How America's Oldest Family-Owned Furrier Turned a Manual, Text-Based Buying Process Into a Seven-System AI Operating Backbone With 900+ Automated Tests
Mano Swartz has sold, remodeled, and bought furs since 1889. Its nationwide buying program runs on texted photos and a same-day-offer promise, which meant a fourth-generation owner and a seven-person team reviewing every inbound message by hand. Epiphany Dynamics built the operating system underneath that promise: one SMS work queue, AI appraisal drafts from customer photos, a voice agent, automated offer follow-up, KPI and anomaly alerts, a returns portal, and living documentation, covered by more than 900 automated tests. It started as a small fixed-price audit answer and became a monthly operating partnership.
Customer follow-up, appraisals & communication
Mano Swartz Furs
- Built
- Seven-System AI Operating Backbone
- Sector
- CRM & Workflow Integration
- Site
- manoswartz.com
Founded 1889 and run today by the fourth generation, with a by-appointment showroom outside Baltimore and a climate-controlled warehouse holding thousands of furs.
Mano Swartz was founded in 1889 by a Hungarian immigrant of the same name and is run today by the fourth generation. A 2012 profile put the business at seven employees, roughly 500 coats sold and 600 to 800 remodeled a year.
Its buying program is national. A seller texts photos of the front, back, lining, label, and size to the business number, "we personally review every message and will reply with our same-day offer," a free FedEx label follows, and payment lands within two business days.
A same-day-offer promise on nationwide inbound texts is a queue problem. SMS is the channel customers want: 90% of consumers prefer texting a business to calling and 85% check a text within five minutes (Source: Textline business texting statistics). It is also unforgiving: consumers expect a reply the same business day at minimum, and about a third want it within minutes (Source: Leadferno response-time survey, 2021). Every inbound photo set needed a human eye, an appraisal, a drafted reply, and a follow-up if the offer sat. At 141 pending-offer customers and 2,076 historical offers, follow-up depended on someone remembering.
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01 Custom SMS Inbox application
A focused work queue for inbound customer messages and follow-up coordination.
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02 AI fur-appraisal pipeline
Customer photos flow into vision-model sizing and an auto-drafted SMS reply for review.
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03 AI voice phone agent
A phone workflow that supports inbound communication without adding another manual queue.
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04 Automated offer follow-up sequences
Structured follow-up steps keep pending customer offers moving through the process.
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05 KPI and anomaly-alert crons
Scheduled checks watch operating signals and flag unusual patterns for review.
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06 FedEx returns portal
A customer return path that reduces manual back-and-forth around shipping coordination.
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07 Queryable assistant with living documentation
The build stays documented in a system the team can ask questions about as workflows evolve.
From a $225 audit answer to an operating partnership
Richard first posted an audit job for his existing phone and SMS stack and Patrick bid $225, answering his three technical vetting questions inside the proposal. Richard fixed the issues himself from those answers and closed that job without hiring. He came back with the implementation project. Four contracts followed, then a monthly operating partnership. Along the way he left three public five-star reviews. The proposal-as-free-audit play is now a documented pattern at Epiphany Dynamics because of this account.
"Technically strong, communication skills on point, and work completed well before the deadline. I highly recommend."
Richard Swartz
Mano Swartz Inc.
"Awesome job, before the due date and just what I needed."
Richard Swartz
Mano Swartz Inc.
"Thank you for your help with voice and transcript software."
Richard Swartz
Mano Swartz Inc.
- Does the AI make the offers?
- No. It drafts an appraisal and reply from the customer's photos; a person reviews and sends.
- What does "operating partnership" mean?
- A monthly engagement that keeps the systems reliable, documented, and queryable, with KPI and anomaly checks running on schedule.
- How is the work verified?
- More than 900 automated tests run against the operating codebase.
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