for the truth about where you are:

Listing my food truck. Name: Rolling Rotis Kind of place: restaurant — food truck, we're mobile What we sell: chicken roti, goat roti, doubles, pholourie Where: Ottawa Street market Saturdays 9-3, Gage Park most weekday lunches Hours: Sat 9-3, Mon-Fri 11:30-2 Feel: casual, $ Deal: free doubles with any roti before noon Instagram @rollingrotis [2 photos: the truck, a goat roti]
Listing my online shop. Name: Steel City Hot Sauce Kind of place: retail — online only, no storefront What we sell: small-batch hot sauce — habanero maple, smoked ghost pepper, garlic verde. Gift packs. We ship across Canada, based in Hamilton Website: steelcityhot.ca · Instagram @steelcityhot Feel: fun, $$ Deal: 15% off first order [3 photos: the bottles, the labels, a gift pack]
The floor

Three things decide whether you appear at all

Everything on the list above helps. Three of them are not optional, because without them there is nothing to retrieve:

Have those three and you are findable. The agent will tell you plainly if you aren't: it won't put a card live and then let you sit waiting for customers who were never going to be shown it.

Everything else on the list is about being chosen once you're already in the results — and that is a different competition, decided mostly by a photo, an offer, your hours and the feel of the place.

Avoid these

Five mistakes that sink a listing

1. Sending a name and an address and stopping there. This is the most common one and it is fatal. The listing saves, the map pin appears, and it will not come back for a single search, because nothing in it says what you sell. Add one line of items and it starts working the same day.

2. Letting a dead website write your description. If you don't send a description, the agent reads your website for one. When a domain has lapsed, what it finds is the registrar's holding page — and a real listing has gone out reading "This appears to be a parked domain page indicating that the domain registration has expired." That is what a customer would have seen. Send one sentence about your business in your own words and it is used instead.

3. Describing yourself the way a brochure would. "Elevated comfort food in a curated space" matches nothing a human being types into a phone. "Grilled cheese, tomato soup, mac and cheese" matches all of it.

4. Giving a street address for a business that moves. A pin is a promise that there is a door. If you're a truck, a stall or a trade, say so — you'll show the areas you actually work, which is more useful to the customer anyway.

5. Sending only a logo. A logo is not a photo of anything a customer wants. Food, the room, the storefront, the work you did last week — those are what get picked.

After you list

Check your own listing in one text

Plain English works for all of it too — "we're closed Mondays now", "we also serve Burlington", "add tomato basil soup to the menu". Send your email and you'll get your business report: visits, what people near you are asking for, your rating, and what's working for other local businesses.

Do I need the app?

No. Texting does almost everything.

You can be listed, be found, publish your page, run an offer, get told when someone nearby is looking for you, and check how you are doing — entirely by text. Most businesses never install anything, and nothing is held back from them. If a feature needs an account, the agent will say so at the moment you reach for it, and not before.

By text, no account

What an account adds

Four things, and only these:

Same phone number, same listing, nothing to re-enter — everything you told the agent is already there when you sign in. And if you never want an account, keep texting. That is not a lesser version of this product; it is the product.

For businesses

Run promos by text. Pay for visits, not clicks.

Once you're listed, one sentence launches a promo — targeted like a pro, in plain words:

The full guide covers quick-start, targeting, pro tips, and playbooks for restaurants, bars, bowling alleys, dealerships, gyms, and salons.

Download: Lucilla for Your Business (PDF) The one-page version (PDF)
For everyone

Host a party. Start a group. Sell what you do.

Download: The Agent User Guide (PDF)
About Lucilla

Every city connected — marketing that only charges for real visits.

Why we're building this, where it goes, and what we believe: proof beats promises, consent is the product, and foot traffic is the point — streets with busy storefronts are better streets.

Download: Mission & Vision (PDF)