What Are Service Areas in Alivo?
How geographic territories control who can book and which reps get the job.
A service area is just the part of the map where you actually do jobs. In Alivo, you save that coverage once and then reuse it to decide who can book with you, which rep gets which lead, and how customers get routed. This guide covers the four ways to draw your coverage, how service areas differ from drive-time scheduling, and a newer piece worth knowing: your AI phone and text agents now use your service areas to answer coverage questions during real conversations.
Where Service Areas Live and What They Control
You manage service areas under Settings, then Scheduling, then Service Areas. Think of each one as a reusable territory template. Once saved, a service area can:
- Control booking eligibility. When enforcement is on, a customer outside your coverage cannot book a job.
- Assign the right rep. Individual reps can have their own service areas, so the person who covers a territory gets the lead.
- Route customers. Routing forms use a customer's address to send them to the right booking page or an out-of-service message.
The Four Ways to Define a Service Area
You can outline where you work in whichever way matches how you think about your territory. There are four options.
- ZIP codes. List the ZIP codes you cover. Good when you know your territory by ZIP.
- Radius. Pick a point and a distance, like 30 miles around your shop. Good for a simple "how far we travel" boundary.
- States. List whole states. Good for larger operations that cover everything within a state line.
- Custom area. Draw your coverage right on a map. This is the newest option and is covered next.
Drawing a Custom Area on the Map
Sometimes your real coverage does not follow ZIP lines or a neat circle. Maybe you cross a highway on one side but stop at a river on the other. The custom area option lets you trace exactly where you work.
- Search to a spot. Type a location to jump the map there.
- Click your corners. Click to drop each corner of your boundary, then close the shape to finish it.
- Draw more than one shape. A single area can hold several shapes, so you can cover two towns that are not next to each other.
- Cut out pockets. You can leave a hole inside a shape for an area you do not serve.
- Reshape or remove. Adjust the corners of an existing shape point by point, or delete it and start over.
Once saved, a custom area plugs into the same checks as the other types: booking eligibility, rep assignment, and routing.
Good to know: A custom area is checked by whether an address falls inside the shape you drew. Draw it the way you would explain your territory to a new hire, and Alivo will treat the boundary the same way every time.
How Your AI Agents Use Service Areas
Your service areas are not just a scheduling filter anymore. Alivo now hands your coverage to your AI phone agent (Lilly) and your AI text agent (Evan) so they know where you work while they are talking to a lead. That means when someone calls or texts, the agent can tell whether that lead is in your area and respond the right way.
- In-area leads get moved toward booking as usual.
- Out-of-area leads get a polite note that you do not service that area, and the agent will not offer a booking link or try to schedule.
- No long lists read aloud. Instead of reciting ZIP codes, the agent asks for the customer's ZIP or city and checks it against your coverage.
Your saved service areas are treated as the source of truth on coverage, so keeping them accurate is what keeps your agents giving the right answer.
Keep in mind: Coverage that you draw as a custom shape on the map is used for booking and routing right away. If you want your phone and text agents to speak to your coverage in conversations, defining that coverage with ZIP codes, a radius, or states is the most reliable way today. If you rely only on a drawn custom area and want to confirm how the agents describe it, our support team can check your setup.
Service Areas Versus Drive-Time Scheduling
These two sound similar but answer different questions. A service area answers "do we work here at all?" Drive-time scheduling optimization answers "given that we do work here, what is the smartest order to visit today's jobs?" You will usually set your service areas first to decide who can book, and let drive-time handle the routing of the jobs you accept. Location-based scheduling is covered in its own guide.
Common Questions
Can each rep have a different service area?
Yes. Reps can carry their own service areas so the right person gets leads in their territory.
What happens to a lead outside my coverage?
With enforcement on, they cannot book, and your routing form or AI agent will let them know you do not service that area rather than sending them to a booking page.
Can I mix coverage types?
You define each service area with one approach, but you can create several areas, so different territories can use whatever type fits them best.
Still have a question this didn't answer? Reach out to our support team support@alivo.ai and we'll be glad to help.